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Controlling alcohol on campus, finding solutions
Guest commentary
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln
The Daily Nebraskan
April 20, 2005
Two articles that kicked off the DN’s series addressing alcohol were, in my opinion, unbalanced and seemed to superficially address the issue.
What could have been a great forum to discuss the issues and challenges greek systems take on these days was watered down to the same old banter based on “Animal House,” a movie, and an attitude about greek life that I am confident to say, is just as much in the past for greeks as it is for everyone else.
Greek organizations have been evolving since their inception in 1776. The roles our organizations play in collegiate life have grown and changed many times in the past two centuries. We are now in a new stage of that evolution. What we offered students on campus in the 1980s and 1990s, a party environment (not the only aspect, but a large part), is no longer our primary role.
Today’s student is looking for more. Fraternities’ lower recruitment numbers are evidence of that. The chapters who cannot provide more than a social aspect to their members find themselves victims of “natural selection.” While chapters who expand, evolve and address other aspects of campus life consistently grow and prosper, and this is what we see happening to us today.
I would like to present an idea that is not often recognized by those who are looking for a place to easily place blame when it comes to this issue. I believe the greek system is, and always has been, a concentrated reflection of campus culture, not the driving force behind it.
Greeks are visible examples of the good aspects of college life: leadership development, campus and community involvement, academic success, etc. But we also can be visible examples of negative aspects, such as the abuse of alcohol. You can find these examples of both good and bad aspects everywhere on campus, not just on greek row.
But we provide the convenience of giving the problem greek letters for a name. We give it an address and an easy place for administrations, parents and lawyers to place blame and Band-Aids that “window dress” the problem, not solve it (our administration excluded, because of their progressive understanding that we cannot punish away this issue, thank you). We are not the source of the problem, but an example of the issue.
The article addressing liability as a deterrent seemed to only rehash past scars that today’s greek members must live with. And while there are no excuses for the actions of our predecessors, we must look at what current greeks are doing to learn from and prevent past mistakes.
My comments about the past of my own fraternity were to demonstrate how far we have come, not to demonstrate what we “got away with.” The article took the position that steps to address alcohol issues are mainly reactive. But, much can be said about the work greeks have done to be proactive in this area.
One example comes from my own fraternity, Delta Tau Delta. Since 1984, our fraternity has had programs in place to address this issue long before it became recognized as the pressing problem it is today. Delts Talking About Alcohol (DTAA) is a nationally recognized program that has done, for years, what great campus sponsored programs like NU Directions are doing today, and it’s worked.
It has acted as a template for other successful programs used at other colleges across the nation. We as a fraternity recognized the issues early, we were proactive and we continue to look for more solutions. Like many chapters, we strictly enforce a dry house and have developed programs to address related issues like drunken driving.
These are just a few examples of what greek organizations across the nation are doing to address issues that affect all students, not just greeks.
To clarify the comments made about sororities and their role in this issue, I would like to make it clear I did not intend to insult or offend. Rather, it was intended to extend an invitation to sororities to get involved in the real solutions.
It is no secret that the collegiate attitude toward alcohol does not discriminate based on gender. Men and women alike participate in the activities that comprise this issue. That means men and women, fraternities and sororities, must all be honest with ourselves about the roles we play both in the problem and in the solution.
Sororities, I hope you please acknowledge your members’ participation, and thereby your role, in these issues. And while your organizations have developed effective ways to shield their liability, none of us can shield ourselves from the duty we have to our greek system, campus, chapters, friends and the future of each.
Neither fraternities nor sororities alone hold the solution. The future and strength of our greek system, and of our campus at large, depends on all of us. We must initiate change, not become victims of it.
Matt Ellis
UNL ’04 Graduate
Delta Tau Delta Fraternity Alumnus
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