Quote:
Originally Posted by wolffootball37
Its just what they choose to cover in the news that makes it have that negative image to people. Its like you take a group 100 people, and interview 5 and only 5 of them that have done negative things, people will base that whole group on just those 5 people.
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Yes, I agree with you that the media tends to focus on the negative/sensational stories instead of things like "Everyone made it through rush hour today without an accident! Yay drivers!" However, it's not what THEY choose to cover in the news...it's what OUR members choose to do, and it's OUR response to it that makes the story. I guarantee you that there would be less of a big deal over these stories if we (as a international system) said "Yep...looks like they hazed. We kicked them out."
We are private organizations, and as such, we don't have to reveal every single thing we do. However, I think we are SO private and SO guarded with what we do, especially in situations such as these, that people don't trust that we are handling the situation. Chapters try to keep the fact that they removed members private, which make it seem like we aren't removing members, and therefore aren't consequenting those who violate our standards.
I've seen SigEp call out their own chapters for bad behavior in their magazine, and usually there are specific reasons about why the chapter closed. I think if we did that more often, we'd gain more credibility. The new MGCA magazine has a section called "Busted" that calls out chapters as well.
It's like I told someone the other day...raising millions of dollars for cancer research doesn't negate the fact that brothers committed acquaintance rape the week before or that the sisters forced their NMs to drink alcohol until they vomited. When we have situations like SDSU and Tulane happen and get revealed in the media, our response cannot be "but we do great community service!"
Just my two cents.