[DeltAlum]

This hurts, especially from a major city newspaper. Unfortunately, it appears to be well thought out and researched. This is an editorial -- an opinion -- but still offers comments from both sides.

This kind of thing is difficult to recover from, and is the reason that we must all take a hard look at what we're doing, and the possible consequences so as not to let an administration like Alfred's find itself in the position to be able to make a like decision.

Editorial
Buffalo News
May 28, 2002

No Greeks for Alfred

Take a bunch of kids away from home for the first time, put them in a
fraternity or sorority house, mix in liberal amounts of alcohol and a
cultural erosion of respect for authority, and what you get is an
incubator for bad behavior.

At Alfred University, a campus of 2,400 students located in the
foothills of the Allegheny Mountains, that concoction has led to six
of the 12 Greek organizations on campus being suspended, placed on
probation or losing their affiliation for violations such as hazing
and alcohol abuse. The university understandably has had enough. Last
week it announced it was eliminating the Greek system from campus.
Who can blame it?

The decision came after a special Trustee Task Force concluded that
the school's Greek system had become dysfunctional, and that "the
educational mission of the university and its Greek system were no
longer compatible." The task force was formed after the death of
21-year-old Alfred student Benjamin Klein, who was beaten by two of
his fraternity brothers before he died. The beating didn't lead to
his death, but it was the motivating factor to study the Greek system.

The task force studied 20 comparable colleges, that is, small liberal
arts colleges in the Northeast. Virtually all those schools found
that the Greek system needed dramatic reform, or had already
eliminated it. Virtually all of them suffered the same problems, said
Gene Bernstein, a former head of Alfred's board of trustees and head
of the task force. Among them were exclusion of minorities and
generally bad behavior largely fueled by alcohol.

Not all fraternities or sororities are versions of "Animal House."
Some, particularly at large universities, can provide a sense of
family within a huge academic environment, said Sheldon Steinbach,
vice president and chief counsel at the American Council on
Education, which represents 1,800 two- and four-year colleges.

Still, an increasing number of schools - especially smaller
Northeastern liberal arts schools - have moved to eliminate the Greek
system. Colby, Middlebury and Bowdoin have done so. But even larger
universities, where fraternities are active, have experienced
increasing problems, said Brett Sokolow, president of the National
Center for Higher Education Risk Management.

Fueled by alcohol - public health studies show that members of
fraternities and sororities drink more than non-Greek students -
university officials at campuses across the country have been
struggling to reform the system. In fact, since 1992 Alfred has had
an assistant dean whose primary, if not only, responsibility was to
try and bring the Greek system up to some reasonable standard of
behavior. Clearly, the effort failed.

In the past two years, more than 60 deaths nationwide have been
linked to fraternity or sorority activity, mainly drinking. As Alfred
University President Charles Edmondson pointed out, if that many
deaths had been associated with varsity athletes, the NCAA would be
conducting an investigation. Edmondson called the numbers an epidemic.

Steinbach, of the American Council on Education, says that while the
deaths are intolerable, they are not out of proportion for what you
would expect from a similar sized population.

Perhaps. But we see no overriding reason to put up with the problems
that arise from out-of-control fraternities. And to their credit,
neither do Alfred officials.