Ok, I have been following this thread for a while and at first I was very angry, I have been trying to convince my sister to rush when she goes to college and I thought this would ruin any chance of her rushing or my parents allowing her to rush. But after reading some of the recent posts I’ve changed my mind. I’m not saying I completely agree with Sigma’s decision to allow MTV to tape them, It may not have been the best decision a GLO has made but it isn’t the worst either.
I think what’s most important was that their intention was good, they wanted some good PR for Greek life on a nationally television station, as well as help their house financially. However, just like anything to make them look bad makes all GLO’S look bad, anything that makes them look good makes everyone look good as well. For example the first thing that struck me as interesting on their web sight was under pledging, and then dues information, there is a section where they talk about girls who can’t afford to pay dues. They collect money from the community to help them pay for dues. I can honestly say that is the first time I have heard of any GLO putting a plan like that into action and is a huge showing of sisterhood, and careing. Also it defiantly breaks the stereotype that we are buying our friends. One stereotype I very much hate.
Having said that in their defense I will next say I’m not naive about how MTV works: Fights and drama = ratings. Of course this will in some way have a negative impact or all GLO’s, while we don’t know the extent of this bad publicity I’m positive pointing our respective fingers at the Sigma’s wont help anything. So my question is what are we going to do locally nationally to counteract any bad press? Anything we do on my campus as a charity event we try to get on a local radio station; is there anything else we can do?
Lastly I would like to remind everyone “no matter what the letter we are all Greek together” (I know its corny but it makes a point) And even though we would like to say that we had no part in this and the sigma’s are all wrong for representing the Greek system this way, I would like to remind you that at one point in time (insert your letters here) fraternity or sorority was probably in the news for hazing or something worse than partying too much. I seriously doubt any organization is exempt from this. So instead of pointing fingers let’s try to take the positive and promote it and counteract the negative the best we can. After all isn’t that what MTV would do if they were in our shoes?
I hope this makes sense, after all it is just my opinion.