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Oh shoot, sorry 'bout that.
These are all letters to the editor--I'll post one by one.
From today:
BU should not start funding Greek life
By Dennis Reardon, CAS '06
Recently, I have become aware that the current Student Union government and the “True 2” slate have been working to get greater funding for the Intra-Fraternity and Sorority Council. Though I must confess that I am ignorant of the specific workings of the council with regards to the specific fraternities, I have a few strong objections to such a move.
First of all, it seems completely irresponsible for a school and for the student body in general to support an organization or a group of organizations which participate in things like hazing. Hazing is officially outlawed; however, it’s fairly clear from evidence and stories of people who actually join these fraternities that it does happen. I don’t particularly care whether hazing goes on — after all, people who join fraternities know what they are getting into. What I object to is having our money go toward organizations where you must go through these weird rituals in order to join. Since every person pays the undergraduate student fee, the only things our money should go to are clubs and organizations where everyone can join without being intimidated by such hazing.
Supporters of financial backing for Greek life seem to insinuate that these fraternities and sororities help promote more of a community at Boston University. However, I would say it promotes exactly the opposite effect. In frats and sororities, people generally gravitate toward the same type of people, so it therefore discourages the sort of interaction you get in dorms and regular apartment housing. Also, I think an encouragement of Greek life will create greater division among the student body. First, there will be a general division between the fraternities and sororities. Second, there will be a division between those involved in fraternities and sororities and those who are not. Right now the problem is small because there are a small number of frats and sororities, but if their numbers increase, the problem will be more apparent. The solution to the lack of community at BU is not to encourage a system that neatly divides people up into small groups and creates an extra form of division between people at the university.
What I think we need to do at BU is focus our efforts more on improving the worthwhile clubs and organizations that are doing community service and bringing people at BU together with our undergraduate fee. What we should not do is promote hazing and division through this flawed system even if it does have some merits. We should therefore send a message to those who think that it is in the interest of BU to have institutionalized high school cliques funded with our money by voting down the “True 2” slate.
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