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about CU
I do not know how CU got the rep as a good Greek school; anyone who knows about the University of Colorado would at
once dispell that.
I live 20 minutes from the campus. My daughter graduated from
there. I ran a rush week there in '57 while a TKE field rep. I have
a good thirty five years' observation of the place. I could talk for
many hours on the system....or lack of...
Fruitcakes flourish...as in many university communities....some say
Boulderites live a tilted life...but it is a pretty place, you bet!
It is, indeed, a gorgeous place, a sitting backed up by the mountains, immediate ones called "foothills." Architecture is of a
harmonious and tasteful sort. The east of the place will find the
plains beginning. A half hour from downtown Denver. Good climate, nearby skiing abounds. An ideal setting.
Greeks...over a hundred years. Mix of student body is diverse...
many out of staters; rich kids, playboys, spoiled girls, rustic ones
from rural Colorado towns, and so on. Athletes coddled like many
places, alums want winning teams, no matter how....
The University divested itself years ago by no longer recognizing
the Greeks, perhaps to pass the buck in terms of in loco parentis.
Drinking age raised to 21...anti greek movement hit here hard as
it did in Berkeley, Eugene, Ann Arbor, etc. As chapters folded, the
U picked up the houses. About twenty fraternities folded. The
once large Jewish enrollment and easily identified groups were no
longer there, the nationals merged, died, whatever...absorption
of this large identifiable group occurred. This had no seemingly
positive or negative connotation, though, as the coming-together
of various ethnicities and religion-oriented groups happened all over America...a plus for many of us.
BUT with the withdrawal of recognition and the changing times, a
movement of doing away with housemothers, advisers, came to
fruition. Alumni became isolated. No longer the standards and
the manners of yore...Musical chairs...house wise...my point is that
there is no system left. Totally out of control. But, on the horizon,
I hope as do several alums, that we can return to some semblance of the Greeks as we'd like to see...Risk management,
which we did not have to deal with, is horribly expensive. Booze
in houses, negative images...professors and administrators who
do not like us...at all...naw, forget CU...a beautiful place and we
hope to come back. Oh, yes, I sit on the TKE board of eight, and
we are returning after a twenty year absence, and SAE, Sig Ep,
Delta Chi colonizing now. KA, Kappa Sig, Phi Delt kicked off last
year. Delt, Beta, ATO gone. Many in transition, two or three go
off each year. Real estate costs skyrocketing...dunno what the
results will be, but CU as a good Greek model...hope it will come
to pass. But not now...
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