Quote:
Originally posted by proud2bgreek
Post 2--
My, you are rude. Look, if it wasn't for southern universities, the Greek System would never have survived. And that's the truth. You can thank Ol' Miss, Alabama, FSU, Auburn, LSU, UT, Texas, Carolina, etc., Greek alums for funding your nationals! Some schools with smaller Greek systems have bastardized version of what Greek organizations should be. Look, check out Greek Chat to see what I am talking about. And if you think there is NOTHING wrong with what you do with your new memembers then you should proudly post these ideas on their message board. I'm sure you will get a warm reception.
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That person is a complete idiot. Not a partial idiot, but a complete one. I'm a Phi Psi from FSU, one of the Southern schools cited, and I can name several Northern greek systems that rival it. I can also name Southern schools that have oppressive climates towards greeks.
My fraternity has also raised more money than any other GLO over the last 5 years, and I know where the money came from. Some was from the South, but most wasn't.
Then there is the issue of standing by struggling chapters at "anti-greek" schools. One of my favorite stories is our chapter at Stanford. We were the first fraternity there, and did well for many years. Then the Vietnam era hit, and by the mid 70s we folded, and lost our gargantuan house. We came back in the late 70s, but had no house. And the school hated greeks. When I joined Phi Psi in 1987, they were known as a struggling chapter on the verge of folding. They had membership in the single digits. From this time, and for the next ten years, they ranged from "struggling" to "almost folding," but they stayed afloat. Then in the late 90s, this still unhoused chapter saw its membership climb to the high teens, then into the 20s. In the early part of this decade, their membership continued to climb. They improved so much that in 2001, they won the award as Phi Psi's best chapter. In 2002, after a quarter of a century without a house, Stanford finally gave them one. They have decided to cap their membership at about 50 so that everyone lives in house. But what about the "dark years" when that poster would have been ashamed of such a chapter? One of my best friends is a Phi Psi from this chapter, so I am personally glad they survived. But what of this unprestigous chapter? Isn't prestige important? During these "dark years" they had a chapter vice president named Jerry Yang. He went on to co-found Yahoo. A few years after he was initiated, a Stanford Phi Psi named Ben Lutz was initiated. He went on to co-found Excite. Not bad for a struggling chapter at a school that should get rid of its greek system.