Under attack again

[OneLove AGD]

There has been a tragic death at Cornell, a member of SAE.

"Cornell will no longer recognize Sigma Alpha Epsilon as a fraternity on campus, the Cornell Daily Sun reports. The decision comes with new, shocking allegations in the February death of SAE brother and Cornell sophomore George Desdunes."

Of course, rather than seeing this as a tragic loss of life, people are attacking Greek Life.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/0..._n_837985.html

What are your thoughts? Feel free to post on Huffington Post as well - here, most of us are preaching to the choir. Their, Greeks are demonized, and an alternative perspective would be useful.

My opinion is that Greek Life can be immensely beneficial to men and women who use it for the right purposes. Alcohol is not unique to Greek Life. I have seen no study that suggests Greeks drink or die more than non-Greeks during college. I know at my university, Greeks have a higher GPA, do more service hours, participate more in extracurriculars, and donate more money and time to charity. I am, of course, looking through rose colored glasses.

It seems unreasonable that, as a Greek member, my reputation is staked in the actions of others. At my university, a student DROWNED while at a Christian organization's event, and yet, people looked at it for what it was. A tragic accident. Had it happened at a Greek event (which hopefully it won't, because we invest more time in risk management), we would be protested with pitchforks.

[33girl]

People are going to attack Greeks no matter what.

The Huffington Post is full of idiocy.

I really wouldn't worry too much about it.

[Lafayette79]

A few months ago, the Huffington Post did a story about the sorority in Ohio that had a humorous letter telling the actives what to wear for Recruitment. I lost count after well over 1,000 comments, almost all of which were ignorant. A few people tried to point out the real story, but they were drowned out by the noise.

More recently, they did a story about the Thon event at Penn State and there were only 6 or so comments.

Some people just see what they want to see and hate can be so much fun.

[PiKA2001]

Originally Posted by 33girl

People are going to attack Greeks no matter what.

The Huffington Post is full of idiocy.

I really wouldn't worry too much about it.

I wouldn't worry about it either. I'm sure a social GLO is just one small step down from a tea party member in the eyes of a "typical" HuffPo reader/poster.

We need the haters gonna hate gif.

[AOII Angel]

And who do you think the "typical" HP reader is? I think you'd get similar posts from any news source. I read HP on a daily basis, but you have to take the posters with a grain of salt. If I spent my time worrying about what is posted on CNN, Fox, HP and every other outlet on the internet, I'd just go ahead and shoot myself. Their opinions about Greek life are meaningless. Interest in Greek Life has skyrocketed in the past couple years. Obviously we're doing something right. If we want to improve our image, then we won't do it by saying, "But everyone else is doing it." We have to be above reproach. If we aren't going to shoot for that, then we can just take our lumps and ignore them.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by OneLove AGD

What are your thoughts? Feel free to post on Huffington Post as well - here, most of us are preaching to the choir. Their, Greeks are demonized, and an alternative perspective would be useful.

No it wouldn't; the people posting there don't care what anyone has to say unless it's to agree.

My thoughts? As others have said, the chances of finding a comment worth paying attention to on any news site are about 1 in 50. Comments on news sites should either be used for entertainment or ignored.

And even if that were not so, a story on the death of a college student is not the time to try to engage the haters in a defense of the Greek system.

[PiKA2001]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

And who do you think the "typical" HP reader is? I think you'd get similar posts from any news source. I read HP on a daily basis, but you have to take the posters with a grain of salt. If I spent my time worrying about what is posted on CNN, Fox, HP and every other outlet on the internet, I'd just go ahead and shoot myself. Their opinions about Greek life are meaningless. Interest in Greek Life has skyrocketed in the past couple years. Obviously we're doing something right. If we want to improve our image, then we won't do it by saying, "But everyone else is doing it." We have to be above reproach. If we aren't going to shoot for that, then we can just take our lumps and ignore them.

That's why I said that I wouldn't worry about it either. I do read Huff-Po but I can only bear to get on maybe once a week because of their layout... I wish they would clean it up somehow so it's not so busy. Huff-Po, IMO, is the opposite of far right "news" sites like the weekly standard and newsmax and will attract people on the far edges of the political spectrum.

And ditto @ the second bolded.

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by PiKA2001

That's why I said that I wouldn't worry about it either. I do read Huff-Po but I can only bear to get on maybe once a week because of their layout... I wish they would clean it up somehow so it's not so busy. Huff-Po, IMO, is the opposite of far right "news" sites like the weekly standard and newsmax and will attract people on the far edges of the political spectrum.

And ditto @ the second bolded.

I see we are on the same page, then.

[Lafayette79]

I think that the people who read these sites and those who post on them are not necessarily the same. Whenever I go to the HuffPost page, I get the Facebook section on the main page showing pictures of 3 of my brothers. One is very conservative and two are very liberal, and as everyone here will understand, we all get along fine. I have never seen a political fight among us, even though we often differ. (Now house fights are another matter.) A conservative brother once gave me Ayn Rand to read. I didn't love it, but I remember it and value that he gave it to me.

It seems to me, that the people who post on political sites, or news sites in general, have an ax to grind on anyone that doesn't share their world view. Since we are a minority on campus and often seen as exclusive, axes are often pointed our way by those who don't understand. The people who live and die by these sites and post on them continually, just cannot understand that people with different views can be life-long friends.

I think that that is what sets us apart. We actually like all kinds of people. Brotherhood/Sisterhood is real to us because we select people to join us based upon who they are since that is what is important to us.

And the HuffPost is the most annoying, too busy site on the Internet.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by Lafayette79

A few months ago, the Huffington Post did a story about the sorority in Ohio that had a humorous letter telling the actives what to wear for Recruitment. I lost count after well over 1,000 comments, almost all of which were ignorant. A few people tried to point out the real story, but they were drowned out by the noise.

More recently, they did a story about the Thon event at Penn State and there were only 6 or so comments.

Some people just see what they want to see and hate can be so much fun.

Exactly. The people who read that site don't want to hear that Greeks do anything positive. Let the bleeding ponytails flog their logs all they want, I couldn't care less.

[knight_shadow]

Originally Posted by hibernate

It's a stigma Greeks have to live with. Fraternities and sororities are frowned upon by a lot of people, and each time these people get the opportunity to connect a tragic event to a frat/sor, they are all too ready to start persecuting us.

It's cute when spammers try to chip in like real people.

[psusue]

Originally Posted by PiKA2001

We need the haters gonna hate gif.

Done.

[SOM]

Originally Posted by OneLove AGD

There has been a tragic death at Cornell, a member of SAE.

"Cornell will no longer recognize Sigma Alpha Epsilon as a fraternity on campus, the Cornell Daily Sun reports. The decision comes with new, shocking allegations in the February death of SAE brother and Cornell sophomore George Desdunes."

Of course, rather than seeing this as a tragic loss of life, people are attacking Greek Life.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/0..._n_837985.html

What are your thoughts? Feel free to post on Huffington Post as well - here, most of us are preaching to the choir. Their, Greeks are demonized, and an alternative perspective would be useful.

My opinion is that Greek Life can be immensely beneficial to men and women who use it for the right purposes. Alcohol is not unique to Greek Life. I have seen no study that suggests Greeks drink or die more than non-Greeks during college. I know at my university, Greeks have a higher GPA, do more service hours, participate more in extracurriculars, and donate more money and time to charity. I am, of course, looking through rose colored glasses.

It seems unreasonable that, as a Greek member, my reputation is staked in the actions of others. At my university, a student DROWNED while at a Christian organization's event, and yet, people looked at it for what it was. A tragic accident. Had it happened at a Greek event (which hopefully it won't, because we invest more time in risk management), we would be protested with pitchforks.

While I can agree with the idea that Greek living groups seem to get more notice than some others when things go wrong, I also can understand at least one of the reasons.
"XZY" is something of a known element over Todd or Smith Hall.
And perhaps it is believed that we Greeks just should have some more control over matters than those GDI's.

And as for this whole thread, I just do not understand it.
There are two other threads on this sad matter-one already here in RM and one in Sigma Alpha Epsilon.
http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...d.php?t=118575
http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...d.php?t=118864


And this matter was reported by many other site besides The Hoffington Post.

And they report the main reason why: The Brothers failed to provide medical service. "Even though the members and associate members recognized the condition Desdunes was in, they failed to call for medical care. He subsequently died."
This could get even worse.
For information:
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/...text|FRONTPAGE

http://www.cornellsun.com/section/ne...th-desdunes-13

There are other sites including UPI, AP as well as local TV with simular reports.

My best wishes and thoughts go out to Brother George Desdunes's family and friends.

I choose to keep my thoughts about The Brothers up in Cornell to myself.

[Kevin]

Sometimes our poor reputations are deserved.

[SOM]

Originally Posted by Kevin

Sometimes our poor reputations are deserved.

Kevin-I, sadly, could not agree with you more.