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I've spent a lot of time reading all of your chats, and I thought I'd chime in with a few corrections, updates, and truth about what you're discussing.
I'm the President of the Greek Alumni Council so I certainly have the information available to me. I live in Pittsburgh; I'm on campus at least once a week; and I'm President of the Alumni Board of Trustees for my Fraternity's chapter.
There are many misstatements and misrepresentations in your postings, DUGrad.
Duquesne is NOT trying to close Greek Life at Duquesne. There have NOT been a lot of chapters closed.
First - the state of the chapters:
All of the "closed" chapters you spoke of were locals. Each of the locals has been replaced by an IFC National. Anyone who knows Greek Life on a National basis today will tell you that locals represent a major liability to ALL chapters on every campus.
Locals don't buy insurance; they don't have traveling leadership consultants; they don't have anti-hazing programming; they don't have national leaders to hold them accountable to higher standards of Greek Life.
Nationals HAVE to replace locals. When a local Fraternity causes an anti-Greek incident to hit the news (ie hazing or drinking), how many people sitting at home say to themselves, "oh, that must have been a local." No one. No one cares about the difference between locals and nationals. They only say, oh, there's those stupid sororities again.
The chapters currently at Duquesne represent the best the IFC and PHC has to offer. The day of the locals is over, and Duquesne has done an excellent job keeping strong chapters at Duquesne.
Second, the housing:
DUGrad, you're completely double-speaking yourself, and many of you agreed. You first said that Duquesne was "killing" your chapters by taking away your wings, but then went on to say that every place from Brottier to South Side is cheaper to live. Well, if the Towers wing isn't important to your chapter, how is the University killing it by taking it away??
It's not fair to independents who are paying the exact same money for a space in Towers that during pledging, ritual, and other Fraternity/Sorority meetings that they have to stay in their rooms or off the wing. They also have to live on a wing with coats of arms on the walls, doors, and in the kitchens.
So why is it that INDEPENDENTS are willing to spend money to live in Towers but your own sisters are not?? Where's the sisterhood?
Here's a suggestion - The sisters who don't choose to live in Towers have to pay a Parlor fee to help offset the costs of those who do. It will help the sisters keep the wing and still be allowed to live where they want.
Third: Duquesne's policy on funding wing improvements has not changed. It has been the same for years. Duquesne pays half, and the chapter pays half. DU will pay up to $1000 a year in this program. That's a lot of coin for even the full wings. Nothing has changed.
Fourth: Red Rover: To say that the University doesn't have wealthy Greek Alumni is completely off-base. The university has a ton of wealthy alumni. Did you notice how every new building, department chair, skywalk, planter, and water fountain has someone's name on it? Those aren't poor alumni.
The University knows that the Greek Alumni are the most well-organized and most-generous group of alumni. That is true for ANY campus. The Alumni Office is VERY committed to keeping Greek Life alive at Duquesne.
My question is: Are YOU? What have you done to help your chapters? In the amount of time you've spent complaining on this board, you could have corresponded with your sisters and brothers about how to create better Associate Member programming, organized an alumni event for your chapter, or planned a brotherhood/sisterhood retreat to talk about ways to be better recruiters.
And Red Rover, you questioned whether the Alumni would "care." Look at the Board of Directors of the University and see who is Greek DU Alum. Have you? Do you know who Anthony Carfang is? How about Jim O'Day? These are powerful, wealthy people who care deeply about the success of the Greek system. Even if you believe Father Hogan wants to destroy Greek Life, go back to one of your earlier points about his bosses being the Board of Directors - guess what - they're Greek, too. And someone else said that the Spiritans are Fr. Hogan's other bosses. Guess what - you're right - and they're Greek too. How many priests who live at Duquesne are Faculty Advisors or Spiritual Advisors? Almost every chapter has a relationship with one priest; some have multiples.
DU Grad: I'm going to question your authenticity. To not know that Fr. Hogan is the Executive Vice President of Student Life is absurd. At one point, you said, the "Dean of Students" might be a priest.
Are you kidding? You were there for four years, have "received a ton" of emails from your sisters questioning DU committment to the Greek system, and you're not sure of the position of the person ultimately responsible for the system? Come on. Quit playing "woe is me" and start working for your chapter.
I'll close with this: I sat on the Selection Committee to pick the new Director of Greek Life after Ron Shidemantle left for Virginia Tech. I can promise you - the University only wanted the BEST for the Greek System. They told us to pick the best available person to take the Greek System to the next level. The committee reviewed some of the finest Greek leaders in the NATION. We were not asked to pick someone who would be a puppet to the administration - were asked to pick the BEST. The person we chose IS GREEK, worked for her chapter as a leadership consultant, worked in Greek Life, has a master's in Higher Ed, and is DEDICATED to seeing the Greek System survive and flourish at Duquesne.
I think you should set up a time to meet with us if you're concerned about the system. I think what you'll find is drastically different than what you wrote about.
Fraternally,
Craig
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