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  #1  
Old 04-21-2014, 11:36 PM
SOM SOM is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DrPhil View Post
There are three definitions of "cancer", one definition is "something bad or dangerous that causes other bad things to happen." (Merriam Webster)

I did not read his comparison to apartheid but, if he kept the "a" lowercase, "apartheid" can be used in reference to any form of "separation, segregation--examples: cultural apartheid; gender apartheid". (Merriam Webster)


/lane swerve
Brother Cohen has some personal knowledge:
South Africa

Cohen is also SAE’s first foreign-born leader, and speaks in the lilting accent of his native South Africa. His late father, Desmond Vernon Cohen, was an obstetrician-gynecologist, as well as a swimmer and water polo player on two South African Olympic teams.
Fearing racial strife over the government’s apartheid policy, the family left South Africa in the late 1970s when Cohen was 16. When he announced the pledging ban, Cohen compared the treatment of new members as “second-class citizens” to the abuse of blacks under apartheid.

Unusual Background

In many ways, Cohen has an unusual background for an SAE leader. He’s the first Jewish president of SAE, which used to limit membership to “members of the Caucasian race” without a parent who was a “full-blooded Jew,” according to a 1903 book of rituals.
Holding the black volume aloft, Cohen read that passage to his audience at the University of La Verne. When SAE renounced racism and anti-Semitism in 1952, he reminded the crowd, it faced the same complaints that change would ruin the fraternity that traditionalists now make about the pledging ban.

From: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-0...rgan-snub.html

Which is rather an interesting read as is the other link above-reposted here for ease: http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-C...ncer-of-Hazing

And Sigma Alpha Epsilon does not seem to be on its own-besides what is writen within those two articles, there are these two: Fraternity Leadership Group Calls for an End to Hazing-With college frats facing ongoing criticism over alcohol abuse, sexual assaults, and even the hazing deaths of pledges, the North-American Interfraternity Conference is creating independent panels to address these issues and generate solutions....
The days of serious fraternity hazing—a college Greek life tradition that in some cases has led to tragedy in recent years—could be numbered.

That’s because a fraternity association is taking steps to rein in the practice, and perhaps end it for good.
The North-American Interfraternity Conference (NIC), which represents 75 fraternities worldwide, has announced an effort to research ways to stop harmful activities often associated with the campus groups, including alcohol abuse, sexual assault, and hazing. http://associationsnow.com/2014/04/fraternity-leadership-group-calls-end-hazing/

The Time is Now to Preserve the Future of Fraternities. By NIC President & CEO Pete Smithhisler.

In recent months, it's become increasingly fashionable for media and others to denigrate the college fraternity experience as little more than an organized excuse to misbehave.
Since last summer, I've spent countless hours on the phone with a variety of journalists, many of whom have seemed predisposed to disparaging the fraternity movement. Some have gone as far as to suggest fraternities should cease to exist.
Their sentiment is fueled by unfortunate (and inexcusable) cases of students getting into trouble or - worse - hurting themselves or others because they acted irresponsibly or even illegally while participating in a fraternity-sponsored program or event.
While isolated, these cases nevertheless significantly overshadow all the good done by fraternities and their members today. For example, too few people are aware that:....

http://bit.ly/1jbArVX

Last edited by SOM; 04-21-2014 at 11:43 PM.
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  #2  
Old 04-22-2014, 12:14 AM
DrPhil DrPhil is offline
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Originally Posted by SOM View Post
...Cohen compared the treatment of new members as “second-class citizens” to the abuse of blacks under apartheid.
In that case, that is a horribly inaccurate comparison. New members chose to be new members even if they did not choose to be hazed.

/lane swerve
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  #3  
Old 04-22-2014, 12:32 AM
DeltaBetaBaby DeltaBetaBaby is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DrPhil View Post
In that case, that is a horribly inaccurate comparison. New members chose to be new members even if they did not choose to be hazed.

/lane swerve
Yes. May as well go for the Godwin.
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  #4  
Old 04-22-2014, 08:06 AM
MysticCat MysticCat is offline
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Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby View Post
Yes. May as well go for the Godwin.
Really. He needs to tone it down on these comparisons—aside from the inappropriateness of them, he might just find some people comparing him to particular leaders who bypassed or suspended democratic processes because, well, the ends justify the means.

Quote:
Originally Posted by SOM View Post
And Sigma Alpha Epsilon does not seem to be on its own-besides what is writen within those two articles, there are these two: Fraternity Leadership Group Calls for an End to Hazing-With college frats facing ongoing criticism over alcohol abuse, sexual assaults, and even the hazing deaths of pledges, the North-American Interfraternity Conference is creating independent panels to address these issues and generate solutions....
The days of serious fraternity hazing—a college Greek life tradition that in some cases has led to tragedy in recent years—could be numbered.

That’s because a fraternity association is taking steps to rein in the practice, and perhaps end it for good.
The North-American Interfraternity Conference (NIC), which represents 75 fraternities worldwide, has announced an effort to research ways to stop harmful activities often associated with the campus groups, including alcohol abuse, sexual assault, and hazing. http://associationsnow.com/2014/04/fraternity-leadership-group-calls-end-hazing/
Huh? National fraternities and fraternity groups have been trying to end hazing for years. The first sentence—that SAE doesn't seem to be on its own—isn't supported by what comes after. Ending hazing is not the same as abolishing pledging, and abolishing pledging is not the same as ending hazing.
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  #5  
Old 04-22-2014, 09:51 AM
DrPhil DrPhil is offline
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I understood his use of "cancer" but now that I read his use of "apartheid," he is being dramatic.
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  #6  
Old 04-22-2014, 11:50 PM
SAEalumnus SAEalumnus is offline
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Originally Posted by DrPhil View Post
I understood his use of "cancer" but now that I read his use of "apartheid," he is being dramatic.
Agreed. This was to a large extent a PR stunt to try to improve the national organization's relationship with its insurance carrier and with its host universities. Overly dramatic "journalism" () begat overly dramatic justifications by the ESA.

From what I've heard, he knew full well that the correct approach was to either wait until the next biennial convention, or to submit the matter to a direct vote by mail of the convention's membership, in either case the majority of votes belonging to the undergraduates. He also suspected (perhaps rightly so) that were such a vote to be conducted on his proposal, it would get shot down by a landslide vote in opposition. So, the only way he could get his proposal enacted as policy was to simply declare it to be so by executive order, sidestepping the inconvenience of the usual and democratic legislative process.

Now that this new policy has been handed down from on high, he needs to conduct a marketing campaign in the hope of garnering enough public support -- or at least among university administrators and news media -- as to make it as difficult as possible for the next biennial convention to rescind the new program.
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