National VS Local Debate

[decadence]

Originally opined by Russellwarshay:
Don'ty be so quick to pass judgement on my outlook. There are actually a few (literally) locals that I respect.

Pick up any older edition of Baird's, and it will clearly define locals as local to one, and only one campus. 1=1. Its really that simple.

The behavior of locals, and regionals, are different. Even though many regionals don't have liability insurance, they do behave more responsibly than locals.

Also, in the Northeast, where there probably more locals and regionals than in any other part of the country, many of the locals are former chapters of national groups that behave in a terrible way.

Its really in the best interest of a small regional fraternal organization to not be classified with the groups that pervade the SUNY system, for example.

And quite simply, changing definitions of commonly accepted terms is highly anti-intellectual, and is counter-productive to rational discourse.

If you don't stop I'll take away all your copies of Baird's manual and make you cry . Just kidding but honestly your posts on this do smack a little of didacticism.
Whilst there may well be irresponsible locals, irresponsible chapters of 'nationals may also crop up from time to time to be dealt with e.g. link. As has been said before, if a national chapter was acting unforgivedly they could still present a perfectly pleasant picture to visiting internationals officers until a reported incident happened. To use 'local' as some sort of buzzword for lawless group/accident waiting to happen is unfortunate. The greatest problem is that such an approach attempts to pigeonhole the issue of hazing onto a particular sector of greek life and hazing is an issue that ALL greeks and non-greek student orgs need to be aware of and mindful of. Yes, an international GLO structure can (and does) help substantially but proper procedure begins at home (campus level). Idiots live outside of locals too and while you may say that without an international board to mandate remove of questionable practices labelled tradition a group has no motivation to do so, this belies the fact that local orgs include responsible memebrs, do have a desire not to stagnate, to ensure members are kept safe, to work with alumni, to adapt to a changing world.

To take your argument to it's (ill)ogical conclusion then if a two chaptered GLO - which you posit to be regional only - lost one chapter for a time or permanently then it would be local therefore almost certainly it would 'suddenly' be a risk managment/hazing hotbed irrespective of any risk management policies and procedures it may have in place; which can be equally adopted by any local.
Equally, meanings both do change over time - one of the characteristics of a living language such as English as opposed to an extinct language like Latin, and are not always exhaustive.

I really must stop procrastinating and go do my term papers.