The Panhellenic Council and Interfraternity Council would like to address some of the issues and opinions put forth by The DePauw regarding the changes to Greek Week and the associated programming. Ironically, The DePauw illustrated precisely why changes in attitudes need to be made within the greek-lettered community and displayed a lack of awareness that we hope to overcome by addressing its recent editorial.
The DePauw chose to highlight the role of Panhel and IFC in the changes made to Greek Week this semester while failing to address the fact that the greek-lettered community on this campus extends far beyond these groups. While both organizations were highly involved in these changes, the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC), Psi Lamda Xi and Multicultural Greek Council (MGC) were not mentioned in the editorial even though they contributed to the planning of the week and will be participating.
Not only is this oversight insulting to these groups, it also reveals exactly why Greek Week has not been effective at bringing organizations together in the past. If we do not understand or even acknowledge the diverse components of DePauw's greek-lettered community, we extinguish any hope of facilitating positive interaction with members of other chapters during this week.
While competing against others may foster a sense of unity within a chapter, past events have done little (if anything) to increase overall greek-lettered community spirit and pride. It is frustrating to see that the editors of The DePauw are ignorant of the positive impact and diversity that MGC, NPHC and Psi Lamda Xi bring to our community, and we hope that members of the Panhellenic Association and IFC are not uninformed or unappreciative of the contributions that these groups make.
If interacting with other members of greek-lettered organizations in a non-competitive setting means "forcing cordial behavior and faking sincerity," then we as a community need to seriously re-examine our values. Although our individual experiences within a chapter will undoubtedly shape us, we cannot let our involvement in these organizations make us oblivious to the many great things that DePauw's greek-lettered community and entire campus have to offer.