Greek social life on campus is in full swing. For new members, last week was full of excitement with bid night for fraternities, bid day for sororities and most of all, Black Monday. As many fraternities felt pressure from the University to decrease the amount of excessive drinking, last week's Black Monday was one of the quietest in recent memory. But should the University have to intercede in the first place with steep punishments for drinking getting out of hand?
If you look to any greek society's purpose or mission statement, you will find very similar values asserted. These statements all have to do with virtue, high morals, giving to society and creating well-rounded men or women. The men or women that founded each greek organization were creating what they thought to be an individual society that would better themselves through high standards of scholarship and community involvement.
When the founders created these oaths, codes or bonds, they did so for each new member to sign and pledge to uphold. The purposes of these organizations would seem to have little to do with a perpetuation of excessive drinking for which they're often blamed. If every member of DePauw's greek community is to be upholding a higher moral or societal purpose, it seems as if a problem of drinking within one of these organizations would never have to be dealt with by a body outside of the organization - like the university on Black Monday. Instead, the problem would be taken care of internally, and our organizations would be able to maintain their autonomy while working toward improvement.
Most of the fraternities on campus are social fraternities, and that should not be undermined or discounted. However, when the university must become involved with our social practices, reevaluation is needed. Each member of our greek organizations must ask himself or herself and one another: is the social aspect of these organizations in tune with their purposes?
New members must also ask themselves a similar question as they go through pledgeship. Does this brotherhood or sisterhood actually live up to its mission? If it doesn't, then why spend the time learning its history and values when the history and values are not to be brought up again until next year's pledgeship?
Furthermore, all greek members should critically think about this. Does greek life really serve a purpose if its values are ignored? If their values are ignored, then what is created is an organization that picks and chooses what values it wants to live up to apart from the values it is supposed to live up to - which is hypocrisy at both an organizational and an individual level.
DePauw has a rich history of greek life, and every member should be proud to wear his or her letters - hopefully for the right reasons.
- Stuart is a junior from Nashville, Ind. majoring in philosophy and political science.
