In defense of the Greeks
Dear Editor:
I found Matt Shapiro’s article to be downright erroneous. Not only were most of his facts untrue, but also his assertions about the purpose of Grand Chapter were completely amiss. Matt spent a good two-thirds of his article condemning the Greek Life Office for having a speaker who he felt was simply “blowing smoke up our collective Greek behinds.” Nice imagery, but the point of Grand Chapter isn’t the topic of the speech, or even who gives it; if it were possible to bring in somebody, like a Supreme Court Justice who was Greek, we would do it! The purpose of Grand Chapter is to bring the community together as a whole. It is really remarkable to see 1,000 of your peers, who all stand for the same values and have similar ambitions, come together for a cause.
I’d also like to point out that fining people for not attending Grand Chapter is not new, like Matt claimed. It is just that the rule is now being enforced. Furthermore, people who had legit excuses (class, study sessions, work conflicts, etc.) were not fined at all. So, those who didn’t have legit reasons to not attend were expected to. It seems reasonable to me that a person dedicate ONE hour ONCE a semester to the greater community of which they are a part. Also, his assumption that the university would pocket the money from the fines in the same way that they are the Tulane students’ tuition is nonsensical because the GLO’s budget isn’t remotely associated to their tuition budgets. Money from the fines goes into the greater Greek Life programming budget so that it can benefit the community. Check your facts.
Finally, Panhel and IFC meetings are open to everybody in the Greek community, and the GLO’s door is always open (metaphorically). If someone has an issue that they feel needs attention we are more than willing to have them come and voice their concerns. However, the constant whining about the aftermath of an event does nothing to make any positive changes.
Jody Bivens
Class of 2006
Panhel VP Programming
A plea for photographers at races
Dear Editor:
While I appreciate the publicity that Student Life gives to the athletic teams at Wash. U., it would be nice if the reporters really did their research and knew all the facts about the teams. Last week’s cross country article, itself, was very good and summed up our season, so far, very well. I am eluding to the fact that a picture of Greg Reindl was featured with the article, along with a generic caption about his 2005 season. Greg has been injured all year and does not expect to run a single race in 2005. The picture is actually from the first race of 2004.
I know it can be difficult to get photographers to the meets, seeing as just about all of our meets are away. If you need good pictures, ask a member of the team, and he or she will be able to provide some, since many of our runners bring cameras to the races.
Kevin Gale
Class of 2007