It seems like this happens every semester. A Greek organization gets into some sort of trouble – whether its for a fight at a party, hazing or, recently, planning to kidnap brothers with alcohol in a van – the administration/Greek Life Office comes up with necessary but overenthusiastic consequences, the Greek community gets upset. Repeat.
The recent events concerning Kappa Sigma fraternity are only the latest in a series of poor decisions made by members of the Greek community. Over the course of my time here at Wash. U., I’ve seen Sig Chi get kicked off campus and a brief attempt at Prohibition – not to mention the infamous Alpha Phi-Girl Scout encounter. Though it’s almost funny how regular (and weird) these events can be, it’s also very frustrating as a member of the Greek community here on campus to have to look at another front-page headline and know that Greeks are going have to prove their worth yet again to Wash. U. at large, and may even face some unnecessary consequences.
Now, this most recent development may come as a shock to some more optimistic students on campus. “Gosh,” these students might say, “I could have sworn that Greek Life had completely changed, what with their Arete value system and the lessons they must have learned from Prohibition last year. I can’t believe this is happening again.” And to some extent, those students are right. Even though another incident with the Greek community has occurred, been made public and may potentially have consequences, that doesn’t mean no progress has been made. Far from it. But just because the community as a whole has been improving and moving forward, there is still room for individual mistakes and poor judgments. And because the Greek community is so often judged as a whole, rather than as individuals, it makes it that much harder to move forward.
More pessimistic students, on the other hand, might wonder if recent efforts by the Greek community have actually done anything. Well, yes and no. It is true that there has been a refocusing of the Greek system at large towards community and philanthropy, and that Greeks are possibly contributing more than ever around campus. However, there is only so much that the Greek Life Office, Panhel and IFC can do to control individual actions. No matter how closely values are examined, no matter how much risk management is done, no matter how carefully Greeks run programs and throw parties, there is always the (somewhat high) chance that someone will do something stupid.
This is not meant to insult recent efforts by the Greek community in any way. In fact, I think it is quite commendable and impressive how many Greeks, instead of getting discouraged by last year’s Prohibition, took it upon themselves to rethink how the Greek community works at the University (with encouragement from the administration, of course.)
Just because there has been another incident this semester doesn’t mean that these efforts are meaningless. Instead, we should all just realize that mistakes, like it or not, will probably continue to happen, at least once in a while. Rather than getting bent out of shape about them, hopefully everyone can recognize that college kids screw up once in a while, and deal with problems realistically and thoughtfully.
Hopefully, the administration and the Greek Life Office will recognize that the actions of a few do not reflect the larger actions or behaviors of the Greek community at large. No other group on campus faces more pressure as a whole to behave properly, and, by and large, Greeks on this campus do a very good job.
Even though we have a glitch seemingly every semester, 99 percent of Greeks on this campus are still following the rules. Consequences for the Kappa Sig booze van should (and hopefully will) be minimal, and from there, we can move on to greater heights as a community and, if we’re lucky, fewer mistakes in the future.
Matt is a senior in Arts & Sciences and a Forum editor.