Opinion: Editorial
Crashing the party
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The Greek system on the
We had hoped the Offices of the Dean of Students would approach the topic with far more stringency than they had in the past - a liaison to the Greek System sounds like something, but has not shown the results such oversight is supposed to produce.
Thankfully, progress is being made. If only inches at a time.
In a decision by the Committee on Student Organizations and Greek Judicial Board, more egregious violations by fraternities and sororities that include dangerous behavior which might endanger members of the UW community can now be forwarded directly to CSO for decisions on discipline.
Obviously, this can’t solve overlying problems if GJB chooses not to react to these sorts of violations; the problems in the Greek system will persist, and we’ll be talking about this same problem a year from now. We would prefer Dean of Students Lori Berquam or one of the associate deans directly intervenes in the daily affairs of the Greek system to decide themselves what should be taken up by their office, but the fact that one arm of UW has the ability to become more involved in Greek affairs is a start.
As long as it doesn’t stop there, that is. There’s far more that needs to be done to ensure the Greek community is not left to its own disciplinary devices. Therefore, while this is a step in the right direction, this measure must be backed up with real oversight and reform coming from UW administration and the Greek system itself. When we see tangible changes in the culture of Greek society on this campus, we’ll be satisfied.
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I’m not Greek. I have very few friends that are Greek. I have no reason to support the Greeks, but in the end I find myself asking why should the University get more directly involved in Greek life? We are all adults on this campus. No one forces anyone to be in the Greek system.
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THis entire article is filled with countless claims and accusations with no evidence that provides further insight into the Greek System. Why do you hate the Greek System so much? Why should they be held to such a higher code than the rest of the students?
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The Badger Herald does not “hate” the Greek system. And, this is an editorial—not a news article. The points made are sound and the procedure that is advocated is already in place on many other campuses.
But, if the editors and reporters were looking for a good reason to “hate” or more accurately to challenge the Greek system at UW, you just provided them with it. The Greek system is held to a higher standard because the founders of their national organizations believed in a higher standard. If you are a member of a GLO, you took a ritual oath—probably several—to live your life at a higher standard and to reflect the values and ideals of your organization in all that you do. Your comments reflect a profound ignorance of what Greek letter organizations represent. If we truly lived up to our ideals, and held our own members accountable, there would be little need for intervention by the university.
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Are you suggesting, because the Greeks demand a “higher standard” from themselves, that they should be punished for it by having those self-imposed “standards” enforced by UW officials? Everyone should be treated equally by UW-Madison and leave the “higher standard” policing to the respective Greek Letter Organizations.
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Anonymous (April 15, 2009 @ 10:51am): “The Greek system is held to a higher standard because the founders of their national organizations believed in a higher standard. If you are a member of a GLO, you took a ritual oath—probably several—to live your life at a higher standard and to reflect the values and ideals of your organization in all that you do. Your comments reflect a profound ignorance of what Greek letter organizations represent. If we truly lived up to our ideals, and held our own members accountable, there would be little need for intervention by the university.”
WELL SAID!
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“The Greek system is held to a higher standard because the founders of their national organizations believed in a higher standard.”
That sentence in no way justifies that it should be the University that holds them accountable to it. If anything if should be their respective national organizations. They make the oath to, as well as give their(albeit, not hard earned)checks to, the national organization, not the university. Now, insofar as being an(i am unaware is they recieve an university money) official student organiztion designates some kind of elevated code of conduct and organizational responsibility, they should be held accountable if such actions violate this code. But, be very careful in giving more power of oversight to the university; just like any entity, they will never relinquish a power once granted them, even if the original situation that necessitated the delegation of power has been alleviated.
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These editorials are pathetic. None of you are involved in the Greek system are you? Continue to perpetuate the stereotypes, it’s okay. Better yet, why don’t you go blog about it?
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This article lacks concrete evidence as to why Greeks cannot govern themselves.
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when a UW student does something wrong, it is unfair to hold the entire institution at fault. along those same lines, if one greek member, or even a small group of greeks, do something wrong, it is unjust to hold the entire system at fault.
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“This article lacks concrete evidence as to why Greeks cannot govern themselves.” They could but don’t.