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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 30, 2002)
Newsroom: (541) 346-5511 Room 300, Erb Memorial Union PO. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403 E-mail: editor@dailyemerald.com Online Edition: www.dailyemerald.com Thursday, May 30,2002 Editor in Chief: Jessica Blanchard Managing Editor: Jeremy Lang Editorial Editor: Julie Lauderbaugh Assistant Editorial Editor: Jacquelyn Lewis Point/Counterpoint Shaken but not stirred: Frats go dry Decision improves living conditions Guest Commentary Anne Leavitt Ihe University’s greek chapters have his torically been a good residential choice JL for University students who would like to live in a well-appointed house near cam pus as a member of a social or fraternal organi zation. In recent years, the quality and vitality of these living organizations has declined. Membership, resources and image have suf fered. An emphasis on alcohol consumption has replaced legacies of community service and leadership in some chapter houses. High risk behaviors accompanying this “partying” have resulted in increased citations for con duct code and ordinance violations. The behavior of a few chapters is hurting the reputation of all. Some chapters have closed their doors. Others are struggling to im prove their image, repair their facilities and recruit new “live-in” members. Some have elected to become alcohol and illegal-drug free as a way to strengthen and reinvigorate their chapters. These chapters are beginning to focus again on offering opportunities for fraternity, leadership, philanthropy, scholar ship and an attractive living environment. National research indicates that alcohol free living organizations are cleaner, safer, and provide a better study environment. There seems to be less risk of hazing in chapters where alcohol is not permitted in the facility. There’s reduced peer pressure to drink, less property damage and less risk of being the defendant of a lawsuit. Nation ally, 20 percent of today’s college fraternity men are in alcohol-free housing organiza tions and more than 30 colleges and univer sities have asked greek chapters to keep al cohol out of their facilities. These chapters are reporting improved public image and community relations. Alumni and parents seem more willing to support and make fi nancial contributions toward the house. Grade point averages for residents of “dry” chapter houses are going up; the chapters and their members report that they are earn ing more awards and receiving more posi tive community recognition. Concerns about the decline in member ship and in the quality and quantity of chap ter houses have prompted University Presi dent Dave Frohnmayer to request that University’s greek chapters renew their em phasis on the beliefs upon which they were originally founded. The president’s an nouncement that next fall the University will endorse and support only those chapters whose houses are substance free does not “take alcohol away” from members. The or ganizations can still hold events with alcohol at different locations, where those who are at least 21 years of age may choose to drink. The new expectation won’t eliminate col lege-age drinking, nor will it solve the chal lenges of reducing high-risk behaviors that often accompany illegal or excessive alcohol consumption. The new endorsement stan dard does “level the playing field” in that it expects all affiliated chapter houses, not just the 14 who have currently elected to be alco hol-free, to maintain living facilities in which alcohol and illegal drugs are not present. With a large number of students expected at the University next fall and in the future, the University urgently needs additional group living facilities that offer students the opportunity for more than just safe, afford able housing. University’s alcohol-free greek chapters will be a welcome addition to the residence halls as alternative group-living organizations suitable for incoming stu dents. As homes that will offer a healthier environment for living, studying and learn ing, these chapters will hopefully be an ideal location for students to live while pursuing their undergraduate studies in Eugene. Anne Leavitt is the associate vice president for student affairs and dean of students. Ban will aggravate alcohol problem Staff Commentary Jacquelyn Lewis I’m not involved with the greek system, but I realize the effects of University President Dave Frohnmayer’s decision to implement alcohol-free housing for fraterni ties and sororities will extend far beyond greek houses. The ramifications of this mis guided decision will negatively affect both students and community members. The new standards for greek houses, which will go into effect this fall for all fra ternities and sororities that receive school services, were approved by Frohnmayer on May 17. Among these is the controversial new rule requiring chapters to have alco hol- and illegal drug-free housing. While Frohnmayer claims the new regu lations are necessary to “fix” the greek sys tem’s social policy ills and reduce reckless underage drinking in fraternity houses, they only appear beneficial to the greek system and the University. The alcohol ban will merely serve to gloss over existing problems and even create new ones. Are supporters of the ban really naive enough to believe this will alleviate under age drinking and related behavior in frater nity houses? Perhaps they lack the fore sight to see that larger parties will simply move off campus, triggering a fresh flood of problems, including public intoxication and drunk driving. Instead of keeping alco hol consumption inside the fraternity houses, we introduce it into the communi ty and put more people in danger. It is common knowledge that the more you tell someone — especially a young person — not to do a certain thing, the more he or she wants to do it. The alco hol ban will likely do the opposite of what it’s meant to, especially since Frohnmayer didn’t involve students in his decision at all. With the new ban, fra ternity houses will play host to covert back-room parties where the drinking is even more “outrageous” than before. It’s doubtful the administration will be able to enforce its new rule, unless it plans on performing extensive daily searches of every greek house. Besides the possible difficulties of en forcing the alcohol ban and other new reg ulations, there is also the problem of how to implement the new rules in the first place. The administration simply sent In terfraternity and Panhellenic leaders let ters notifying them of the changes and deadlines for written agreements, but so far it hasn’t provided any guidelines to put the standards into action. It seems strange that administrators would be so involved in the decision-making process but not in the ac tual implementation of the regulations. Aside from all the other issues surround ing the ban, the administration’s sudden concern for greek chapters’ sobriety seems strange since the “problem” has existed for years. The system has traditionally been host to parties where alcohol is present, so why push for stricter regulations now? Most college students, in the greek system or not, attend the occasional party, and a few students — gasp! —- even become in toxicated once in a while. No rule or regu lation is going to stop this from happening. Consuming alcohol is not necessarily dangerous or immoral. The problem does not lie with students drinking alcohol; it’s about the few who do it irresponsibly. This is not to say the greek system isn’t notori ous for catering to these individuals, but perhaps more programs on consuming al cohol responsibly would be a better alter native to administrators slapping down a list of “no-nos.” E-mail assistant editorial editor Jacquelyn Lewis at jacquelynlewis@dailyemerald.com. Her opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Emerald. Letter to the editor Citizens can not give up privacy rights America is under attack, but you can forget about Osama bin Laden this time. The real terror ists are the fascists in the Bush administration. The video that was presented on Thursday in Willamette Hall, entitled “The Truth and Lies of 9-11,” gave sub stantial evidence that demon strates President George W. Bush knew beforehand of the horrify ing attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and did nothing to help prevent them. The U.S. government has since been engaged in a propaganda campaign to elicit blind support from Americans for the “War on Terrorism,” which is much more than dismantling al-Qaida. Indeed, there is much more to 9 11 than is presented in the mass media. To begin, a vast amount of oil reserves exist in South Asia surrounding Afghanistan, and the United States has had an interest in obtaining control of these re serves; it is now very convenient that we have a “reason” to attack the area, but where’s bin Laden? In addition to this war, a different kind of war is being waged here in America. It is the attack on our civ il liberties. Our constitution is be ing eaten away with the pretext of national security and patriotism. Here’s my message in this let ter: We need to start a revolution. This may sound like a stretch, but the revolution I propose is simply an all-out effort to organ ize people to fight for our rights as citizens and change from being apathetic to being active. Spread the word. Victor Wold sophomore sociology Letters to the Editor and Guest Commentaries Policy Letters to the editor and guest commentaries are encouraged. Letters are limited to 250 words and guest commentaries to 550 words. Please include contact information. The Emerafd reserves the right to editfor space, grammar and style. A
