Homecoming 2004

Whew! Homecoming has come and gone this year. While there were no major problems this year and things seemed to be relatively calm, a number of things really got me going, the first of which were the T-shirts I saw. . . . add these to the Greek "wall of shame"

"The more you score, the louder we scream"
"When was the last time you got sacked?"
"Our drinking club has a sorority problem"
"Win or lose, we still booze"
"Turning beer into breakfast since 1888"

or this one. . .

"Homecoming comes once a year,
we get up early and drink lots of beer.
When you are with XYZ, the fun never rests.
A great group of girls with really nice. . . personalities."

And believe it or not, most of these were the sorority t-shirts! Yes, it was the women who were sporting the most questionable shirts. OK. . . I admit, I chuckled and shook my head in disbelief. But I also wondered how on earth these women could walk around with these t-shirts promoting themselves and their sorority. Some call me old-fashioned. I have had a number of students tell me that things are just different in today's generation. . . they are much more open and ok with things of a sexual nature. But to do so in the name of sorority and fraternity is where I have to draw the line.

We spend countless hours trying to develop a good name for the Greek community. I hear students whine all of the time. . . . "We are not all bad. We aren't about the stereotypes 'Animal House' would have you believe! We do good things too!" For instance, they usually tout that Greeks care about the environment and the town-gown relations, every year we pick up trash in the streets during College town cleanup. Greeks care about service and philanthropy. This past year fraternities and sororities gave over $200,000 in donations and over 25,000 hours are given in service. But ladies, by strutting around in these t-shirts, you also showed that we are the ones that reinforce the "Animal House" stereotypes the best. The proof is how we represent ourselves on Homecoming weekend: a time in which alumni, faculty, staff and community are swarming campus.

We represent ourselves not by taking this time to do our good things, to show the world we can act responsibly, make good choices, and communicate to everyone that we are about leadership, scholarship, service, and fellowship (the values we pull out when we have to defend ourselves). Instead, the fraternities and sororities are roped into what I would describe as a quarantined tailgate area, far away from all the other tailgaters. "The Greek ghetto" I heard someone describe it. We have signs that warn people upon entering "No children allowed" suggesting that Greeks corrupt youth and are something evil to keep your kids away from. We drink, and drink, and drink, and drink. And then we choose to wear t-shirts that reinforce all that is "bad" about us? Doing just about everything we try to fight against when we feel targeted unfairly. But you know, maybe we are not targeted so unfairly after all?

Yes, poking fun at ourselves is fine. Yes, we do have a right to freedom of speech. Yes, these t-shirts cause people to laugh. But laugh at whose expense? I’d like to argue that it is at ours.

We are values-based organizations. It’s time to start acting like it. Perhaps then we would get the respect we deserve.