|
News |
D
A I L Y O R A N G E
February 28, 2005
System reforms charity events
By Meredith Bowen
Giving is going dry for the greek system
at Syracuse University, said Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic
Council administrators.
It used to be fraternity men and sorority women could raise money for a
good cause while enjoying a cold beer, but the Office of Greek Life and
Experiential Learning, Panhellenic Council and the IFC are working to
clean up the philanthropy system this year.
"We've merged the social parties with the philanthropies,"
said Joshua McIntosh, senior associate director of OGLEL. "We need
to come out of the bars. We need to separate parties from
philanthropy."
Philanthropies have always played a considerable role in Greek life,
McIntosh said, but should be even bigger.
"We want to bring fraternity life back to the heart, soul and
productivity of this campus," he said.
Roy Baker, the new associate dean of students, was shocked to learn that
philanthropies were usually held in bars or with alcohol, McIntosh said.
In the past, the cover charge to get into the bar would be donated to
the philanthropy.
"(Philanthropies) are a great tradition, we just need to clean them
up," McIntosh said.
Under previous OGLEL administrations, the Greek system was entirely
corrupt, said Steven Chamberlain, faculty advisor for Alpha Tau Omega.
This allowed the fraternities to say what they knew demonstrators wanted
to hear and get away with breaking national fraternity rules, he said.
"It was a tradition for a long time to hear that philanthropies are
for drinking and you maybe raise some money," Chamberlain said.
Chamberlain also said Baker and the current IFC leadership are taking
steps in the right direction to fixing these problems.
Fraternities and sororities often held the events at the bars because it
was the only way the chapters could afford to host events, said Charles
Isaac, IFC philanthropy chair. Renting Goldstein Auditorium is extremely
costly, Isaac said, and it was more beneficial to use the less expensive
bars as venues.
Renting Goldstein for an event such as a
speech could cost up to $3,500. In comparison, Although Faegan's does
not host fraternities and sorority events anymore; in the past it would
charge around $2 per pint of beer and sell it by the keg, said manager
Mark Clouse.
The IFC has been given money from the university to help solve this
problem, McIntosh said. Most fraternities have been supportive and
willing to work with the IFC, but others are reluctant to change their
social-philanthropy mixes, he said.
"Some don't want to leave the bars," he said. "I say,
'You need to contact your national director, because I know what his
response will be.'"
Moving out of the bars is only one of the changes that the Panhellenic
Council is making for philanthropic events, said new Panhellenic Council
President and former Daily Orange columnist Dana Lucas. The council will
also be working with the IFC to help change the sexually connotative
competitions that are often the basis of fraternity's philanthropies,
she said.
"We've had a lot of problems with that," Lucas said. "The
situations women are put in make them uncomfortable."
Sororities are extremely competitive, Lucas said, and the competition
often drives women to do things they wouldn't ordinarily do.
"It doesn't help when you have people drinking at the same
time," she said.
Lucas said she hopes philanthropies will
also begin to serve as a way to unite the Greek community. Usually,
fraternities only invite sororities to their philanthropy events and
vice versa, she said, but hopes this year will see the beginning of more
coed events, such as the popular Delta Kappa Epsilon volleyball
tournament.
Phi Sigma Sigma, Lucas' sorority, will be the first sorority to try
this, she said. They will host their first Texas-Hold 'Em and blackjack
tournament to benefit the National Kidney Foundation March 8 at Varsity
Pizza, she said.
Having sororities work together on philanthropies would also help to cut
down on the competition between houses, Lucas said.
"We want to cultivate positive
relationships between sorties and fraternities, which at times have been
stressed," McIntosh said.
This year, the Panhellenic Council adopted the SU Rape: Advocacy,
Prevention and Education Center as its council-wide philanthropy, and
are working on developing programming for it, said Lucas. In addition,
each house has its own charity, some dictated by their national chapter,
others chosen locally.
The IFC plans on continuing to allow each chapter to have its own
philanthropy and has no plans to adopt a particular charity like the
Panhellenic Council did.
"There's a lot of charities we can benefit in local area,"
Isaac said. "There's a lot of good we can do without limiting
ourselves to one specific organization."
Next year, the fraternities will be working together on three different
events, McIntosh said. These include a letter-writing campaign to raise
money for St. Jude's Children's Hospital in the fall, a million-penny
competition between SU organizations in the winter and the Relay for
Life in the spring.
Some fraternities are already working on putting the IFC's changes into
effect. This week, Delta Tau Delta will host its annual Cupid Week, said
Delta president Tim Morgan.
The events, which used to be held in bars, will move to Schine
Underground, and include a skit competition between sororities. The
sophomore brother named Cupid will also collect kisses in the quad
Thursday to raise money for the American Heart Association.
The events are being cleaned up, both in respect to alcohol and the
treatment of the sorority women, Morgan said.
"We're being more respectful and clear about motivations," he
said.
|