May 5, 1997

Greek criticizes pettiness of system

Amy Clark

hen The Daily Campus commentary editor asked all of the Editorial Board seniors to write some words of wisdom for the campus we would soon be leaving, I felt twinges of hesitation and fear.

For those who know me well - as much as I pretend not care what others think - I probably worry a little too much about saying the wrong thing and pissing people off. For this reason, though I have always been an opinionated person, I refrained from writing the occasional opinionated commentary. While I was editor of the DC, I would often bemoan campus and world happenings. However, I would never put those thoughts on paper and leave myself open for others to criticize.

Maybe it's because this is my last chance or maybe it's just because the comments by a member of the Chi Omega sorority in Thursday's intramural article were just so bitchy, but something finally snapped in me. At any rate, I am now ready to criticize a system I have heretofore only griped about within a close circle of friends, a system I have been an active member in for three and a half years, and a system I - at least symbolically - represent. That, of course, is the sorority system at SMU.

First off, before the Chi-Os get really pissed, this is not an indictment of them. I am just using their comments as an example of the type of petty fighting and pointless complaining that characterizes sororities and the Panhellenic Council, their oversight organization.

This is NOT limited to the Chi-Os. I want to make it clear that no house is immune to pot-shots and back-stabbing against other sororities. (So no one feels slighted, I'll list all the other sororities: Delta Gamma, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Alpha Delta Pi, Gamma Phi Beta, Alpha Chi Omega, Pi Beta Phi, Delta Delta Delta and Kappa Alpha Theta.)

But for those who did not see Thursday's article, which regarded Gamma Phis winning the intramural points title over Chi Omega, here's the statement that have the Gamma Phis in uproar, and understandably so.

Chi-O Danielle Brosseau said, "Something has to be said when we beat the overall team champion in every major championship. Everyone's got to be good at something, and if intramurals is the only thing they're good at, then let them have it."

This comment was uncalled for. Chi-O should have taken out their disappointment on the intramural sports department. If they had such a problem with losing, they should have denounced the points system, not taken the opportunity to make a potshot at another house.

But here lies one of the major problems with the sorority system - the unhealthy competitiveness among the houses.

This competition reduces every all-greek or all-campus event in the fall to a ridiculous rush contact. It trivializes football games, Parents' Weekend, Homecoming and Celebration of Lights to nothing more than competitions among sororities. This, in turn, works against school spirit and university pride. Instead of these events bringing people together, sororities manage to make them forums to outdo one another and show each other up.

Competition also runs rampant at Panhellenic meetings and make them probably the most ridiculous, disorganized, unproductive student organization (yes, even if you include Student Senate). Have any of you ever sat through one of these meetings?

Currently, the once-a-week Panhellenic Council meetings run three-and-a-half hours long. What are they discussing? Take a guess. What topic could inspire even the most passive of sorority members to start pledging allegiance to her house except for rush?

Instead of bonding together and giving financial support and woman power to plan all-greek events or philanthropies, they have been debating whether to keep rush at five days or reduce it to four. When their brother organization Interfraternity Council sponsored the ICE Walk fund-raiser with money and participation, Panhellenic continued to fight about rush.

In an effort to be more in touch with the community, some sororities have suggested a philanthropy day for rush week. This would be where all the young women - who cut their winter breaks short, bought new wardrobes upwards of a $1,000 and have just spent an entire semester trying to impress all the older sorority girls - would sit around and make handbags for the poor. What a novel idea? Rush and volunteerism do not exactly gel.

Rush rules are the bane of the sorority existence. Apparently, sororities have yet to realize the absurdity of a system that bans women who wear letters across their chests from talking to their first cousins or best friends from home because they are rushing. But, of course, everyone knows rush rules are to protect the first-year women from being overwhelmed by the system (as if dirty rushing doesn't do this already). As if taking a rush baby to a restaurant in Denton - to avoid getting caught and turned in by your petty rush competitor - is less intrusive on her life than having lunch in the Varsity.

Though trivial, immature competition - from rush to intramurals - is the major problem with the sorority system. It is not limited to this.

The low point was in my sophomore year when Panhellenic circulated a survey trying to get sorority members' opinions on whether they wanted a black woman to be a part of their sorority. The backwardness of this action speaks for itself.

I am part of this system and love my sorority, if not all the rituals and requirements that go with it, but the system has its problems. I know this commentary will cause some of my sorority sisters to cringe and many friends in other houses (especially Chi-O) to most likely be angry with me. All I can say is I am sorry if you take personal offense.

Now that I'm on a roll, it upsets me that there is no time to talk about all the problems within the fraternity system. Though they are spared from much of the pettiness and bitchiness of sororities, fraternities, at this rate, may just manage to self-destruct one by one.

I felt compelled to write this commentary because my years at SMU are full of mostly positive experiences within the greek system, and because I think the sorority system could improve. SMU is not just a place for the white debutante to get her Mrs. degree anymore. If the SMU greek system is to survive, the sorority system - full of its anachronisms and throwbacks to the Victorian Age - is going to have to evolve with the times and adjust to a much more diverse student body, which, hopefully, will want no part of a system that promotes futile fighting and mean-spirited competition.

Amy Clark is a senior political science major and a former editor of The Daily Campus.

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