Consider this a follow-up piece: my opinion concerning a difficult and important issue. Emily Wilkins already made the case a few weeks ago in the Politics Club Corner. Wilkins sees this issue from the inside. She’s a member of an off-campus sorority and her message is clear: I am guaranteed by the United States Constitution the right to associate as I please, and I am associating with people I know to be positive and doing everything an on campus sorority is doing, yet I am mistreated.
I’ve heard that the stance of many Greeks under the banner of campus affiliation is to not validate their functions, to not associate in mass. Some may be told not to attend parties held by off-campus Greeks. However, it is my opinion that they are my friends, my acquaintances, my colleagues and they are the same to every student at Longwood.
This isn’t to say that danger does not lurk out there in the dark subleases, but the primary thing separating a sister of an off-campus organization from a sister of an on-campus organization is campus affiliation. This means one exists under the umbrage of regulations relating to grades, conduct and community service and the other does not.
To the average student, it’s all Greek to them. Often, the conduct of on- campus Greeks is not thought of any better than the conduct of off-campus. To the outsider, in general, the idea of regulated and unregulated is the difference between safe and unsafe. The on-campus Greeks are being watched and the off-campus are not. However, the presence of law does not mean good behavior as evidenced by hazing and rumors of hazing in well-established chapters.
I have always felt like the issue among on-campus Greeks, as opposed to other parties on campus, has been one of class and not security. I think the on-campus chapters believe that they belong on campus and off-campus organizations are illegitimate. This is not the blanket sentiment. Association varies based on the person you’re talking to. However, this is the feeling that I’ve gotten; on- campus Greeks feel like they are better than off-campus Greeks. But then there are the stories accompanying off- campus Greeks that scare anyone.
The specific issues of security are wide ranging. Among them are the concerns that bring in the good apples, which simply formed as off-campus or were kicked off and have since rectified, will bring in the bad apples. And there are clearly more bad apples than there can ever be good apples. There is also the idea that long standing negative practices, unknown to the university, in a chapter converted to on-campus will suddenly create huge liability issues with the university. Both of these are somewhat legitimate. However, repeat laws are not a perfect guarantee and many on- campus Greeks may harbor issues as deep. These issues may even predate chapters and could have been practiced widely by their founding members. As far as the idea of bad apples versus good apples, we can only say that it reaches down to a deeper problem.
We think of on-campus as the only way Greeks can be and that off-campus Greeks are not real Greeks. However, it is beginning to be understood, especially with recent SGA attention, that off- campus is not a fake approach to Greek life, but a different one. The idea of being Greek, the idea I held when I joined my organization over a year ago, was one of self-validated people co-operating for the purpose of bringing each other up and helping the community.
The idea of a fraternity, the idea of a sorority, is to be training for every other close knit involvement you will have later in adult life. It is the corporation, the fire station, the police station, the church and the ER before any of those things become real. For some it is the contemporary to the platoon. Being that this is an ideal and not a set of legal qualification, it is realized by some on- campus and some off-campus Greeks. If we judge our organizations not for who they answer to but what they stand for, how they treat their members and how they benefit their community, Longwood will have a more equitable campus, if not now, then when they realize such.