This guy....

Whelp, It's an hour before class so its that time again.  For my article I merely chose the first article that appeared on google news. Honesty.  And since ESPN and Sports Illustrated seem to find the Lantern and a disgruntled Ray Small to be viable new sources, I guess the Oregon Daily Emerald counts as well ;) 

Here's a link to the article.

This article was written by Tyree Harris. Here's a picture.



Great name, greater hair.  And yes I do mean facial hair.  Shout out to Zack "Rube Goldberg" McCarry. 

Here's a link for all you folks who don't know Rube. 

Tyree is a Journalism Major and apparently won a pretty sweet award.  He was the winner of the 2009 Northwest Scholastic Press Publications for bylined columns.

Whatever that means.

In Tyree's article he discusses how Fraternities and Sororities should get a break.  And then proceeds to paint the picture of egotistical, non-diverse, raging, daddy's little girls and boys.  Tyree is, or was, its not really clear, a member of Triangle T Triangle.  Shoutout to Delt.  Sort of. 

Harris argues that Fraternities and Sororities are identical to every other student organization and that he joined a fraternity to find a place in college.  However, Tyree found fraternity life too expensive, but he did appreciate all the networking.  Mooch.  Just kidding.  Kind of.  Tyree then argued that his fraternity experience was not diverse enough, and instead of working to change this, Tyree left Delta Tau Delta.

He ends the article with the question,  "Of course, Fraternity and Sorority Life isn’t perfect: They get drunk, have big house parties and often make fools of themselves — but then again, what group of college students doesn’t?"

I disagree with Tyree on pretty much everything.  Except facial hair.  Obviously.  For starters Tyree continually compares Sorority and Fraternity Life to other student organizations, holds them to the same standard, rather than embracing the higher standard he, and we, should be holding ourselves and our community members to. 

He says "They are no different than any other group of college males."  And to be honest that quote is embarassing.   Embarrassing for Oregon University, embarassing as a member of Delta Tau Delta, and embarassing as a Fraternity man.  Tyree's experiences within Fraternity and Sorority Life have left him with a view of our community that is unfortunate.  He should be an advocate ofor fraternities, he should be one of our strongest supporters, and instead he has taken the same view we would expect someone unaffliated to take.

I pose the question, if we cannot even convince the members of our own community that Fraternities and Sororites are useful for more than just: friends, alcohol, women and networking, how are we supposed to convince individuals outside of our community?