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?

Standing By Effect

When thinking of the Bystander Effect I immediately think back to various events that occur during Chapter Meetings.  Often times in Chapter people sit idle, listening, being persuaded, and voting along the lines of one person who may have spoke up first, or may be intimidating.  Just a few weeks ago, an incident occured and our chapter made a decision that will forever impact the life of a potential member. Few people knew the situation, few people knew the man, and few people spoke up after the first person destroyed his credibility.  Countless times in my chapter, and in our community, we sit idle and watch as members live the stereotypes we despise, destroy the reputation we have worked so hard to create, and generally don't uphold our values.  And we do nothing to hold them accountable.  In fact, there are examples of when we do the exact opposite.  We support them.  We alienate our members who try to hold them to a higher standard.  We work to impress the very people who are doing what we despise.  We offer the member that holds people accountable to the wolves, and say "look! he's not ours."  We want so desperately to be accepted by everyone, even the people who derail everything we work for, and with that we destroy our own credibility.

Oathmeal

Oath.

I took one. It's probably very similar to yours.  I break mine.  I strive to work towards not breaking it.  I didn't really understand what it meant when I first took it.  I still don't entirely understand what it means.  That's a life long learning thing.  It defines me.  It is something that defines some of my values.  Not all of them.  It is something that bonds my fraternity brothers together.  It is something I am supposed to hold them accountable to.  It is something I don't always hold them accountable to.  It is something they are supposed to hold me accountable to.  It is something they don't always hold me accountable to.  It is a lifelong promise.  It is a promise that is oft not taken seriously enough.  It is something that differentiates me from many of my peers.  It is something that impacts my life daily.  It is something that has changed the way I think, act and be.

Citizenship

Our book defines citizenship as active community participation as a result of a sense of a responsibility to the communities in which people live.

I believe I show citizenship in the fraternity/sorority community through my role on IFC, in my chapter and
by displaying social excellence  :)  within the community and outside it.  I am active member of my community because I believe in the life changing capability of our fraternities and sororities.  Most people would consider community service and philanthropy part of citizenship, however, many times I don't do those things out of a sense of responsibility, but rather as a requirement or while merely going through the motions.

Our chapter would argue that by attending philanthropies and holding social events they are demonstrating citizenship within our community.  However, many social events revolve around alcohol and don't involve real conversations, or "deep" conversations.  Our chapter is devoted to its own ideals, but, as a whole, isn't concerned about the entire chapter.

The fraternity and sorority community does a pretty good job of displaying citizenship.  It is full of community leaders and members involved in many different organizations and groups.  We are socially excellent throughout the community, but can always do a better job improving our image and fighting, not perpetuating, the stereotypes surrounding the community.

Congruence Conversation

The field trip we took in class last week was a very interesting one.  I had a couple of thoughts on it.

1.) I found it interesting that when asked what each individuals organization's values were, there were many different responses, and some required more thought than others.  For delt it was an easy question as they responded truth, courage, faith, power.  When asking some other members of fraternities and sororities it was more difficult for them to verbalize their values.  Sharrell actually shared her mission statement which I thought was interesting and rather cool.

2.) The question about ritual was a rather difficult one for most people as Sharrell and Tyler Blair were the only ones with immediate responses.  Some people described what the actual ceremony of ritual symbolized, and some spoke of a more abstract object.  Or the values we live each day.

Marshmallow's

Marshmallow

Valuable Organization

When trying to decide an organization that I believed essentially, "wore their values on their sleeve".  I thought of orgs like PETA, or since I am conceited, I thought of an organization I am involved in, Teach for China, sponsored by Teach for All.  However, both of these screamed cookie cutter answer to me. So I thought a little deeper, I decided the question did not say the organization had to have good values, or values I even agree with.  So although I am not really familiar with this organization, I chose the Westboro Baptist Church.   I picked the Westboro Baptist Church because I find their values both humorous and appalling.  For those of you who do not know, Westboro Baptist Church is an organization that is staunchly against homosexuality, in fact their website is godhatesfags.com.  Don't go there.  They have also been known to picket soldiers funerals and desecrate the American flag.  This "church" merely has 70 members and yet they are consistently in the media, around the country, and even on our campus.  I thought the Westboro Baptist Church was a prime example of a couple of things.

First off, no matter how small your organization is or even as one person, you can still make a huge impact, positive or negative.  One person getting shitfaced in their letters, getting in a fight, and then defecating in the street, or sexually assaulting a woman, for example, allows the community to perceive that the entire fraternity and sorority community's values align with that individual.  Just as one member of a fraternity helping a woman jump her car makes that woman perceive the community in a different light.

This brings me to point two, and this link.  That no matter how many great things we do, negative things will always get the most publicity.  The reason I know Westboro Baptist Church's values is because they are ridiculous and appalling and the media feeds on that.  Furthermore, we cannot run from our past or dismiss it.  The article above appeared in the paper this past Saturday. April 23rd, 2011.  It uses an event that took place almost 30 years ago. Autumn 1984.  To argue that woman would be drastically safer without fraternities on college campuses.  We must combat that argument.  Not with words.  But with actions. And sometimes, inaction.