So this last week has been an interesting one to say the least. Fresno State's on campus, student run publication, The Collegian, printed an article that really got a rise out of a lot of people. Particularly, it came from the Greek community. The article, has raised a lot of issues, particularly how credible is this student run publication? I'll be honest, when I read it, I wasn't sure what the heck the writer was trying to say. Whether she was pointing fingers at us (the Greek community) for what happened, or the sorority in question. Either way, I felt that it was my duty as a leader in the Greek community to write a response to the article since a statement had not been issued. The following is my response to the article at hand.
Believe it or not, since the publication of this article, there has been an uproar from the leadership in the Greek Community. Many of us, including myself, ask ourselves why such blasphemous accusations against Greeks here on campus have been made. We understand that it is the duty of The Collegian to report stories and to educate the general populous. However, when erroneous statements such as the ones made in the article written by Katrina Garcia have been made, it tarnishes the reputation of not only the reporter, but also the publication.
It is a fallacy to say that “All Greeks Drink.” The conclusion that could be deduced from that statement is that “All people who drink are Greek.” If you think about it, it is wrong. Very wrong. It is stating that people who you find at restaurants and bars who are drinking are in fact Greek, when, more times than not, they are not.
Although the school does a great job with promoting that “7 out of 10” students drink safely, it makes me personally question the validity of the research made to prove those conclusions. The general stereotype among Greeks nationwide is that we all drink. I am here to inform you that there are individuals out there who refuse to drink until they are 21 who are in Greek letter organizations. There are those who just chose not to drink out of choice. It is unfair to target Greeks in this matter because we are such an easy target for ridicule.
Before you start pointing fingers, we as a community want to know why a student athlete who has a domestic dispute with his girlfriend, who alleges he hit her, make the front page? It made headlines on the Fresno Bee. I would think that as much as we all are educated individuals attending an institution for higher education that we should be educated on real world matters such as that.
Furthermore, the main reason why those sorts of stories don’t make front page news in a student run newspaper is because of the outcry that will come from the student population because a student athlete got involved in a domestic dispute. Heaven forbid that an average student gets drunk at a party, and because of the location of the party, it makes the front page news.
As a realist, I understand that drinking has been portrayed as part of the college experience. However, there are many isolated and undocumented incidents regarding alcohol too that have occurred here on campus. Questioning whether or not members are being punished or not within their own fraternities and sororities for actions that have been reported in The Collegian is ridiculous. Each fraternity and sorority holds each member accountable for their actions.
Within the four governing bodies of Greek life here on campus, each of them has a judicial board that handles disciplinary issues ranging from violation of rules to substance abuse for the Chapter in question under their jurisdiction. Because the general populous doesn’t hear about disciplinary action being taken, they think nothing ever resulted from it. To say that accountability is not there is absurd.
I, along with the Greek Community Leaders, and the Greek Community here at Fresno State hope that facts are proven correctly in the future and that fingers aren’t pointed immediately at the easiest targets. It’s unfortunate that we need to nitpick at the finer details such as “Who’s responsible for this?” and “Why isn’t there accountability?” Rather we should praise the sisters of Delta Zeta, who took the humane approach, and took care of the individual rather than leaving her high and dry with nobody to take care of her.
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To say the least, I'm pretty passionate about what I'm a part of. I've realized that I'm part of something that's so much a part of me, I don't realize it. So I could get the message out there, I went as far as posting a bulletin on MySpace to get the point across. I've received nothing but good praise from people regarding my rebuttal. Heck, even when I was out this weekend, people who read it came up to me and said "Good job on that response." It felt really good knowing that people who aren't even associated in the Greek system had our backs. If there's one thing I'm really proud of is the fact that it mobilized a lot of people in a positive way to show that even though this publications words could try to cause us harm, we wouldn't go down without a fight. And for that, I'm thankful because I'm not the only one who's standing up for what's right.
