Issue date: 2/20/07 Section: Opinion

And the fraternities? Many of them at DePauw are on probation. At best, we accept the conventional wisdom that living in a fraternity house is counterproductive to academic performance. At worst, they have been associated with binge drinking, drugs, hazing, gambling, sexual harassment, fighting, property damage, hospitalization, incarceration and squalor. If Gerald Ford (a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity) were alive today, he'd roll over in his grave.

Some say that these problems are real. Others say they are problems of perception. Either way, they present an opportunity for faculty to play a more significant role in the social and academic life of DePauw. A few months ago, a former fraternity president wandered into my office, frustrated by the tenor of the discussion surrounding the Greek Fact-Finding Commission and by the recent conduct of his own house. "What can we do to improve the way the University sees the houses?" he asked me. I asked him, "What can we do to improve the way the houses see the University?" This is the beginning of the conversation that faculty must lead. I don't aspire to have "an impact so profound it's rightly to be considered providential," but I'd like to think that our job as faculty at a predominantly greek university is more than accidental.



-hbrown@depauw.edu

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