Well, it happened again.
Following the complaint of a freshman who reported being hazed during new member activities for Alpha Phi recruits this semester, the Fraternity and Sorority Life Judiciary officially suspended the Sawyer Avenue sorority and placed it on social probation yesterday.
From the suspension of Delta Tau Delta (DTD) following a hazing incident in 2005 that caused a freshman to stop breathing to the suspension of Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) last year, the Tufts Greek system has been steadily crumbling. Major setbacks included the release of the damaging Jelke report in 2006 and the abrupt departure of the last director of fraternity and sorority affairs later that same year.
After each of these embarrassing incidents, representatives of the Greek community publicly decried the bad rap that they felt was being unfairly thrust upon the fraternities and sororities on this campus. They railed against the stereotypes that they claimed portrayed Greek life so inaccurately: that frat guys are smarmy, that sorority sisters are ditzy, that the sole purpose of the Greek system is to provide undergrads with free beer and freshmen girls with unwanted sexual advances.
They complained that the student body never pays attention to all the good things fraternities and sororities do for the Tufts campus and the surrounding community. Students ignore their philanthropy work, they argued, and don't attend Greek-sponsored events that don't involve red Solo cups.
The thing is, they're right. As a community, we don't acknowledge the positive aspects of Greek life - and we apologize. If only we weren't so busy being distracted by the newest instance of the Greek system's failure to live up to the sterling reputation it claims to deserve.
Make no mistake: The failure rests entirely on the shoulders of the offending fraternities and sororities themselves.
The ruling against Alpha Phi is a perfect example. New Director of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs Patrick Romero-Aldaz charged onto the scene at the beginning of this school year intent on cleaning up the Greek system and reversing the bad press that had been dogging fraternities and sororities for the past three years. He issued a well-intentioned promise to enforce alcohol policies that had previously been neglected, and - here's the kicker - he specifically promised in January that fraternity and sorority recruitment procedures would be strictly dry events.
So much for that.
The Fraternity and Sorority Life Judiciary charged Alpha Phi with providing alcohol to minors, harassment, using alcohol as part of new-member activities and hazing, finding them guilty of the latter two charges.
Despite being part of the community that portrays itself as a victim of public misperception, Alpha Phi deliberately chose to implement and execute recruiting procedures that would solidify the same negative stereotypes the Greek community at Tufts has been fighting against so ferociously.
If the members of the Greek system really want the rest of the world to stop judging them so negatively, they may want to stop affirming the validity of such judgments. If history is any indicator, though, there's no reason to believe that they will.
So go ahead, Greek leaders. Start your letter-writing and poster campaigns. Ready your cries of victimization and mudslinging. Lambaste Tufts students for stereotyping you without merit and neglecting to see what fantastic organizations you really are.
We'll believe it when we see it.
