Phi Gam gone??

TheTruth · Joined: 26 Feb 2007 Posts: 485

Pard94: Without getting into a long dissertation about diversity at Lafayette, it's an issue the College has struggled with ever since the late 60's. When students transfer out of Lafayette the two main reasons sited are the social life revolving too much around drinking and the homogeneous nature of the College.

I think the College has handled the Greek as well as they have handled diversity: God awful! They made the fraternities the scapegoat for the social ills of the College. They will claim they hired a Greek advisor to "work" with the Greek system. If you ask all the former employees that held that position, they will tell you how little support they received and they were highly discouraed from making any changes. Plain and simple, the faculty, as a whole, do not like the fraternity system. The Administration and Trustees are tired of dealing with them. So they (President and BOT) need make the decision to get rid of them and suffer the consequences of permanently alienating certain alumni. This long, drawn out process of letting them die off themselves creates more of a distraction. It's been going on since the mid-80's. At first it was disguised as a natural reduction due to co-education. I don't think they can claim that anymore.

Like Pard4life, I could care less about the fraternities and sororities but they are a very important part of our culture at Lafayette, like our athletic program, like our Engineering program. At one point, 80% of the males on campus (includes the freshamen) were members of fraternities. Some alumni have moved past their alliance with their fratenity and are in line with the College (like it should be) but I know my era want nothing to do with the College because their fraternity is no longer on campus. There are ways to have a thriving Greek system that is in step with the College's mission. Other colleges like ours are doing it. Unfortunately, I thnk Lafayette is beyond this point.

Yes there are those who believe we should become more academically rigorous and would love for us to be another Amherst. Please understand, I love reading that our Forensic Team finished fiifth nationally; the engineering program is one of the leaders in graduating women engineers; the renewed efforts to promote community service. But there is no need to destroy traditions while doing this. After the drunken 70's and 80's, we needed to move to a more "academic' mission but the pendulum has swung way too far. We have the benefit of a huge endowment (despite the 30% loss) and alumni with deep pockets who LOVE the College. We can accomplish many of these and still maintain a competitive Div. I athletic program that excels in the Patriot League and a fraternity system that fits the mission of the College.

Pard94 · Joined: 24 Feb 2007 Posts: 762 Location: Weare, NH

TheTruth · Joined: 26 Feb 2007 Posts: 485

Part of the problem is the College doesn't really know what it wants to accomplish with diversity. They know that they need to do a better of recruiting minorities and more importantly, a more economically diverse student body. Students and parents are expecting to see more diversity on college campuses. In this global society and the fact we tout ourselves as developing future leaders, having a more diverse campus, ethnically and econmically, gives our students a much broader perspective of the world. And better prepares them for the "real world".

For years, the college operated basically a quota system when recruiting minorities ( I have heard this from many faculty and adminstrators). Often admitting students who were not prepared for Lafayette either academically or socially. When you do this, you have students failing out, transferring, not happy on campus, etc. I think some of the work that Barry mcCarty had done and the Admissions office under Carol Rowlands have done a much better job. The partnership with the Posse program is great (I can tell you stories about the objections from unlikely sources that will leave you shaking your head) but more needs to be done in the recruiting area. It can be done without compromising the Admission process.

The focus since the early to mid 90's has been to make the College more academically rigorus and add more student activities to de-emphasize drinking which put the fraternities right in the cross hairs of the faculty and administration. Like I mentioned before, I love what they have done with adding clubs, emphasizing community service, intramurals, sophmore rush, etc. Students have much more to do on campus other than drinking. This makes Lafayette more attractive not just to minoritiy students but other majority students who have an interest in these co-curricular activites. I think the College has unfairly laid the blame of the social ills on the fraternities without making a fair effort to pull them into the mix. Why should we? Because they are such a huge part of our College's history and another alternative for the students. Unfortunately, I think we are beyond being able to repair the fraternity system. Weiss and the BOT should just make the decision and dissolve the Greek system and face the consequences.

I agree we have to be realistic. You fall into a trap when you try to use numbers as the measuring tool for diversity. The make-up of student body is not as important as creating an atmosphere of community. It's hard to do on a campus that historically was divided based on what fraternity, sorority, sports teams, major, etc. you belonged to. We've made huge strides but we have also alienated too many alumni along the way. It's sad when alumni don't feel connected to the college anymore and their voices aren't heard. this is not what diversity is suppose to be about.

TheRock90 · Joined: 06 Aug 2007 Posts: 216 Location: Easton

I'm curious. Does the college track donations by affinity group? Is the average contribution higher or lower for athletes, sorority/fraternity members, etc? What about percentage of contributors, etc.? How about by major?

Lafalum · Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 843

For all you younger alums, this effort to get rid of the Greek system has been going on for 40 years. The administrations and the Bot have for years used as a whipping boy the greek system to blame for any percieved ill.
This has been a consistent call for all these years. I ask you what has remained constant? It has basically been the same coterie on the BOT.
There's your problem!!

65Pard

TheTruth · Joined: 26 Feb 2007 Posts: 485