Maggie's Farm

As a Syracuse graduate, and a frequent letter writer to organizations I experience good and/or bad things with, I have already sent many letters to the Chancellor Syracuse, who I've met several times and I'm sure he rolls his eyes when he hears my name now.

He's basically a mental gimp. He gives in to the weakest of arguments that have any "social awareness" at all, and ignores facts and reality around him. He's utterly convinced of his own specialness in bring Syracuse students to some kind of "promised land" of academia, even as he erodes the very best that Syracuse has (or had) to offer.

My own years at Syracuse were informed by membership in a fraternity. For the 38 years since, I have maintained those contacts - and they are strong. I have even reacquainted with several members who you might say I had "differences" with back in the day. We've grown up a bit...

As for Syracuse, I still enjoy going back for basketball and football games. But as I told the chancellor recently - they have stopped receiving donations from me, and my visits will become more infrequent until this nonsense stops.

His attacks on the sorority and fraternity system lack merit. His attacks on (or simply ignorance of) anyone who does not share his views are misguided. He feels there is only one way to approach academia - and the results speak for themselves. I haven't hired an SU grad in over 10 years. Frankly, the graduates are nitwits.

I was told by my father that you go to college to get an education and grad school to get a job. I still believe that is true. I was also told you get from college what you put into it - and that isn't as true anymore. Because there are too many things you can't put into it without being hauled up on some kind of charges.

I can recount the 3 occasions my friends or I appeared before the student courts for engaging in pranks on people and the university. Each one was unique. Each was funny, in its own way. None were damaging, nobody ever got hurt. At least one made the front page of the student newspaper "The Daily Orange" (mainly because we knew the editor and gave him a heads-up prior to our activities, so there was a photographer at the ready).

Today, I'd be expelled for the least damaging of these - using an emergency escape to leave class. The window was open, it was a beautiful fall day, I didn't want to walk down 3 flights of marble stairs, I wanted to GET OUT and have fun after an hour and a half of Literature. As luck would have it a monitor was waiting for me as I reached the ground, collared me, and dragged me to the student court. Luckily, several other (far more serious) events occurred that day. I was small potatoes, but still got a slap on the wrist.

It was not the only time I did this - it was the only time I was caught. There was a famous fire escape there that, after a night of drinking, most people would take a crack at, as it was a slide. I did that several times.

Today, we're far to "socially aware" to do other things, like have a kissing booth at a Dance Marathon (at one time the largest in the nation), or have a Valentine's Day Run (in which a fraternity member would run around the Quad and kiss girls while wearing an outrageous Valentine's Day outfit). And we're too litigious to let kids go down fire escapes.

I know, because my son attended and the stories I heard of people bounced for no particularly good reason were many.

Syracuse is not interesting to me as a university anymore. I am not even sure you can learn anything there - or at most universities.

At the end of each semester in Sophomore and Junior year (well only first half of Junior year as I was abroad the second half), my roommate and I would streak around Walnut Park at about 10pm.

For no other reason than it was something to do and get a laugh.

I'm sure we'd be tossed for it today.

I've heard stories like this...and I laugh.

I really laugh. The nasty people were the non-Greeks. I had to put up with so much "discrimination" from non-Greeks because "you're just a fraternity boy."
Yes, fraternities and sororities choose members. But if you don't get in, you can keep trying each semester and if the one you want doesn't want you - there's one for you somewhere.

I didn't even want to join one. I was going for free beer during Rush. But I met a group of guys who I liked. For some reason that is beyond my comprehension, they liked me. So they asked me to join. I turned them down.

The next day, I went back and took them up on it. Why not? Best decision I ever made.

I have plenty of GDI friends (God Damn Independents) because we let them come to our parties as long as they were friends of members. We didn't care if people were independent - in fact, independents tended to be far more discriminatory than we were. I can't tell you how many refused to do study halls at the fraternity because "we don't need crazy frat distraction". Except, we had really quiet and good study rooms. And there wasn't always a party going on (not really - there was always one in SOMEBODY'S room...but not at the house in general).

Point is, I used to tell my brother (a GDI) that he was in a fraternity. He spent his four years living with the same 6 people, they just kept changing dorm rooms. They would go out together, they traveled together, I even spent a summer with all of them - and they spent the summer making fun of my fraternity...even though they were a fraternity of their own.

I find criticism of the Greek System to be based on misinformation and misguided beliefs about what it's all about.

Some fraternities and sororities fit the stereotype and deserve criticism. Mine? We were the #1 academic fraternity every year I was there. We were the #1 sports fraternity every year I was there. We were the #1 philanthropic fraternity every year I was there. We weren't just about ourselves. We gave back.

We started the Dance Marathon for Muscular Dystrophy and turned it over to the University - which wound up ruining it. For the four years I was there, it was the largest philanthropic Dance Marathon on campus in the US.


People criticize fraternities because they are easy to criticize. I pointed out to my chancellor, who is trying to kill fraternities to end underage drinking and hazing, that even if he succeeds underage drinking will continue and hazing will get worse because the fraternities will go underground and avoid all university oversight. In fact, many hazing incidents have occurred already among "ghost" fraternities - those that have gone underground. The deaths and injuries are rarely at university-sanctioned fraternities. They are at the underground ones.

Let's not forget marching band - which has its own share of hazing and drinking. I have heard stories from young people who never joined a Greek system, but joined Marching Band. Those people are CRAZY. Way more nuts than we ever were.


Groups are self-selective. People who have a problem with it all need to get over themselves.