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■ IN FOCUS
The Red and Black examines the issue of race relations on
campus, particularly within the Greek system. Students and
administrators differ on what needs to be done in light of the
recent Pi Kappa Phi racial incident.
The Red and Black » Thursday. October 29, 1992 « 3
FOCUS
Students and administrators ponder lack of Greek integration
Greek students say separate is fine
By RUSS BYNUM
Staff Writer
While University administrators have complained
about the lack of racial integration among Greek orga
nizations on campus, Greek students say they see no
real need for change within their fraternities and soror
ities.
With the newly formed Greek Relations Advisory
Board (GRAB) planning social and philanthropic activi
ties to be co-sponsored by traditionally black and white
Greeks, many student members say they prefer an in
teractive approach to a more integrational one.
While they are not segregated by law, members of
campus fraternities and sororities say they are caught
in the cycle of tradition which continues to divide cam
pus Greeks along racial lines.
*Tradition is the unwritten law," said Theta Chi
member Jason Huggins, a sophomore from Cedartown.
"It's like the black Greeks have a tradition and we have
a tradition, and neither sees the -point in changing.
Quite frankly, I’d be shocked if we had a rush group of
28 guys and there was a black guy in the group.
“The day the Citadel accepts women is the day that
black and white fraternities will integrate,” Huggins
said.
“The system as it is right now is fine. Everything is
done by choice. There’s no specific law that separates the
two," he said.
Still, campus Greeks said they would like to see more
interactive programs bring the black and white Greeks
together.
“Even if the black sororities want to be all black
that’s fine, but I think we should do more with them,"
said Delta Gamma member Keri Gillham, a junior from
Atlanta. “Maybe if blacks and whites did more things to
gether socially, then we wouldn’t feel like there was so
much segregation.
“When I went through rush they told me that most
black girls either don’t want to go through Panhellenic
rush, or those who do, don’t get in," Gillham said. “I
would like to integrate, but if no one else wants to we
won’t."
Ondra Thomas-Krouse, President of Alpha Kappa
Alpha, said while she hopes social interaction between
black and white Greeks is possible, incidents such as the
Pi Kappa Phi incident keep setting race relations back.
“In this day and age we’re still faced with so many
problems that would impede such social interactions,”
Thomas-Krouse said. “There is a need for greater social
interaction, but as long as subtle racism continues on ei
ther side it will be difficult."
Still , fraternities and sororities have made progress
by doing away with race restrictive clauses in their or
ganizational by-laws.
William E. Forester, executive vice president of
Kappa Alpha Order, said Greek organizations can no
longer have race restrictive clauses “because there’s a
provision of the IRS that prohibits fraternities exempt
from federal taxes from having any restrictions on mem
bership based on race, religion, and national origin."
Forester said Kappa Alpha’s own race-restriction
clause was amended in 1963 to give the fraternity’s ex
ecutive council the power to waive those restrictions
when required by a university. The entire restrictive
clause was dropped in 1970, he said.
“All of the restrictions, the wordings, were removed
from our constitution,” Forester said.
“Most fraternities had these provisions, at least most
of the fraternities at the University of Georgia did,” he
said.
Alpha Phi Alpha member Arlando Dawson said he
feels the University’s administration should change the
core curriculum to require multicultural courses, rather
than look to the Greek system for changes.
“Really, it just comes off as very hypocritical,”
Dawson said. “By the time you get to the Greek system,
the racist mentality is already instilled in individuals.”
Knapp: Separate systems ‘troublesome’
By LORI WIECHMAN
Staff Writer
Racism is a problem throughout
the entire University, not just the
greek system, according to
University administrators, who
said the problem can be changed
only if students discuss the issue.
“Any incident like this should
cause us to be introspective about
the system,” said University
President Charles Knapp, refer
ring to the recent incident where
Pi Kappa Phi fraternity published
a pledge pamphlet which con
tained the phrase “no niggers."
“I said publicly that I’m not sat
isfied with a system where you
have black fraternities and sorori
ties and where you have white fra
ternities and white sororities,”
Knapp said. “I’ve got to be honest,
a system structured like that in
1992 is troublesome."
Earlier this week, Leslie Bates,
director of minority services, sent
a list of proposals for “easing racial
tensions on campus." The propos
al discusses ideas for immediate
and long-term implementation.
Goals that Bates would like to
see introduced immediately would
need estimated finances of
$120,000. These plans include cre
ating an Office of Human
Relations, hiring more black facul
ty members, creating a student
group on minority issues and pro
viding finances for potential activ
ities for promoting racial under
standing.
Bates also proposed several
long-term ideas, which over a span
of four years, would cost about $2
million.
These plans include efforts to
recruit minorities, a quarterly
freshman assembly, and the im
provement of graduate school op
portunities for minority students
Dy awarding more assistantships.
“It’s a comprehensive try at pro
moting a positive campus environ
ment,” said Bates, who would not
comment on the specifics of the
plan until he talked with Knapp.
Knapp said, “We want to find out
how we can, in general, promote
an atmosphere of racial tolerance
and acceptance on the campus. I
don’t think there’s a lot of new
things under the sun, but what I
want is Leslie’s sense about the
specific steps we might be able to
take.”
Unlike Knapp, Bates said he
doesn’t have a problem with the
black and white fraternities and
sororities.
“I don’t have a problem with
people choosing who they want to
affiliate with,” Bates said. “But I
do have a problem with those
choices being mandated by law."
Since the Pi Kappa Fhi incident
other administrators have ex
pressed their feelings, including
Don Eastman, Vice President for
Development and University
Relations, who wrote an editorial
column in The Red and Black.
In his column, Eastman urged
people to think about the idea of
integration and decide if they real
ly want it.
He said not one of the 23
“white” fraternities, 17 “white"
sororities, four “black" fraternities,
or four “black" sororities have a
single member from the other race.
In an interview, Eastman
asked what students have been do
ing to talk about racism and said
that they first must decide if they
want to live integrated lives.
“What we have is one greek
fraternity that’s had someone
who’s done a dumb thing, but what
have the other greek fraternities
and sororities done in response?”
Eastman said.
He said every student knows
whether he or she lives an inte
grated life or if they don’t they
should decide now while they’re at
the University.
“If they don’t here, what do they
expect when they go back to
Atlanta, Moultrie, or New York?"
he asked.
Greek leaders outline steps for improving race relations here
By RUSS BYNUM
Staff Writer
In a recent interview with the
Red and Black, Interfraternity
Council President Michael Burnett,
Panhellenic Council President Amy
Holmes and Black Greek Council
President Frank McCrary discussed
why the three campus Greek organi
zations should remain separate,
what their councils are doing to pro
mote more interracial interaction be
tween Greek organizations and why
they think the Greeks are getting a
bad wrap on race issues.
Q: What is the optimum level
of interracial cooperation and
integration you feel we can rea
sonably expect to take place in
the Greek system?
Michael Burnett: I think
Wednesday (Oct. 21) night’s racial
sensitivity seminar was one of the
first steps in the right direction.
Personally, I’m against any sort of
mandatory integration of fraterni
ties and sororities. I think the fra
ternities and sororities are based on
individuals coming together with
common qualities and so forth. But
that by itself would be bad. This is
where the Greek Relations Advisory
Board (GRAB) comes in and brings
the bodies together to interact. We
need to meet and interact, whether
it be socially, philanthropically or
just discussions like Wednesday
night.
Amy Holmes: There’s a lot of
discussion that the Greek system
needs to integrate. But it’s a social
organization. You can’t force people
into an organization that they
wouldn’t feel comfortable in or
wouldn’t feel like they fit in. We’re
always going to be different in some
way, but how different we are cul
turally kind of depends on the soci
ety. And the Greek system really
just reflects those differences. As
long as people feel that there’s a
need to be with people like them
selves on some level, the Greek sys
tem will probably be separated.
Frank McCrary: If the sys
tems were integrated, no one would
be happy and we’d be back to step
one. Black Greeks are happier now
with the status that they have. One
thing that I know has changed that
everyone can see is the participa
tion of the black Greeks since we
have become our own council. One
thing I think a lot of people don’t re
alize is if a black Greek organiza
tion still wonted to be a part of the
IFC or Panhellenic they could. It’s
not like they can’t.
MJB.: Back in the late ’80s, they
made BGC a subcommittee of IFC,
and that was part of an integration
movement. I don’t think that’s fair
at all because the systems are dif
ferent. I think that caused a lot of
frustration and defeated the pur
pose of integration. Now we can
have three different bodies and
meet individual needs, but with
GRAB make sure that there is in
teraction and not separation.
Q: Tell us a little more about
GRAB, how it got started, and
what it's trying to accomplish.
MJL: It came out of the task
force that Gail, Amy and I and one
other representative from each or
ganization, as well as Dr. (Bill)
Porter, Ron (Binder) and Claudia
(Shamp) and other University offi
cials and alumni (created).
Originally, GRAB was not the
planned outcome. We knew that we
were going to talk about making
BGC a third body, but we also real
ized that we didn’t want three sep
arate bodies. We wanted something
that would bring everybody togeth
er.
We decided the Greek Relations
Advisory Board would be the best
road to take on this as far as pro
viding interactive social, philan
thropic, and educational seminars
and could create interaction and un-
"There’s a lot of discus
sion that the Greek system
needs to integrate. But it’s
a social organization. You
can't force people into an
organization that they
wouldn’t feel comfortable
in or wouldn’t feel like they
fit in."
- Amy Holmes,
Panhellenic Council
President
derstanding between the Greek
bodies.
Q: When did this task force
come together?
AH: Last Spring.
F.M.: Wednesday night was our
first program. It is ironic that that
program was planned Spring quar
ter, and then the racial incident
happened, so it just happened to fall
right in place.
Q: Could you explain more
about rush and some of the oth
er differences between the
white and black Greek systems?
F.M.: The major difference that
people don’t realize, besides rush,
that black Greek organizations
were founded on service principles
It s not the system, it s so
ciety/
- Michael Burnett,
Interfraternity Council
President
whereas most traditional white fra
ternities were founded on social
principles. As far as rush is con
cerned, through the national head
quarters of all the black Greek or
ganizations you have to have college
credit to become a member of a
black Greek organization. So partic
ipating in rush would serve the
black Greeks no purpose.
AJL: Mainly the biggest differ
ence is how the organizations were
founded and for what purpose. I
know my sorority is founded on
Christian principles and a sense of
sisterhood. Whereas a lot of the tra
ditionally black Greeks were found
ed to promote black people in this
country and to do service for other
people in their community.
MB: We also all have different
interests, and that’s great and we
should be able to express those in
terests with people that we can re
late to. Not to say that because
Amy’s a woman we can’t relate on
the same issues. But there’s nothing
like male bonding. Individuals need
a place where they con go to have
their own refuge and personal
"The incident was an eye-
opener for not only the
Greek community but the
University as a whole.”
- Frank McCrary, Black
Greek Council President.
growth. I think everyone needs a
place like that where they can be ac
cepted for who they are and what
they believe.
AJL: I guess it’s awful to think
that we are segregated that way,
but there’s a value to having sever
al organizations. Panhellenic does a
lot to promote women’s issues. If we
were a coed group, half of the group
would probably not be very inter
ested in women’s issues. They
wouldn’t relate to them. And I’m
sure that it’s the same with the
BGC groups.
Q: Did the Pi Kappa Phi inci
dent reveal any system-wide at
titudes that Greek organiza
tions need to address?
MJL: It’s not the system, it’s so
ciety. I don’t want to make it sound
like it’s labeled “Greeks are racist"
because it’s not just Greeks. I’d also
like to stress that it’s not just an iso
lated incident. There are many iso
lated incidents. As a whole, people
nowadays are more understanding
and sympathetic, but I do think
there are still individuals who have
ignorant views, and that’s who
we’re trying to reach. I don’t think
as a whole that there are any Greek
organizations that are full of
racists.
AJL: One of the girls who stood
up and spoke at the seminar
Wednesday night said one person
cannot speak for the whole group.
That’s something that really didn’t
get addressed with the Pi Knapp in
cident. It’s good that the incident is
getting tried because it was some
thing done by an officer. But it also
needs to be taken into consideration
that it’s highly unlikely that the en
tire fraternity membership feels
like that. In fact, I do know several
members of Pi Knapp who were in
furiated that someone would dare
print that in something with their
name on it.
Q: Then if the incident was
not the whole fraternity’s fault,
why did the Panhc»llenic council
choose not to participate in Pi
Kappa Phi’s War of the Roses
tournament this year?
A JL: It’s not like we’re trying to
be hypocritical. I really wouldn’t la
bel the entire fraternity racist. But
this is an action done by an officer
and we did not want to be seen as
supporting a group that printed
something that was not with our
ideals.
And by participating in War of
the Roses, the general public might
construe that we were being racist
too by backing the up.
F.M..: The incident was an eye-
opener for not only the Greek com
munity but the University as a
whole, to let us know that you can’t
just do or say or print anything that
you want to print and to let us know
that race relations aren’t good here
at this University.
We need to work on them and it’s
time to stop covering them up.
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