Newspaper Page Text
? I
“Abolishment Is
PAGE 3
Not
The Answer” Response
I Dear Editor,
This letter is in response to
two previous letters in The
Chaster concerning Greeks, and
specifically the last one. As the
Secretary-Treasurer of the Inter-
fraternity Council, I feel that I
am at least qualified to reply to
some of the issues that “A.S."
reasoned in the last issue.
(1) "Mefcer /will not abolish
or ban Greeks." This was the
only highpoint in the article. It
would be political suicide for
Mercer to attempt this line. The
only controversy concerning
Greeks at Mercer is the alcohol
on fraternity row at a Baptist
supported college. "Constantly
at odds with the Administra
tion" is hardly the situation.
(2) A.S. suggested moving all
rush and initiation activities to
he week before Fall quarter
and/or to part of Christmas or
Spring break. For the past two
years people have been speak-
. ing out for the extension of
Rush. This year Rush was
extended an extra week to give
'^CbfffuJted freshmen" more of a
chance to look at fraternities.
That now makes Rush 4 weeks
long. According to your sugges
tion. that would mean that Rush
should start on Sept. 1? I hardly
think so. Or part of Christmas
break? This would mean that
Formal Rush would have to
-Start after dead week and finals,
placing the first night of Formal
on about the 14th, and ending
Dec 19 or "20. You must be
trying to lessen Greek enroll
ment. aren’t you? Cramming.
Formal Rush into a smaller lime
period* would only defeat the
purpose of itself. They attend 3
fraternities a night during
Formal so that: (a) they may
reason for themselves whether
they are assured of their choke
of fraternities, (b) they are not
rushed through and past other
fraternities, and (c) they may
have ample time to read and
study on school nights. Formal
Rush has not been active past
9:1$ p.m. Yea. it roighl be right
for other schools, but should
you come up with an ingenious
plan, LFC meets every Monday
at 10:00 in CSC, we would be
more than willing to hear of
. tach brilliant thoughts. And'
your "possibility of s small
charge to-students" might be
' more than reasoned, consider
ing the price for m> r? than 500
Greeks to eat and sleep for a
week might be a little larger
than "small".
(3) Your assumption of
Greeks missing up to a week
due to rush and initiation every
Fall and Winter quarter tends to
concent me also.. After having
been pledge trainer ’for my
fraternity Spring quarter. I fail
to believe that this is the
reason. Usually the ritualist and
the pledge trainer are the two
most active during initiation.
more so than brothers or
pledges. The amount of time
that we missed in class, my
friend, was hardly your so-cal
led week.
(41 Your statement of "With
out such changes," (and you
listed five such changes),
"Greeks will be abolished
or...will suffer from a deadly
drop in enrollment" simply
appalls me as to your lack of
research into the matter at all.
Your first change, semce
tradition, can be easily chal
lenged. Whenever almost any
Service Project is needed to be
fulfilled, they come to the
fraternities and sororities. I can
verify this by the correspon
dence in the IFC records and
minutes. My fraternity alone
requires at least one service
project per quarter, and hardly
more than a few years ago,
Mercer's Lambda Chi Alpha
received a National Service
Award for one of the ten most
active chapters in device
Projects. I’m sure other chap
ters at Mercer are equally as
proud of their Sendee Projects.
Your back test and exam
preparation classes are also of
controversial issues. Why is it
the Greek’s fault for not holding
these classes? The school now
actively has a program called
’ ’Study Partners” to enable you
to learn, on your own. at no
extra cost, any material in a
course which you do not
understand. In my opinion,
such classes would not make the
faculty more cooperative, but
the reverse. If faculty assumed
that ail back testa from previous
classes were "documented’*,
they would release leas tests to
the Audents resulting in a
detr ment to all students.
the third change, academic
standards, lacks proof in my
opinion. According to Bill
Stembridge, Assistant Regis
trar, there has never been any
research into a comparison of
Greek to non-Greek grades.
Your highly prejudiced sugges
tion lacks a great deal of
verification.
Your reasons for IFC to ban
mixers is not a sparkling
suggestion, either. You assert
"To make them mandatory for
people who are involved in a
relationship and to close them
to outsiders (Greek or non-
Greek) is a cheap shot." If a
fraternity has a mixer with a
sorority, they want to meet
them, not the other 1600
undergrads. As far as I can
remember about my fraternity,
no one has ever been hurt by
attending them. 1 simply fail to
see your reasoning behind this
issue.
Part of your fourth and fifth
suggestion conflict. You state
> dues are too high", yet you
insist on "open parties".
Praise And Criticism
One year ago The Mercer
Cluster was a total disaster.
News was reported in chronolo
gical order and strictly. The
students as a whole were too
bored with the paper to care and
as a result didn’t even bother to
read it. Over the past year,
various personality writers join
ed the staff whkh broadened
the subject base in whkh our
current editor, Hal Brodsky, is
now faced to work with.
Nevertheless, the Cluster has
changed for the better under
Mr. Brodsky. Though the paper
is far from "journalistically’'
correct, it is interesting and
Mercer students are reading it.
Another peculiar thing has
happened. Faculty professors
have taken notice of the
interesting paper that the
Cluster has become and are now
either reading it fervently and
paying dose attention to stu
dent writers in their classes, or
contributing to it.
The value of the "tudent'a
readership and faculty contribu
tions are invaluable to us as a
staff. Along with the increased
readership, comes the inevita
ble complaints. The Cluster in
many students' opinions has
become controversial, and some
students have begun to com
plain. As Mr. Krakow can attest
to, often one only hears the
complaints and not compli
ments.
Hal has announced recently
that, due to the academic
schedule he is facing, and the
small amount of appreciation he
has received for so much work,
he will not be running for
re-election
I can only stress the
importance of carefully choos
ing the ne^t editor in this
Spring's elections. If you really
think that the Cluster has done
a good job, interesting you with
articles from news to sports and
everything in-between, then
please consider your choices.
There are some people running
who have worked on our present*
staff and some who haven't.
Their contributions to today's
newspaper are easily seen. I’m
sure, despite the fantastically
liberal controversies we’ve in
spired that both the faculty and
the student body have enjoyed
the present Cluster more than
any other in the past ^3 years..
Please remember this next time
you see a Cluster staff member
and let him/her know what a
good job he/she has done, so
we as a staff can bring you some
more. /•
Daryl Toor
Wildcat rush goes on all year
round, and these are open
' parties, not quite as well
pubUcizes as those during Fall.
Unless dues double or triple,
there will be no open parties. In
the four weeks of Ruah, my
fraternity spent over $2,000.
Other fraternities spent compa
rable or larger amounts. Not all
of the dues go to social. Some
go to the National Office, to
IFC, to rent, electricity, and
other bills before social. And
* yet we are to sponsor open
parties? The only open parties
which Greeks can afford to have
is the Panhellink Dance and the
IFC Dance. $20 a month dues
should be hard’/ considered a
crippling s^-uunt, since Mercer
is a private school. "Dues at
many schools are far less than
Mercer's...the dues should be
almost zero.” My only reply is
for you to come out of your shell
and realistically evaluate your
suggestion.
I hold nothing against a
person on hia choice of
Independent or Greek. I simply
feel that one should ascertain
knowledge before he criticizes
the other.
Chuck Hart* fie Id
Lambda Chi Alpha
Secretary-Treasurer
of IFC.
Sherwood Trash
by Tracy Ward
There is a problem occurring
in the Sherwood Study Annex
and it needs to be taken care of
now. Many people who study in.
the Annex late at night leave
their trash and papers in the
area. There is no one to clean up
the Annex until late the next .
day, but there are History
classes during the day in the
annex and those classes have to
sit in a dirty classroom. 1 am
asking those people who use the
area to please pick up their
trash when they leave. If the
problem is not corrected now
the study area will be closed
and this is certainly not in the
best interests of students. Let’s
all work together on this
problem and correct it.
Cluster
Hal Brodsky
Editor-In-Chief
Donna Gray
Managing Editor
Steve Reed
Gregory Mattaon ..
Jerry Holden
Pam Byrd
Elizabeth Donzella
Lindy Russell
Dan Goodman
Karen Duva
Tom Biahop
Entertainment Editor
Photography Editor
Sports Editor
Feature Editor
Asat. Entertainment Editor
Layout Editor
Production Manager
Businesa Manager
News Editor
STAFF REPORTERS
Glenn Ashman, Brad Billings, Annette Boddie, Koni
Boyd, Vk Burchfield, Bill Gabbard, Walter Hauasner, Dan
Kniffan, John Morgan, Cindy Morris, Mark Moaely, Rick
Niva, Claudia Scbeaier. .Pam Secrest. Dawn Tonjea, Daryl
Toor, Greg Walling, Sue Watson. Lib Williams, Ron
Akerman. Catherine Hendricks, Stardra Protho.
Randi Hamlin
LAYOUT STAFF
Mark Bloechl. Larry Futch, Alicia Ziadi?, Sam Clyroer.
PHOTOGRAPHY STAFF
* Caren Campbell, Mindee Donner, Cindi Godbold. Fletcher
Whitworth, Tom Erb.
THE MERCER CLUSTER is published weekly except
during exam periods by the students of Mercer University,
Macon, G^ Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of
Mercer University of The CLUSTER. Printed by KFlEN
AND JUDD PUBLlSHERS>Macon