You really don’t have to be especially perceptive to notice that despite its fine academic programs, UCSD can sometimes be a pretty boring school.
The segregation of colleges has acted as an impediment to social interactions, and the university’s fascist regulations and rubber-billy-club security patrol have made it difficult to throw anything more than a high school-like “mocktail” party in the dorms. Freshman parking will be eliminated any year now, effectively trapping people on campus, and there’s no worthwhile reason for others to visit the campus.
That’s why UCSD needs the Greeks. It’s imperative that the school play a more active role in supporting them. Aside from maybe the Board Club and ultimate frisbee team, the Greeks are pretty much the only campuswide organizations that throw good enough parties for the average UCSD student to put down that physics book or stop playing Counter-Strike for a few hours. It’s a pretty simple formula: find a house, attract a bunch of guys and girls, toss in some cheep beer and everyone’s happy. Sigma Chi, for example, used to have some of the best parties ever at its ranch house; it was literally a few acres of UCSD students acting like USC kids. Unfortunately, subsequent parties at that house have been broken up by police helicopters.
While this is a sad reflection of the community’s hostility toward student life, there is definitely a positive impact the Greeks can have on UCSD’s social atmosphere. Even if most fraternity parties are in relatively small houses far from campus and are broken up relatively early, it’s a lot better than nothing.
Moreover, look at the substantial benefits enjoyed by members of the Greek system, especially in terms of networking. One of the most valuable assets any college graduate can have is a broad network of friends in various professions who can help you out in the future. When you’re involved in a close-knit organization like a fraternity or sorority, you get to know a lot of people very well. You get a sense of how ambitious people are, what they want to do and how you might be able to help one another in the future.
Say you’re interested in a career in politics. If you don’t know a lot of people in a lot of different places, it’s difficult to go very far. But if you have friends who are involved in law, business and government, your odds of success improve substantially. Fortunately, if you’ve developed a wide range of friends in different professions, you’re able to work with them –— whether asking for advice, a service or a favor — because they’ll also ask you for help every now and then.
This isn’t just mindless philosophy; the evidence shows that Greek involvement is an outstanding springboard for success. The system has produced 76 percent of the members of Congress, 85 percent of Supreme Court justices since 1910, and all but two American presidents since 1825.
The business world has also been friendly to the Greeks. They make up 85 percent of Fortune 500 executives, and Greeks are the chief executive officers of 43 of the 50 largest American corporations. Clearly, they are doing something right.
Others argue that paying for membership in such an organization is tantamount to buying friends. If anyone willing to pay the money were accepted, that might be a more valid argument, but there’s a rush process where the fraternity or sorority interacts with recruits to decide whether or not to accept them. This process implies that there is a real, non-monetary connection. Besides, these are large, national non-profit organizations that require money to pay the bills. Obviously, people can simply be friends without paying dues, but not while establishing a stable infrastructure that offers the networking opportunities that many students find so valuable.
Because the Greek system offers so much for its members and the UCSD community as a whole, the school must do whatever it can to support it. The La Jolla community effectively prevents Greek housing from becoming a reality off-campus — first, with a housing ordinance (recently repealed) that made it difficult for more than five roommates to live together, and now a de facto “ban” in the form of exorbitant housing prices — so the school must figure out a way to build it on campus.
Construction would obviously cost a fortune, but it is something that must be advocated and prioritized by the A.S. Council, while working in tandem with the Greeks and (hopefully) the administration. For the past 15 years, dozens of A.S. presidential candidates have pledged to work for on-campus Greek housing. In 1997, an entire Greek slate — “Revolution” — emerged victorious in UCSD’s A.S. elections. Although Greek issues are always discussed during election season, very little is done about them during the rest of the academic year.
It’s unclear where the funding would come from, but it’s obvious that student life would drastically improve if the Greeks were given a permanent location on campus.
