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Kansan
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4A
Thursday, Oct. 30, 1997
Andrew Saeger / KANSAN
Examining
Hearing the word from both sides: Phi Gamma Delta explains actions
This semester two columns have been printed on the opinion page of the "Kansan" that contained false and potentially harmful information regarding the Phi Gamma Deltafraternity.
The people who perpetuated this information acted
The people who perpetuated this irresponsibly, and I would like to take this time to tell the story from our perspective and from those who witnessed the event that spawned the apparent controversy.
Jim Mills
Every year we have a party called "Fiji Island." Before the party, members of Phi Gamma Delta go to the sorority houses to officially invite the women who will be in attendance. The invitation process consists of songs and a skit performed by members of Phi Gamma Delta at each sorority.
opinion@kansan.com
At the end of the skit, the eldest
fraternity member's date is raised in a throne and sung to by the members of Phi Gamma Delta. This is done to pay our respect to both the sorority member and her sorority. The ceremony is not meant to be offensive to anyone, but rather in reverence to the respective sorority.
On Sept. 17, a professor who lives down the street from the Delta Delta Delta sorority house witnessed from a distance the event at that sorority and interpreted our invitation as a mock ritual mating. Since then, two "Kansan" columnists have printed articles about this event using unsubstantiated information. In fact, no "mock ritual mating" ever took place.
In a Sept. 29th opinion column, Robert MacRae described the instance as a sorority woman being "kidnapped and mock raped." I called MacRae to find out where he acquired his false information, but he did not return my call. However, he quoted the neighboring professor as his source.
On Oct. 20th Matt Caldwell referred to the ceremony as "violent, drunken, sexist (as well as racist and homophobic revelry).
"These cherished members of the KU community," he continued, "dressed themselves in grass skirts and ran around screaming idiotic/childish chants."
Caldwell admitted that he had no legitimate source for his information. "A lot of these things are hearsay,"he told me.
Neither columnist made an attempt to contact those who were present at the invites before they printed their columns. It makes sense to me that a writer would try to gather his or her information from people in attendance at the event. I have tried not to make the same mistake.
Betty Nichols, the housemother at the Delta Delta Delta house, was present at the invites. She said that she did not consider the invitations to be sexist. Nichols also added that she witnessed nothing at all resembling a "mock rape."
"I did not see that. I don't know where they came up with that," Nichols said.
Lindsey Puett was the Tri-Delt member allegedly kidnapped and mock raped.
"That did not happen. I don't know where they got that from," Puett said. Puett also said that she enjoyed the invitation and that nothing offensive took place.
I find it ironic that the people that took part in the invites were not offended but thousands of KU students could now perceive us in a negative light.
I tried to contact the professor who witnessed the Island invites, but he did not return my call. Bill Nelson, the associate director of student activities and coordinator of Greek programs, attempted to arrange a meeting between our former president, the neighboring professor and himself, but the professor did not agree to meet.
As a fraternity we don't take issues of sexism lightly. In fact, being hospitable and respectful of all peoples' rights are virtues that our fraternity is based upon. We don't take these issues lightly and I don't feel that these writers should either by publishing false information that other students could take as the truth.
The representations of Phi Gamma Delta in these columns were pure fiction. Both columns exemplify unprofessional behavior and a general lack of journalistic standards. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but when these opinions are disseminated to thousands of students, they should be fair and have a factual basis. When they aren't, they run the risk of wrongfully damaging the reputations of fellow students.
Mills is a Hutchinson junior in business communications and a member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity.
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"The stone that the builder refused will always be the head cornerstone."
Broaden your mind:
Bob Marley
Letters: Should be double-spaced typed and fewer than 200 words. Letters must include the author's signature, name, address and telephone number plus class and home-town if a University student. Faculty or staff must identify their positions.
How to submit letters and guest columns
Guest columnus: Should be double-
spaced typed with fewer than 700 words. The writer must be willing to be photographed for the column to run.
All letters and guest columns should be submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stuffer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length or reject all submissions. For any questions, call Bradley Brooks (brooks@kansan.com) or Jason Strait (jstrait@kansan.com) at 864-4810. If you have general questions or comments, e-mail the page staff (opinion@kansan.com) or call 864-4810.
Raving
t looks like the student senate horse race already has begun.
An early look at potential presidential contenders
God help us — the elections aren't until April.
In one corner, Delta Force, the student activist group and sometime campaign machine, and in the other, well, nobody is sure.
The contenders:
Andy
Obermueller
adwu@karen.com
But the presidential contenders' names being whispered around the campfire — or at least around the back table at the student senate office — are student senators Kevin Yoder, Julie Numrich, Kristin Merchant
and Finance Chair Jordan Edwards
Of those, the only definitive answer has come from Numrich, who says she will not run for president but is still considering a senate seat. Numrich has been involved with senate for three years and was considered a presidential front runner, and her announcement has left the gossip mill churning.
Numrich cited personal reasons for not running.
An adviser to the anti-Delta force campaign, however, said that Numrich, former social chair for Chi Omega sorority, was threatened by a Delta Force member with a smear campaign concerning her involvement with Bacchanalia, a controversial party thrown by Sigma Nu fraternity.
If so, that certainly sets the tone for the election.
Numrich in fact has been sanctioned in connection with the party but still serves as the Panhellenic senator.
Jordan Edwards, who sits at the helm on the all-powerful finance committee, also serves as issues and research coordinator for the Student Legislative Awareness Board. He's not a fireball candidate, but his reasonability and objectivity would meld well into the form of student body vice president, especially counterbalanced by Yoder.
And to tell you the truth, Yoder and Jordan are going to need something special, because Delta Force is going to be tough to beat. They've never stopped working on
student issues, including bike lanes, intellectual property, a Fall break and a diversity requirement.
Delta Force's front man, Jason Fizell, is an excellent campaigner, whose organization has already duly elected their candidates from Delta Force's membership before another coalition could even devise a clever moniker.
And Delta Force's candidates, Center for Community Outreach codirector Emily Heath and student senator Seth Hoffman, will be formidable. A candidate who ran against the group last year said that Delta Force's chances were good, especially since increased voter turnout was expected.
This year's campaign issues will be familiar, with transportation and recreation topping the list. The idea of a new "diversity" requirement — which would add another class requirement for graduation — has surfaced, and will undoubtedly be a point of debate among campaigners.
As for president, most weren't surprised to learn of Heath's intentions but were sad to hear Numrich say she wasn't going to run. One insider noted, "You have to want it. You have to say 'I'm going to take it, I can use it. When they made this position they were thinking of my name.'"
The transportation issue will be interesting. As the transportation board looks to the future and sets its goals, the Delta Force coalition may argue that the system should be taken out of students' hands, said a senator in the office yesterday afternoon. "If they say that, it will be an issue, regardless of how silly an idea it is," the source said.
Since everyone who is running has experience, the folks vying for office should be evaluated by how they do their job as the coalitions form. Watch them. Read their banter on the Student Senate listserv, which you can subscribe to by calling Mike Walden, student body vice president at, 864-3710.
Preelection bickering and bloody-snipe waving is directly proportional to the quality of the job the candidate will do if elected. The candidates who do their job — not their politicking — while they run for office are the most likely to do their job if elected in the still-distant election.
Obermueller is a Liberal, Kan., senior in journalism.
Past hits you in the face with notice of reunion
My five-year high school class reunion imminently awaits me in May, and already I'm getting the heebie-jee-
bies.
Unfortunately, I'm the person who gets to track down my classmate.
I don't know exactly how I'll start the correspondence, but so far I've come up with these examples:
— granted, there are only 30 of 'em — and send a letter detailing the celebration.
Dear class of 1993:
Wow. Has it been five years already? Seems like we were just sucking down Purple Passion and mating in our town's surrounding countryside.
Bradley Brooks
brooks@kansan.com
Or maybe:
Fellow Classmates:
Here we are five years after graduation, and how many of us aren't married yet? (People in western Kansas get married real young.)
Ruffians:
I know that we are all looking forward to confronting the not-so-distant past that most of us wanted to escape. I can't wait to see those of you who thought I was a complete ass in high school. Especially when in a drunken environment such as the alumni weekend dance at the fairground's FFA building. Who knows? Maybe you'll even get to sucker punch that bastard who stole your girl in the 11th grade.
As you can see, I'm having trouble getting this letter in readable form. I suppose I could write some public relations mumbo-jumbo about a barbecue and reliving the past, but that wouldn't capture the essence of the event.
Nope. There is too much pent-up psychological baggage that goes with reunions.
With my fear of revisiting the past hindering my abilities, I turned to some folks for help in constructing and dealing with this reunion notice.
We each carry, whether we want to or not, the memories of what occurred in those four really weird years of high school.
Nathan, a fellow Western Kansan, pointed out that if I wanted to notify everyone of the event, I could simply sit at my town's convenience store for 20 minutes and bypass this
whole letter writing business.
He's right. The Stop-2-Shop in my small town moves information faster than any fiber-optic cable thingy. Word would get out in no time.
This is also a guy who has seen me try to shed parts of my past. "I think you've tried to forget any way possible: booze, late nights, whatever." Great — glad to know my friend thinks I'm healthy.
I then turned to my buddy Jordan who was a year ahead of me in school. After explaining my situation, he had some really nice advice:
"I think ditching out on the reunion planning would be a positive step," he informed me. "You gotta look out for numero uno."
I forgot that Mr. Roots eludes his past more than I do.
"That thing is really going to cramp your plans," he continued. "Can't you delegate it to somebody else?"
While that thought certainly has crossed my mind — I may be in Europe during the festivities — I certainly couldn't pass the buck that easily.
As my friend Amy told me, the introductions at this thing will be "hello, I just graduated from college and have no clue where I'm going." I could do that via e-mail.
I mean, these are people I grew up with. People I ran around with. People I saw puke in Mrs. Crippen's 1st grade classroom. How could I miss out?
Reunions are for coming back and showing something off, and I ain't got nothin' to display. With a ten-year get together, at least you've had a job for a while. Maybe a kid to jaw about. But this is just way too soon.
I think the anxiety I'm having in trying to write this letter is a symptom of a larger worry.
But the fact is I've got to type this letter. I've got to put something to paper that hides my fears about the event and helps my classmates bury theirs. I'm sure I'm not alone in my feelings.
For now, I will concentrate on simply recognizing that this event is going to happen, and that I'm apparently going to be a part of it. I will write the letter, probably attend, and even wear my best shirt.
And maybe — if there is enough Purple Passion on hand — I'll forget my anxieties and have a good time.
Brooks is a Hill City senior in journalism and an editorial page editor.