***EDITORIAL***

By: Omar K. Elmore, senior writer & IFC president

Greek Life is at a crossroads nationwide. A system built on traditions and rituals is being challenged by school administrators, parents and students alike. It seems every week another school puts a hold on its Greek Life.

Florida State suspended its fraternities and sororities after a student died from alcohol poisoning. Clemson has suspended all fraternities as an investigation of sexual assault is carried out. Last year saw Louisiana State, the University of Michigan, and Texas State University all suspend their Greek Life due to alcohol-related incidents.

That list is far from expansive, but it shows why Greek Life is under fire. It gets worse every time a sorority goes viral because of racial slurs. It gets worse every time a sexual assault is reported from a fraternity house. It gets worse every time a lettered organization hosts a party with a controversial theme.

Greek Life is a large part of Wofford’s culture. Around half our students participate in Greek Life and work to improve the social life at the college. The school has invested in Greek Life in the long-term with the new Greek Village but with that investment comes some pressure and some responsibility.

The pressure is on our organizations to uphold the values of Greek Life—the ones that the press doesn’t cover. It’s about lifelong friends, service, leadership development and scholarship. It’s about having fun. The pressure is to give the press a reason to write positively about Greek Life. That pressure falls on every member of our six IFC fraternities, our four Panhellenic sororities and our NPHC organizations which are working to regain their footing at the college.

The responsibility, though, is on all of us students here at Wofford—affiliated and otherwise. We all have a role to play in the culture of the college. What we accept and what we excuse speaks a lot about what we value. We students have to make sure every group here on campus stands for the same base values that Wofford College does.

We should not let tradition dictate what we deem as acceptable, from a contemporary lens.

Recruitment was successful by every metric. Panhellenic saw a large number of girls participate in the process and run to their new sisters on Bid Day. IFC fraternities welcomed about 100 new members including several upperclassmen who joined freshmen in the rush process.

Those new members must defend Greek Life from its critics but also need to participate in the criticism. That is to say, the best way to fix the culture of fraternities and sororities is to turn the criticism inward.

Wofford’s Greek Life has not faced the problems that have plagued other programs; this is not to say that our organizations are innocent—far from it. There are a lot of things that organizations can benefit from cleaning up.

But we haven’t had any incidents that have moved the school to suspend our organizations and end its relationship with Greek Letter Organizations. And let’s keep it that way.

Because it only takes one.