Letters
2/24/05
Let's see...Colgate has been in existence 186 years, longer than any alum, today. And fraternity row, all the Greeks, in existence longer than any administration/faculty member or Trustee, today. That fraternities and a multitude of fraternity alumni have lived the Colgate "experience" longer than any administration/faculty member says much positive about what independent fraternities have contributed to the Colgate experience and development of Colgate men through these many score years. To arrogantly dismiss these years of fraternal Colgate life would be unconscionable.
Obviously, the ultimate objective is to eliminate all Greek organizations. Why? Because fraternities discriminate. You bet. They invite those students to become part of the "whole" that will bring talents to make their organizations better scholastically, athletically and in any form that participates openly in campus life. And administration/faculty should understand very clearly that the idyllic life they would impose and dictate has no origins in reality. Real life, out of the protected shell and haughtiness of administration/faculty, ain't what they think it is. Discrimination is what makes corporations, businesses of all sorts, better for stockholders, employees and especially the buying public. Everyone just cannot be the same, nor should they be. Hence discrimination is needed and a key to success. What better time to learn discrimination than in a college setting.
Trying to deny the existence of fraternity life is to deny young minds the chance to run their first business - rise or fall on their maturity. Dictating budgets, expenses, capital expenditures, social events, meetings of their choice, group projects such as painting the fraternity house, paving the drives et al deprives youth of living, learning experiences. To create what has to be called an administration/faculty "dictatorship of fraternal choice" is unacceptable.
Administration/faculty are employed to educate students and maintain plant facilities, nothing more. Turning the University into a R.E.I.T. is not part of the job description. My donation to Colgate has been made on the premise it would be used wisely for educational purposes. I have already written that there will be no further donations under threat of the faculty becoming real estate investors and managers. Besides, I suspect another small bureaucracy would have to be set up to manage all the real estate, thereby diverting funds from primary use - EDUCATION.
There have been no logical reasons offered, and I mean down to earth, rock solid, irrefutable, that would cause me to agree to any takeover of Greek societies by Colgate. Leadership needs to get back to doing what they were hired to do, and that includes the President.
Political correctness, multiculturalism, quota mandates et al are destroying the fabric of American society and need to be dismissed in the same manner they are used to diminish and intimidate others. Enough.
Edward A. Ross, Jr.
PKT '50