THEY ADVERTISE everything from tables on the lawn and community service to compensation for flu studies and ballroom dancing. They can be seen in every color of the rainbow. They can be found most anywhere -- in the halls of academic buildings, on the ceilings of buses, duct-taped to sidewalks and on the fences surrounding construction sites. Fliers are a university tradition as entrenched in University life as dressing up for football games and streaking the Lawn. However, fliering took a blow last week when an unidentified person or persons, flooded grounds with "anti-rush" fliers. The fliers were not only tasteless, but their lack of any perceivable purpose and motivation make them nothing more than wasted paper.
The main problem with the fliers is the lack of a sponsor and a clear-cut goal. The fliers appear to oppose the Greek rush process and Greek life as a whole. But if the fliers' creators are trying to actually convince potential new Greeks to quit Rush or even to open a good dialogue on the merits and disadvantages, they must make themselves known. As just anonymous diatribes, the fliers really cannot be taken seriously by the community.
Without any knowledge of the person or group who created the fliers, interested readers can not know if they were created out of a hatred for the Greek system by someone who was unhappy with their own rush process, someone who disagrees with the dues involved in the rush process, or simply someone who dislikes the idea of sororities or fraternities on a social level. Without this knowledge, any bias or jilted thoughts the fliers' creators may possess remain unknown, rendering anyone motivated to thought by the fliers to be skeptical and hesitant. The anonymity of the fliers defeats their very purpose.
That purpose, though, remains unclear. The fliers all point toward anti-rush sentiments. Some of the fliers, though, bring up legitimate concerns with the Greek system. One flier shows pictures of four college fraternity members who died while drinking with their frats. Others show pictures of Mario Lopez,a.k.a. A.C. Slater of "Saved by the Bell" fame and a shirtless David Hasselhoff sporting an "anti-rush" nametag. The two types of fliers negate themselves. If the fliers' purpose is to make students aware of possible drinking problems and hazing with in frats, then say so. The presence of fliers attempting to be cute and clever only lead viewers to automatically doubt the validity of those fliers trying to bring up a valid point.
Even some of those fliers attempting to bring upvalid points are ridiculous. One such flier shows three students wearing Greek letters, with arms around one another, smiling brightly. The bottom informs passersby that one in three Greek people have a venereal disease, or VD. That is an astonishing figure. But again its truth value must be questioned. No source for the number is given, nor is any context. One-third of what Greek people have VD? Those at the University, everywhere across the nation, or simply those who attend Eastern Connecticut State University? Is it one-third of those currently in the Greek system or does that number include alumni? Where did these numbers come from -- a respected news source, or some college sophomore's Web site? Without these questions answered, the numbers are worthless and no point can be made.
Another flier shows an obviously malnourished, starving child and touts statistics about how many people starve to death every 7.3 seconds. It concludes with the words, "You spend your time and money where?" Again, no sources to back up the data. In fact, its hard to even discern whether these are inflated estimates of starvation or conservative numbers. Besides that though, and more importantly, this flier just shows ignorance towards the Greek system. The fraternities and sororities at the University alone raise hundreds of thousands of dollars every year to support such worthy charities as the Susan G. Komman Foundation for breast cancer research, the Children's Miracle Network, and the Galludate University for the Hearing Impaired to name a few. Both sorority and fraternity members are deeply involved in charity work such as Madison House, Habitat for Humanity, and Dance Marathon. To even question the sorority and fraternity's commitments to community service and their desire to help others is preposterous.
In addition, the fliers are unclear on this point as well. If they are trying to say that Greeks don't help out their community and that Greek members' efforts would be better served elsewhere, then they are wrong. If they are trying to say those outside of Greek life volunteer more than those involved, then they are wrong. A person's status in a fraternity or sorority does not affect their desire to better the world. If they wanted to volunteer, they would find a way to do so, regardless of the Greek association.
The University is a wonderful place for freedom of speech and expression. The fliers have every right to be here, as does a negative opinion of Greek life. However, the makers of the fliers would make a much better impact and contribution to the University if they refrained from petty stereotypes, useless numbers and vindictive, condescending attitudes. Any hopes of starting a dialogue that the creators may have found was drowned in the stereotypes of drinking, promiscuous, partying Greeks. People are much more inclined to listen to a well-thought out reasoned argument then just the rants of an upset child.
(Maggie Bowden is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. She can be reached at mbowden@cavalierdaily.com.)
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