Sir:
I am writing in response to the article posted by Ms. Hopkins on 28 April 2013 entitled “Mob mentality enables substandard values.” I found her style of argument and presentation to be deeply flawed and; therefore, troubling. Her stated facts and statistics are at best questionable and I would strongly urge your readers to visit the North- American Interfraternity Conference website at nicindy.org for balanced, factual information. Experience has proven to me that when one writes, speaks, or acts solely from emotion that no matter the volume of information that can be provided to debate the other side of a situation it will not make any difference. Ms. Hopkins clearly demonstrated such inflammatory emotion and provided a very jaundiced opinion.
Your newspaper wrongly published a photograph of my Fraternity’s letters and residence and I am compelled to object strongly and provide some basic information regarding my Fraternity. Every organization has a core purpose with a mission. Phi Kappa Theta’s is to actively develop men to be effective leaders who passionately serve society, Fraternity, and God. My organization has gone from a single annual conference to six national leadership conferences. These weekend events strictly focus on servant leadership. Every new member is provided the Associate Member handbook and a copy of The Case for Servant Leadership by Kent M. Keith which is used by our national partner The Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership. This servant leadership training of our collegiate men has increased by 300% over the last three years alone. At time of writing, our staff are in the field working with chapters that have requested weekend sessions on spirituality—I underscore that the chapters made this request. All the men and women I know in the Greek Community bear no resemblance to Ms. Hopkins pseudepigrapha.
T. Steven Mathieson Clark
Phi Kappa Theta Foundation, Treasurer
—
The InterFraternity Council would like to offer this formal response to the article written in today’s Daily Aztec.
Greek Life is founded upon the basic values of service and leadership. We take pride in contributing to the success of organizations outside of our own chapters, and to developing ourselves to better serve others. While we may stray from this path from time to time, the positive work we do—in providing hours for the benefit of the community, fundraising for philanthropic organizations, and in developing leaders—cannot and should not be ignored.
Today’s article in the Daily Aztec represents the ignorance of one individual, and an inability to see more than what one “journalist” wants. It is very easy to point to our social events and say “all Greeks do is party”, while ignoring the 1,500+ hours of community service, over 50,000+ dollars in charitable contributions, and significant presence in all facets of campus life.
The fact that someone could be so insensitive as to liken our Greek Community to the Regime of Nazi Germany (A Greek Community that has 2 Jewish Chapters and 1 Jewish-founded Chapter) speaks to the negligent character of the individual responsible for this article. To imply that there is conformity and a lack of individuals is to again be woefully unaware of the 1,000s of individuals within Greek Life. It is to ignore members of all chapters from different countries, representing different religions, and practicing different lifestyle choices, and to focus only on what this “writer” wants to see. Facts like “allegedly perpetuate 70-90 percent of rape on campus” is an incredibly offensive and inaccurate statement, one which once again ignores the good-that men in the Greek Community actively serve as peer health educators AGAINST such behavior through the FRATMANERS (Fraternity Men Against Negative Environments and Rape Situations) program (a program this article does not acknowledge and was likely written without knowledge of).
As Greek students, we strive to provide for the overall success of SDSU. As an IFC, we have adopted the motto “Leadership and Community” to emphasize this point.
It is our hope in the Greek Community that such a foolish and ill-informed article is seen for what it is by students: an ignorant individual’s attack on something she does not understand. We ask that the Daily Aztec’s staff realize this mistake, and take necessary action to rectify the situation, beginning first with the removal of such a poor writer.
Sincerely,
Sean Guardian, IFC President, 2013-2014
PROUD Brother of Phi Kappa Theta Fraternity
