The past few years have been tumultuous ones for the Greek system at Tufts. Fraternities have been shut down and re-opened, a Greek director came and went, and in June 2005, the school commissioned an outside report to identify major problems with the frats and sororities on campus.
There hasn't been a shortage of time or resources devoted to re-examining the role of the whole system at Tufts, and tonight's meeting between the newest Director of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs Patrick Romero-Aldaz and leaders in the Greek community only represents the latest event in a long string of efforts to change this part of our community.
One of the major recommendations of the Jelke report, an extensive review of Greek life at Tufts released in Jan. 2006, was that sororities and fraternities begin to reconnect with the core missions of their national organizations. It came as no surprise to many at Tufts that most brothers and sisters placed more importance on alcohol and partying than on upholding the values of their parent fraternity and sorority groups.
It appears that Mr. Romero-Aldaz is serious about remedying this problem. He said in an e-mail to the Daily that Greek houses at Tufts are changing their understanding of the alcohol policies on the books at their respective national organizations.
This might mean a radical change in the way that some fraternities and sororities operate, given that some national Greek organizations forbid the serving of alcohol at parties.
Where does this shift in sentiment leave those students involved in Greek life at Tufts, and where does it leave the rest of us Jumbos?
It seems that our campus-wide conception of what Greek life is and should be has diverged considerably from what many at the core of the Greek mission, on a national level, believe it to be. How far will we go to reshape our Greek system to conform to their ideals?
A healthy Greek organization should, according to the national chapters, foster close friendships, build strong leaders and enhance campus community relations. But these worthy objectives could presumably be filled by other groups at Tufts - by sports teams, theater troupes and community service groups like the Leonard Carmichael Society.
What can fraternities and sororities add to the mix, then? We instinctively want to answer this question by responding that Greek houses can add to the social life for everyone else on campus. But if frats and sororities at Tufts are trying to shift focus away from the more social goals of their organizations, the rest of the undergraduate population loses something.
Among seniors here on the Hill, there may be some fatigue setting in. These questions have been around since we were freshmen, and no progress seems to have been made. Do fraternities and sororities here have it within them to enact such radical change, and, more importantly, do they even want to undergo such a structural transformation?
If we have arrived at a point where the school's administration is either unable or unwilling to turn a blind eye to the partying and problems present in fraternities and sororities at Tufts, is it worth the collective energy that must be spent to force our Greek system back into some sort of idealized, perfected box?
