Problems with fraternities stem from lack of interest

Editor,

Changes need to happen within fraternities, but they need to be more fundamental than having a live-in adviser or making sensitivity training mandatory for fraternity members. The root of the recent problems with fraternities is numbers. There is a small recruitment pool of students at UNM who are interested in joining fraternities. The consequence of this lack of interest is that fraternities have been accepting students that they would not have accepted in the past and are retaining students who have shown a history of detrimental behavior.

Fraternity headquarters dictate that each chapter must maintain a minimum number of members in order to remain in good standing. Large numbers of members reflect well on a chapter in the eyes of potential recruits, fraternity headquarters and the University. Having a large number of members makes it easier to do philanthropies, allows a fraternity to host better parties, enables it to be more competitive in various inter-fraternity competitions and increases the social status of a fraternity - not to mention the fact that the more members a fraternity has, the more dues it takes in.

At a school like UNM, however, the quest for more members has serious pitfalls. For whatever reason, there is not as much interest at UNM in Greek Life as there is in other schools. This creates a problem for recruitment and retention. A new member may have a reputation for causing trouble, but he will be one more member and can potentially entice some of his friends to join and pay dues. So, he is kept around for another semester in the hope that he improves before being initiated.

A member of the fraternity may be caught violating a fraternity rule, and fraternity bylaws say he should be kicked out. But if a member is lost, the headquarters will place the fraternity on probation and the chapter may be counting on the money received from his dues to pay for some expenses next semester. Each member lost or each recruitment opportunity lost cannot be replaced. This is the dilemma facing fraternities at UNM. It is inevitable that these members who are on the fence so to speak are the ones who get a fraternity into trouble. The solution lies in getting rid of these members before they can do real damage and in not recruiting students with a reputation for causing trouble.

Every fraternity knows which of its members will get it into trouble - the present cases are no exception. These men were kept on the membership rosters simply because they were one more member for their various fraternities. Numbers need to be ignored when contrasted with the possibility that someone may be accused of a crime while representing a fraternity. For a fraternity in our community, an accusation of a crime means the same thing as a conviction. The Greek system has much to offer UNM and the Albuquerque community. It cannot continue to let the actions of a minuscule minority taint the contributions of the vast majority.

John Hiett

Former president

Lambda Chi Alpha