The Daily Campus, as most college papers, frequently getspegged as being anti-greek. Perception is not reality.
A study of an 18-month period of The Daily Campus issuesshowed that overwhelmingly the coverage of the greek community ispositive, telling of its philanthropies, its members’successes and more. When a story is written that is perceived to benegative, it is almost always because an event has happened that isnews. The fact is news is what is unique, different, effects avariety of people or provides insight into something.
Just as the professional media cover crime, avarice, trends,business and the good and bad of society, so must The DailyCampus. To do it well, the facts and figures and the peopleinvolved must be a part of the story.
Frankly, the entire SMU community, including the newspaperstaff, is proud of the work the greek community does with SpecialOlympics, inner city school children, battered women’sgroups, Mustang Marathon and much, much more.
The problem with covering the greek community comes in itssecretiveness. The story is in the people. The story is in thenumbers. The story is in the facts.
In an effort to cover recruitment, The Daily Campus senta crew of photographers to shoot this happy event. No oneencroached on sorority or fraternity property, shooting only thoseportions that were readily visible to the general public.
When, however, The Daily Campus attempted to get facts,figures and information about this weeklong event that touches thelife of every greek and a huge percentage of the first-year class,reporters hit the proverbial brick wall.
Going to the Panhellenic adviser in advance, the DC reporter wastold that the paper could have numbers that started the rushprocess and the numbers that received bids but that numbers forindividual houses were off limits. Why? There’s not a soul oncampus who doesn’t know which sororities have the biggestnumbers. And frankly, success is not measured merely innumbers.
Greek women were told not to talk to reporters. Whilethey’d say general things like “everyone was enjoyingit,” the moment the reporters said they were with the paper,the information pipeline shut down.
Greek life provides many positive things to the women and menwho are a part of it and to the community of which the greeks are apart.
A peek into the behind-the-scenes activities that make up rushweek would only serve to show that the greeks aren’t a secretsociety that pressures, hazes and makes promises it can’tkeep. There are plenty of aspects of sisterhood and brotherhoodthat are part of the individual ritual of each group. Keep thoseprivate.
But when some 450 women go through the recruitment process aspotential members and nearly a thousand more are part of therecruiting itself, it’s obvious that people know this is amajor campus event.
The greeks should show SMU the reality and humanity of beinggreek and the process of becoming greek. Providing truth andsharing the reality of rush week would go a long way in improvingthe image of greek life.
