Unfortunately, the Elite Daily article was much more accurate than it should have been and the Editorial Board piece refuting it painted a rosier picture than is realistic.
While technically only 40 percent of the university is Greek, that doesn’t include freshmen who have yet to rush, or the large portion of the university which is not in a fraternity or sorority, but which is heavily involved in the culture.
I am, for the most part, not proud of the picture that Elite Daily painted of our school, but it is our job as SMU students to change the elitist and rich stereotypes of our university and show the world what SMU really is. The question remains, however, if SMU students even want to change this image. The main issue now is that too many students seem to take pride in and embrace the SMU stereotypes, too many students are proud to call themselves elitist. This isn’t a majority, but it is a vocal, visible minority. We can’t actively work to change it until we first admit that it has to be changed, and right now it doesn’t appear as though enough of the school wants to.
The girl who wrote the Elite Daily article obviously is proud of our image, and based on personal experience with sizable portions of the SMU community, she isn’t alone. Perhaps cigar smoking (and embracing the stereotypes associated with that) shouldn’t be such as prevalent a part of life at SMU, perhaps we shouldn’t post on Facebook how we aspire to be the next Gordon Gekko, describe our political views as “Country Club Republican” or jokingly list “Enron Corp. Intern” on our resume.
We’re going to continue to be stereotyped as rich, privileged, out of touch, elitist snobs until we make a conscious effort to change how onlookers view the SMU community.
These cigar-smoking, Gekko-aspiring, country-club-raised images are the most visible portraits of SMU. These actions just confirm the biases that the rest of society has toward SMU, and articles like the one on Elite Daily make it seem as though the entire community is proud of these stereotypes.
Regardless of how much progress we make as a university toward creating a more ethically, politically, racially and economically diverse community, all that progress will go unnoticed whenever a photo of ten white frat guys smoking cigars in Brooks Brothers suits emblazoned with Romney 2012 buttons makes the rounds on Facebook. The frequency of images like these leaves only one impression: that SMU students either don’t recognize that the rest of the world rolls their eyes at those privileged, rich Southern elite, or don’t care that this is what the rest of the world sees.
These stereotypes will not be easy to change, and it won’t be a quick process. But articles like the one on Elite Daily set us back. Instead of having students write articles enforcing pervasive and un-flattering stereotypes, perhaps we should write about just how inclusive, academically focused and politically and culturally diverse we really are. Let’s show the world the real SMU.
Keene is a junior majoring in political science, economics and public policy.
Thrall is a sophomore majoring in journalism and film.
