Letters 11/30
Hazing does not help form bonds between friends
TO THE EDITOR:
I write to express my disgust with many of the online comments attached to the Nov. 29 article “Sigma Chi guilty on hazing charges.”
You’d think that hazing severe enough to warrant a three-year sanction wouldn’t sit well with members of the University community, and I suspect that for the most part, that’s the attitude around campus.
But there are still people who hold beliefs such as this one, expressed by a commentor who bravely refers to herself only as “Greek Girl”: “I think the pledges and parents who tattled on Sigma Chi are the pathetic ones. If you don’t want to go through hazing, don’t join a fraternity. And if you do, don’t be a little wimp and go tell mommy. Simple as that.”
This attitude is morally repulsive and destructive to not only the entire University, but society at large. Are we in such sad shape that we must resort to degradation and humiliation in order to form bonds between one another? Is the Greek system in such disarray that the pledges who spoke out in hopes of fixing a broken system are thought of as gutless tattle-tales?
I worked at the DTH for eight semesters. Many of the relationships I formed there will last the rest of my life. And I didn’t have to dress in blackface, drive for hours on some menial quest, or dig my own grave and get pissed on for that to happen.
Sure, there’s a level of personal freedom involved here. No one is forced to go through hazing.
But hazing’s defenders are missing the larger point, which is that no one should be forced to go through it. How sad, how ironic, that fraternities — groups whose very names suggest the bonds of brotherhood — engage in actions that represent an utter breakdown of civility.
To be sure, not all fraternities and sororities engage in serious hazing. Even the ones that do usually perform charitable work.
But charity isn’t a get-out-of-jail-free card. It’s not an end-all, be-all test of one’s moral fiber.
On the other hand, I’d say that one’s treatment of fellow human beings is such a test. And if the Web comments are any indication, too many Greeks have failed it.
Chris Coletta
Former Managing Editor
The Daily Tar Heel
_____________
Number of students tickets available makes no sense
TO THE EDITOR:
Can someone explain to me why more student tickets were available for the Gardner Webb game, where about a quarter of the upper level was empty, than the Ohio State game?
Ohio State is arguably one of the biggest games of the season yet only 4,200 student tickets are available as opposed to 4,400 for Gardner Webb.
Correct me if I am wrong but shouldn’t the CAA and the ticket office want as many students as possible at a nationally televised game against an opponent ranked No. 1 in the polls? Someone needs to get with the program.
Chris Garrison
Junior
History
_____________
Students should unite to change ticket distribution
TO THE EDITOR:
I’m a senior and one of many students who hasn’t received a ticket to any of the basketball or football games this year (and who got tickets to all games but Cleveland State last season). What I feared has come true.
I would argue that students sporadically getting tickets to games because of the random drawing decreases enthusiasm for the team. You feel invested in a season when you make the effort to get tickets to as many games as possible, but when you sit at home watching games on TV like any other bum, you feel distanced from the team.
I would also dispute the value of equality in ticket distribution. Almost any other service funded by fees equally paid by all students requires some effort by each student. You don’t get $25 of printed class material handed to you; you have to go to the print labs yourself. You only get child care if you have a child. There are many more examples.
The Athletics Department’s ardent refusal to adopt a compromise plan that would have some tickets distributed in person and the rest online will have to change. They’re not going to be able to deny the unhappiness of the most fervent fans much longer. Anger is only rising, which can’t be good for the basketball program in a season when everyone should be excited about a possible championship.
I know from personal experience that most administrators begrudge listening to individual students, but when thousands are speaking with one voice on such an important issue, it becomes willful malfeasance that ought to threaten the jobs of ticket honcho Clint Gwaltney and anyone else involved in continuing this unpopular system.
Dustin Ingalls
Speaker Pro Tem
Student Congress
_____________
Those who remain in closet can only blame themselves
TO THE EDITOR:
Regarding the response from the editor of LAMBDA Magazine, if one is “in the closet” then obviously they aren’t comfortable with who they are in the first place. So please explain how this is everyone else’s fault, instead of the person who is in the closet. Until then, I’ll wait for responses about how oppressed the homosexual community thinks they are.
Furthermore, I have 2 words for you: grow up. You are who you are, mature people respect this. Now quit complaining, accept accountability, and be an adult.
Im sick and tired of the homosexual community whining about people not being able to come out of the closet because of the fear of what everyone else thinks of them. That problem lies within that person, not the society around them.
Chapel Hill is one of the most “gay friendly” communities in this state. Quit making excuses for yourselves.
Thomas Jones
Junior
Information Science