To the Editor:
I am writing regarding the Greek system (the IFC in particular) and its refusal to grant Greeks Against Rape the money it requested for funding ("Greeks clash, compromise on rape awareness funding," The Dartmouth, August 13).
The IFC cannot have it both ways: it cannot at once insist that Greeks Against Rape is a necessary organization (as it has in the past) and then refuse to fund it (as it is doing now). The Greek system is just digging itself further into a hole by not funding this group that originally was supposed to help address fundamental problems within the system.
Furthermore, the burden of funding Greeks Against Rape should fall entirely on the Greek system. As Scott Swenson noted, some members of the IFC didn't like the idea of "Greeks funding all the programming of Greeks Against Rape." However, there are several campus-wide organizations that deal with rape in a non-paradoxical forum. If the paradoxical Greeks Against Rape is going to exist, it is up to the Greek system to fund it for it is the Greek system (a non-campus-wide organization) that Greeks Against Rape is attempting to educate.
The sorority houses were willing to donate the requested $50 per house. Why couldn't the fraternities? If, as Chris Donley suggested, $50 per house is too taxing on each house's budget, maybe the fraternities should re-evaluate their budgets and spend a tad less on beer. With dues in excess of a couple hundred dollars per member per term, there sure seems like enough money to donate $50 per house.
If the Greeks want to deal with rape within their houses, they must fund Greeks Against Rape generously. While I don't support Greeks Against Rape because I find it a contradiction in terms, if the single-sex Greek system is going to use community service as one of its only justifications for existing on a co-ed campus, it must fund the groups that prevent its name from completely being dragged through the mud. It can't just use the group's name as evidence of attempts at reform -- it must actually support and affect the reform.
