An Open Letter to the PU Greeks and BC

I am continually astonished at the direction Greek life continues to go here at Purdue. I am not upset, I'm not sad yet, I am simply surprised.

While the scope of this cannot be explained in a singular forum, like to focus on IFC's interactions with fraternities.

Purdue hired our current associate dean of students and director for fraternity, sorority, and cooperative living in April 2013. Just a month later, Chun "Michael" Deng passed away during a hazing ritual at Baruch College. This is one of the first nationally covered hazing-related deaths, and greek life across the country began to take notice. Over the next few years, fueled by the fear of a similar incident and resulting publicity nightmare at Purdue, the ODOS member in charge of greek life (BC) began his systematic overreaction and elimination of many of the most popular houses here on campus. SigEp, snu, beta, dchi, and theta chi, were all either kicked off or regulated into obsolescence. Lambda fell soon after(see "the fall of Purdue greeks" on greekrank in 2016) and AGR along with countless others have fallen since. Did some of these houses act in unacceptable manners? Probably, are there houses still on campus that have done worse? Absolutely.

At the end of the day though, BC Doesn't like problem children, he has no interest in finding a balance between his ideas and the communities' ideas, that's simply too much work. If he can reach down from his perch and hold investigations open for semesters on end, eventually one of them will slip up and he will smile as he wipes hundreds of years of chapter history and the college homes of thousands of alumni off the map.

He may act in disguise, such as he wants us to get along better, before incentivizing a culture where chapters snitch on "rival" houses to save their own. He may preach diversity and inclusion unless it's diversity in ideas from his own. But above all, he will say he works for the community and the students and I have so you get the final say, but it's all simply a puppet show.

I can’t help but give him some credit. IFC at an institution is only as strong as the validity and speed of the information it receives. He understands if he is able to divide the chapters on campus he will always have someone willing to sell out another chapter, or work from the inside, perpetuating his reign over the system. At the expense of the Greek community at Purdue.

If the community really wants to thrive and survive another 100 years, you need to work with us BC, not against us. Actually, listen to your chapter presidents, understand that social aspects of fraternities are a good thing at a rigorous school. Understand that regulating houses differently hurts the community as a whole. Instead of lecturing community members about how to lead or fit into your mold, practice what you preach, and be a community leader, not a dictator.

My last thoughts are a quote from the lambda member post referenced above, and they are to the community as a whole:

My advice to you is this: Tread carefully, respect secrecy, and be weary of those you let through your doors. Do your best to get your actives on positions in IFC and student government, as well as community standards. Speak out against the unfair harassment of Greek organizations at Purdue and especially towards BC’s overreach as dean.