As somebody who participated in Greek life as an undergraduate and benefited from the experience, and whose son is not only a member of a fraternity at his university but is president of his chapter, I get tired of hearing anti-fraternity and sorority conspiracy theories uttered by members of the Greek community at GW who mess up.
Jared Fayer may wish to argue the hazing accusation leveled at Alpha Epsilon Pi. I do not want to get into that controversy. But his fantasy published in the Thursday, Jan. 25 issue of The Hatchet (“GW ousts fraternity”) that “his organization is a target of GW efforts to minimize Greek-letter efforts on campus” is unsubstantiated nonsense.
I valued my fraternity experience. I was glad to have my son join a fraternity. I would be glad to see the percentage of undergraduates at GW involved in responsible Greek life grow from the roughly 18 percent that now participate. This does not mean that the University under my leadership is prepared to tolerate uncivil, unruly, unbecoming behavior by members of fraternities or sororities any more than from other students on campus.
Fraternities have a great deal to teach college students. They can provide a service to their members, to the University community and to the adjacent Foggy Bottom community. They can provide opportunities for leadership, for learning about responsibility and for enhancing social life. But when they blunder, it’s no good to alibi or to scapegoat the University. Jared Fayer needs to just suck it up.
