editorial
The week that was
Next Monday is the first day of Greek
Week on the UNL campus-traditionally a
time of self-evaluation and celebration for
fraternity and sorority members.
This week has been Hell Week, or Help
Week as modern usage would have it, for a
number of UNL fraternities-traditionally a
time of pledge harassment.
Hell Week.
The term, coined by fraternity men
themselves, accurately describes the
pre-initiation activities in many Greek houses.
Hell Week is "final installment" of the price
pledges must pay to be "brothers in the
bond." It is a time for pledges to exchange
menial and pointless tasks for signatures on a
pledge paddle, for endless rounds of push-ups,
and for substituting "fun and games" and
harrassment for sleep.
According to the recently revised
Interfraternity Council (IFC) By-Laws such
hazing of pledges is prohibited. "Any tactics
likely to prove injurious to the pledge or any
form of activity that may bring discredit to
the fraternity or the organized fraternity
system as a whole" also is forbidden by that
document
A few years' ago IFC established a Pledge
Education Contract That agreement was
more specific: "All forms of hazing will be
prohibited where hazing is defined as any
action taken or situation created,
intentionally, whether on or off fraternity
premises, to produce mental or physical
discomfort, embarrassment, harassment, or
ridicule. In effect, all pledges will be treated
as mature and intelligent college men." The
membership of IFC chose not to use the
contract this year.
IFC officials say the contract wasn't
renewed because it duplicated the By-Laws
and is therefore unnecessary. They also say
fraternities resented having to sign the
document because, they said, it implied they
had followed unethical policies in the past
Individual house members agreed with both
reasons. The fact is that unethical policies
have been enforced during some fraternity
pre-initiation activities. They are unethical
because the IFC By-Laws, house regulations
PLEDGES WHEW Of W
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and rush week promises seem to mean little
or nothing during Hell Week.
Because it chose not to renew the contract
and has not developed a new, constructive
pledge education program, IFC must share the
blame for any harassment or unethical
pre-initiation activities. But IFC is not the
only one at fault Individual house members
can be held accountable also. It is they who
set the policies for their respective houses and
determine the Hell Week schedules.
The image of the Greek system can be no
better than that of its members. At one time
it seemed Greeks were seriously attempting to
build constructive pledge programs. Such
attempts at reform are much less visible
today-perhaps because they are nonexistent
In fact there seems to be a resurgence of the
old "hard-line" programs.
There will be some truth in the praise given
fraternities and sororities next week.
Although the Greek system has its faults, not
all houses have regressive programs. Many
students find fraternity and sorority
membership to be a valuable experience both
during and after their college years.
But future students may never get a chance
to have that valuable experience if some
fraternities continue their violations of IFC
By-Laws and possibly of University policy. To
assure their continued existence they must
re-evaluate and update their policies.
IFC has an opportunity to take an
immediate step in this direction by working
for the implementation and enforcement of
ethical, explicit and humane pledge education
regulations.
Tom Lansworth
Michael (O.J.) Nelson
2addenjngcelebratiDn over the victory spoils
Editor's note: Arthur Hoppe, political satirist and
humorist, occasionally writes in a more serious vein.
Today's column is one of his serious writings
For the past week the front pages have carried
little else but the story of our returning prisoners of
war.
Each day, I've glanced at the pictures of grinning
young men and tearfully happy wives. And I've
turned the page.
I don't want to read about it "Hero's Welcome
For Freed POWs," the headline says. I don't want to
watch as the tiny figure on the television screen waves
joyously from the steps of the airplane and then,
I through the electronic magic of instant replay, waves
joyously once again.
I know this is the one happy moment of this long
and ugly war. I know this is as close to a victory
celebration as we'll ever have.
Yet I can't bring myself in the mood of national
jubilation. I only feel sad.
Partly, it is the 500 or so young men themselves.
I'm glad they're finally coming home. I try to imagine
what it would be like to spend eight years in a foreign
prison camp. The poor bastards!
Yet it was we who sent them over there to be
captured and confined. It was we who sent them to
fight this long and ugly war because we could find no
way out of the mess without admitting we were
wrong.
They are living evidence of our guilt. They are, in a
way, us. For we were all, as the peace pamphlets used
to say, prisoners of the war.
orthur hoppe
The President says we must "resolve anew to be
worthy of the sacrifices they have made." The
sacrifices for what? The map of Vietnam is
unchanged. The Viet Cong still hold their enclaves. A
dictator still rules in Saigon. More than 145,000
North Vietnamese troops still remain in the south.
A decade of sacrifices. A million lives, a billion
dollars, our own country torn apart. Yet nothing has
changed. And I am asked to feel worthy of this. I
only feel sad.
But that is only part of it. It is mostly, I think,
that I begrudge this long and ugly war this one happy
moment.
Its very ugliness and pointlessness, I had come to
feel was its only virtue. After a decade of this ugly
and pointless war, the country had come to look
upon it with revulsion. And I had hope that this
revulsion would extend to any future war our leaders
might want, to embroil us in as they play their game
or global strategy.
The how quickly we forget.
The President talks now of the "selflessness" of
our cause, of "peace with honor" of noble
"sacrifices." And now the nation's mood is one of
jubilation as we celebrate what is fast becoming a
famous victory in glorious battle.
So I glance away from the happy faces of those
500 young men. They are the symbol of this war. We
should never have sent them over there. Now at last
we have them back. They are the only fruits of our
victory. And yet the nation celebrates.
How quickly we forget.
And that, I think, is perhaps the saddest thing of
all.
Copyright Chronic ! Publishing Co. 1973)
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WAR PEAP
And their happiness now is in direct ratio to the
agony we put them through. Maybe this is true for
the nation as a whole. Maybe this is the cause of our
jubilation now. So when I see the joy in their faces
that their agony is over, I turn the page. I flick off the
set I only feel sad
The President has asked us to offer "a prayer of
thanks for all who have borne this battle." When he
says that I don't think of our 500 prisoners. I think
of those who bore far worse in this battle. But thev
are dead. More than a million of them. I can't thank
vthem for dying. The poor bastards! I only feel sad." .
page 4
daily nebraskan
friday, february 23, 1973
