My name is Becky Bock. I have a radio show on WVAU (listen to me; I play good stuff on Sundays 11 p.m. to 12 a.m.). I’m a student in the School of International Service and a proud International Relations nerd (call me a WONK and see if I care). Before I left for a year and did that whole study abroad thing, I was the president of a small club called Community Learners Advancing in Spanish and English (CLASE). Now I am the president of one of our wonderful Pan-Hellenic Greek sororities on campus, Alpha Epsilon Phi.
Since 2002, the Student Activities Fund has been distributed the same way. It really doesn’t leave a bunch of room for re-allocations of funds to clubs and, I can promise you, it leaves about zero percent of funds for Greek life. We get a little help out for a once-a-semester Fraternity and Sorority Life “educational speaker” to come and talk to us about staying away from drugs or preventing sexual abuse. “Greek Life problems,” am I right? No, the entire student body should be present, if you ask me.
Greek life is given far less respect than it deserves on this campus. While we make up almost 1/3 of the student body, we seem to only be recognized when something bad happens. A large complaint is that Greek life doesn’t care about what happens with Student Government or other on-campus activities. Is that a surprise seeing that the only thing we get from the Club Council funds is finger wagging?
Sure, our membership is “exclusive,” but both Panhel and the InterFraternity Council (IFC) encourage the men and women that make up the student body to at least go through recruitment, and I was one of 15 new DJs selected to have a WVAU show this semester out of about 70. Is that not selective? I don’t think it is quite fair that because we have a recruitment or “rush” process instead of an application process we should be denied access to Club Council funds.
I hope that with a “YES” on this Student Activities Fund referendum, Greek life will be able to collaborate with clubs on campus. I feel that if student clubs don’t have to be as stingy with their budget, Greek organizations and clubs could meet where their interests collide and do some pretty fantastic things on campus.
I would like to commend Barbara Martinez for her article saying that, “college is weird, but with your vote, we can be weird together” on March 25. Make your own decision but for about $15 we can get money to those student organizations who could really do big things.
Becky Bock is a Junior in the School of International Service.
