Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite
I am not an operator inside the administration. Frank Roth, Lehigh’s general counsel, probably wakes up to copies of my emails, under some privacy-invasion clause of which the school failed to inform me, thanks in part to some of the efforts that I’ve stood behind in my time here. They [the administration] don’t care for me, but they pretend to.
I’m not raising a flag and screaming for uproarious change – in fact, I’ll state that in this letter I stand behind that which has raised more eyebrows and blood pressure rates than any other topic, beyond even race: the Greek System.
Life is full of organizations that only select individuals may participate in – they may be exclusive businesses, gentlemen’s clubs (like the Century Club or the Union League), and more. I can’t and won’t defend those who assert that such organizations are inherently unfair, and that their abolition is equivocal with liberty. The French said it best: “Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite…”
However, I will say that in light of the reception that some anonymous and vocal members of the Greek Community have given our peers at the special interest “Technology in Society House,” residing in the former Sigma Alpha Mu residence, I’m really disheartened.
Behaving like champagne socialists – living in University-furnished houses, using University resources, and under the auspices of one of the last administrations in the country that hasn’t overturned non school-provided liquor consumption (a rarity in today’s higher education landscape), some Greeks have judged an organization whose members have common bonds that bring them together under one roof, a mission of service that goes along with their residential experience, and a membership based on certain criterion (sound familiar?) and labeled it as an anathema.
Void of any understanding of the bigger picture, some Greeks began to dig into their bag of stock responses, mostly related to the false idea that the alumni know or care that you or others may think the school’s culture has gone “dry” and “stale,” and will discontinue their donations on the basis of such. Trust me, their minds are trapped far into the past, where time has brushed away all but the fondest memories that they have, and no matter what you say, they’ll still keep coming back for more.
I digress – back to the issue at hand.
Residential Experience Programs
Residential Experience Programs (called LiveLehigh!), a relative newcomer to Lehigh and a tradition at other universities, encompass all that is good about the Greek experience and extends it to those who might have more specific or alternative interests.
Like the Greeks, if LiveLehigh! communities communities fail to make recruitment numbers, they are disbanded. Anyone can propose a living experience: as of right now, there is a Music Appreciation House, a Green Living House, the famous Technology in Society House, and the largest by-far, Substance-Free (or CHOICE) floors in Brodhead House. Add this to UMOJA, the International House, the ROTC House, and the unrecognized or new off-campus residential Greek houses and you have a relatively popular concept.
Granted, unlike Greeks, these programs are subject to live wherever the school assigns them space and generally cannot directly petition houses, if they are ever a school program. The fact that the Tech House took the building that they did was purely a matter of university assignment.
I believe that students in these programs, and those within the general housing circuit, would appreciate it if they could pay extra (the equivalent of Greek Parlor and residential fees) and park directly outside where they live, and potentially enjoy a private chef and have their facilities renovated every few years. Or, at the very least, have a stable locus to call home.
Looking Back
A bit of history: before Lehigh went co-ed in 1974, what is now Upper Cents was a collection of “quasi-Greek” houses. No, I don’t mean the sororities that are/were located in a few blocks of rooms. Rather, these residences were designed to offer an alternative to pledge-and-reject bidding for students who wanted to “go Greek.”
Named with monikers originally exclusive to Lehigh, some eventually went national and became chaptered Greek letter organizations. The houses competed against each other, you still did have to “pledge,” but there were no membership review processes, and pledging really consisted of the school assigning you where the house’s leadership thought you fit best.
Benefits included having letters on your Centennial building, exclusive use of your game-room downstairs, private parking (behind and in front of the complex), and cleaning and laundry services. It was a very popular program, but the needs of housing an expanded freshmen class came first, and exclusive upper-class housing fell by the wayside to increase enrollment numbers during the schools’ near-bankruptcy days of the late 1970s.
So What?
I stand firm by what I said: I’m not at all supporting the reduction or dismantling of the Greek System. Rather, I want to see it expanded. I’d like to see almost every student in a residence with either a theme or a set of letters and values that equate to a theme, if they so choose. I’d like these same students to have the luxury (if they maintain numbers and standards, like the Greeks) of residing in the same complex or location from year to year.
Conspiracy Theories
I don’t think that the school’s efforts are at all trying to reduce some sort of “power” that the Greeks assert that they have. I can say with confidence that if the university enacted policies that Lehigh-staffed bartenders and “bouncers” or event security would have to be used for all events of alcohol consumption at Greek houses, the move wouldn’t be met with the uproarious response that some Greeks and onlookers assert. Why? Because many, many other schools have taken identical steps and their campuses thrive, their enrollment grows, and their alumni continue to donate. It’s really a moot, myopic argument.
So, what’s the solution here? I think it’s pretty clearly enumerated, and I welcome further suggestions to hone this proposal:
My Plan
I call for a return to the Centennial Project. Which, by the way, was to expand to “Lower Cents” when it was built in 1970 and have exclusive access to Rathbone (an equivalent “personal chef”). However, when Lehigh went co-ed, the new Lower Cents dorms became the women’s dorms and the project started to loose momentum due to other concerns, such as then-dwindling enrollment and the need to guarantee housing to freshmen.
The singular largest barrier here is the limited housing for freshmen that already spills over into former upper-class developments: namely, the Cents and M&M.
I call also for increased acceptance by current Greeks for LiveLehigh! program housing. I’m not asserting that all, or even a large portion of Greeks are responsible for the attitudes that are pervasive in gossip and the grapevine. However, an official sanction or blessing by the IFC or Panhel would be met with nothing but good spirits, both from the administration and other students. For the Greeks to make any official or unofficial movement against program housing is to spit in the face of the very core of what they themselves represent.
I call for the expansion of housing on the Hill, with additional houses built on both the Hill and “off campus,” near where the fraternities were located prior to most of the Sayre Park construction in the 50′s and 60′s. Houses, like the current crop of program homes and fraternities/sororities, would still be required to maintain recruitment numbers and standards of living – the “market” of student demand would decide which concepts were popular and which concepts will fail and leave space for new ideas.
I call for the option for all student theme housing (whose facilities allow it) to have some degree private dining and parking. I know that the Substance Free kids have Brodhead’s dining hall, which is largely underused by the rest of the campus, and typically already affords personal private service. Obviously, if a program home didn’t want to bear the extra cost (“parlor fees”), then the program would come to some democratic decision as to whether or not the amenities would be something worth paying for.
The End of an Era? Or a new one?
Many universities have successfully implemented program housing, or some derivative, and it has acted to strengthen the campus community much in the same way the community service and programming of Lehigh’s Greek community and other program homes have done.
Different schools take different flavors: Notre Dame has students in dorms mimicking our Centennial system on a macro scale, competing for different crops of incoming freshmen and guaranteeing students a home and community of peers, friends and mentors for 4 years. At New College of Florida, the Pei dorms are designed in such a way that students must interact with each other through the pedestrian traffic flow – a tangent notion, but one that makes sense in dorm design. (Think of the Upper Cents “patio” in front of Rathbone, and how people gather there in warmer seasons).
I truly believe that by the school’s expansion of program housing, Lehigh will have a fiscally sound (lower per-building cost, rather than large dormitory projects, and additional residential fees to levy on occupants), popular (look at the competition for private houses on and off campus!) way to solve the limited housing available on campus. While my proposals may never come to pass, I ask that you, dear reader, reflect on and make changes to what we presently have. That is, Lehigh is only as good as the motivated students who make a set of buildings a community.
