Fraternities make an easy target for negative press.
As president of Kappa Alpha Order, a national social fraternity, and a vice president of the Interfraternity Council, I know firsthand that dumb things can happen. But I also have the pleasure of knowing that great things do happen.
Dumb things can be prevented. Taking a few extra steps to prevent the dumb things - sometimes making decisions that are unpopular amongst friends with an eye to how outsiders will perceive their actions - is what can distance a chapter, its leadership and its members from receiving negative press.
It's no surprise that negative news is more popular than pretty news. Rarely do people sit around at a party and talk about the fraternity's latest charitable donation. However, talking about a party that got broken up the week before is standard fare. I only wish the negative news could be balanced out by the good.
A good example came forth this week. On Monday, Lambda Chi Alpha's removal from campus for its risk-management violations made front-page news. At the same time, the photo chosen for the cover of Tuesday's The State Press was a student donating blood. The unmentioned story behind that photo is that my fraternity sponsored the blood drive in cooperation with all of the other fraternities and sororities on campus as one of the many philanthropic endeavors our chapters host.
Lambda Chi Alpha is not a group of evil people; some of its members with whom I am friends are very good men. They maintained the highest GPA of all traditional fraternities at ASU last year, donated $2,000 to Valley Big Brothers Big Sisters from their annual "watermelon bust" and annually host 20 to 30 kids from the Valley Big Brothers Big Sisters program during Easter. The members of Lambda Chi Alpha even were awarded recruitment and risk-management awards by their national organization during the past year. Until this fall, Lambda Chi had not received a reported violation in two years.
Of course, bad things did happen that caused the chapter's closure. The national office received reports of violation, and as with all incidents involving formal complaints against a fraternity, a process was followed.
Fraternities at ASU, like most campuses, have done things that should not have been done. However, like most campuses, they do plenty of good things that go unreported. If chapters would spend more time promoting philanthropic events and taking leadership roles in outside organizations, perhaps our collective image would change.
So we are asking our members to be involved in groups outside of their chapter and to have balance in their lives. Chapter leaders campuswide are gathering to discuss how to clean up our image and make our social environments safer. We are asking the questions that need to be asked.
As these meetings continue to improve and chapters continue to raise awareness of risk management issues, there will be less negative news available to print and taint fraternities' images.
Matthew Snowden is a finance senior. Reach him at matthew.snowden@asu.edu.
