Giving is going dry for the greek system at Syracuse University, said Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Council administrators.

It used to be fraternity men and sorority women could raise money for a good cause while enjoying a cold beer, but the Office of Greek Life and Experiential Learning, Panhellenic Council and the IFC are working to clean up the philanthropy system this year.

‘We’ve merged the social parties with the philanthropies,’ said Joshua McIntosh, senior associate director of OGLEL. ‘We need to come out of the bars. We need to separate parties from philanthropy.’

Philanthropies have always played a considerable role in greek life, McIntosh said, but should be even bigger.

‘We want to bring fraternity life back to the heart, soul and productivity of this campus,’ he said.

Roy Baker, the new associate dean of students, was shocked to learn that philanthropies were usually held in bars or with alcohol, McIntosh said. In the past, the cover charge to get into the bar would be donated to the philanthropy.

‘(Philanthropies) are a great tradition, we just need to clean them up,’ McIntosh said.

Under previous OGLEL administrations, the greek system was entirely corrupt, said Steven Chamberlain, faculty advisor for Alpha Tau Omega. This allowed the fraternities to say what they knew demonstrators wanted to hear and get away with breaking national fraternity rules, he said.

‘It was a tradition for a long time to hear that philanthropies are for drinking and you maybe raise some money,’ Chamberlain said.

Chamberlain also said Baker and the current IFC leadership are taking steps in the right direction to fixing these problems.

Fraternities and sororities often held the events at the bars because it was the only way the chapters could afford to host events, said Charles Isaac, IFC philanthropy chair. Renting Goldstein Auditorium is extremely costly, Isaac said, and it was more beneficial to use the less expensive bars as venues.

Renting Goldstein for an event such as a speech could cost up to $3,500. In comparison, Although Faegan’s does not host fraternities and sorority events anymore; in the past it would charge around $2 per pint of beer and sell it by the keg, said manager Mark Clouse.

The IFC has been given money from the university to help solve this problem, McIntosh said. Most fraternities have been supportive and willing to work with the IFC, but others are reluctant to change their social-philanthropy mixes, he said.

‘Some don’t want to leave the bars,’ he said. ‘I say, ‘You need to contact your national director, because I know what his response will be.”

Moving out of the bars is only one of the changes that the Panhellenic Council is making for philanthropic events, said new Panhellenic Council President and former Daily Orange columnist Dana Lucas. The council will also be working with the IFC to help change the sexually connotative competitions that are often the basis of fraternity’s philanthropies, she said.

‘We’ve had a lot of problems with that,’ Lucas said. ‘The situations women are put in make them uncomfortable.’

Sororities are extremely competitive, Lucas said, and the competition often drives women to do things they wouldn’t ordinarily do.

‘It doesn’t help when you have people drinking at the same time,’ she said.

Lucas said she hopes philanthropies will also begin to serve as a way to unite the greek community. Usually, fraternities only invite sororities to their philanthropy events and vice versa, she said, but hopes this year will see the beginning of more coed events, such as the popular Delta Kappa Epsilon volleyball tournament.

Phi Sigma Sigma, Lucas’ sorority, will be the first sorority to try this, she said. They will host their first Texas-Hold ‘Em and blackjack tournament to benefit the National Kidney Foundation March 8 at Varsity Pizza, she said.

Having sororities work together on philanthropies would also help to cut down on the competition between houses, Lucas said.

‘We want to cultivate positive relationships between sorties and fraternities, which at times have been stressed,’ McIntosh said.

This year, the Panhellenic Council adopted the SU Rape: Advocacy, Prevention and Education Center as its council-wide philanthropy, and are working on developing programming for it, said Lucas. In addition, each house has its own charity, some dictated by their national chapter, others chosen locally.

The IFC plans on continuing to allow each chapter to have its own philanthropy and has no plans to adopt a particular charity like the Panhellenic Council did.

‘There’s a lot of charities we can benefit in local area,’ Isaac said. ‘There’s a lot of good we can do without limiting ourselves to one specific organization.’

Next year, the fraternities will be working together on three different events, McIntosh said. These include a letter-writing campaign to raise money for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in the fall, a million-penny competition between SU organizations in the winter and the Relay for Life in the spring.

Some fraternities are already working on putting the IFC’s changes into effect. This week, Delta Tau Delta will host its annual Cupid Week, said Delta president Tim Morgan.

The events, which used to be held in bars, will move to Schine Underground, and include a skit competition between sororities. The sophomore brother named Cupid will also collect kisses in the quad Thursday to raise money for the American Heart Association.

The events are being cleaned up, both in respect to alcohol and the treatment of the sorority women, Morgan said.

‘We’re being more respectful and clear about motivations,’ he said.

Published on February 27, 2005 at 12:00 pm