As a senior, I have watched the saga surrounding Greek life unfold for quite some time now. Two fraternities have been kicked off campus during my time at Lafayette, and two others had been kicked off in the years leading up to my admission.

I’ve never been a member of a Greek organization, nor have I ever considered membership. In fact, I used to support the administration’s tough stance on the Greeks.

But I’ve realized that it is no business of mine to regulate other people’s behavior, and it would simply be arrogant to try to impose my values on others. Our own Student Handbook, essentially a contract between students and the College, expressly guarantees students freedom of association under Article III of the Rights and Responsibilities section: “Students are free to organize and join associations to promote their common interests, and student organizations may be accorded use of College facilities and resources when available so long as such interests and use are compatible with the purposes and function of the College.” So then, arguments that Greeks have poorer academic performance and engage in riskier alcohol consumption than non-Greeks are irrelevant since such students are free to “promote” whatever “common interests” they share. Social interests certainly seem to be protected under this clause.

I’d like to deconstruct the above quote a little more: Perhaps the College has a right to outlaw groups that aren’t “compatible with the purposes and function of the College”? No, review the preceding statement in the Handbook and it becomes obvious that this clause only applies in relation to groups which want to use College resources. Otherwise, it would be a grievous abuse for the College to attempt to regulate students’ private friendships and what activities they want to do with each other.

What about the Greeks’ houses? The College owns most of them, and the College’s money (our money) goes toward maintaining those facilities and providing other services to Greeks. This is the only justification I see for persecuting Greeks for their private choices. If the Greeks were separated financially from the College, an arrangement I fully support (since I don’t consent to my tuition money being diverted to Greek organizer), only then would they have every right to do as they please because it’s simply none of my business.

If this makes the College uncomfortable, then the proper course of action would be to make Lafayette’s admission standards more vigorous. After all, the admission process must be inadequate if individuals who allegedly don’t match the College’s ideals are admitted. Once said students pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to attend Lafayette in exchange for the rights laid out in the Handbook, it’s too late to abrogate the College’s contract with them.

I would recommend that members of the Greek community contact the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), a non-profit legal advocacy group, for assistance in handling their predicament. FIRE can help establish whether the College has reneged on its promise to uphold Greeks’ freedom of association. Not surprisingly, the College has gotten in trouble with FIRE before, and their website (theFIRE.org) gives Lafayette a failing grade for protecting students’ First Amendment rights.

President Weiss, with all due respect, I think you ought to treat the Greek community as adults capable of making their own decisions and associations, an aspect of their lives in which you frankly shouldn’t have any say.

For liberty,

Andreas Lezis ’12