Column by Zachary Kiser

In my column last week I discussed the Greek system here on campus and my opinions of it. Many of you have written the Kernel and even contacted me through Facebook in an attempt to share your opinions on my column. In the week since my column ran, I have had the opportunity to reflect and decide how to best respond to the praise and criticism of my article. I believe what I have written for this week will suffice to clear up ambiguities left in my last article and allow me to clarify some statements I made.

I will agree with many of you when you said that I used broad generalizations when describing members of the Greek system. These generalizations served an important purpose and were not just the result of a baseless and ignorant rant. Through these generalizations I tried to bring to the attention of people that appearance is everything. This ties into a second complaint that readers had about my article, the complaint being that I did not know the inner workings of the Greek system. This is very true. My perception of the Greek system is based on my limited number of encounters with the system.

Yet, this is the exact view that is held by the other two-thirds of the population on campus that is not Greek. They draw their conclusions on the limited number of encounters they have with Greeks and the Greek system. What that conclusion is depends on what type of Greek they encounter; whether it is the honorable Greek that leads a life of integrity or the Greek who is the complete opposite of that. I had hoped that my readers would see the subtext within my comments and be able to deduce the satirical nature of my column. Yet, this did not happen on the scale I had hoped for it to and the blame for this lies solely with me.

It is a sad fact of reality, but in this world appearance is everything and the appearance we try to portray isn’t always the one that comes across. Taking this into account, every person, entity and organization must be diligent in their effort to constantly grow and reshape themselves to avoid this confusion of appearance and actuality. It is this diligent reshaping and attempt at growth that will prevent stereotypes (like the ones presented in my column last week) from becoming something that is perceived as the truth.

In the final part of my column this week, I would like to apologize to those that were offended by the comments made in my column last week. The harsh generalizations I used were not appropriate, even in the context of the type of column I was attempting to write, and the lesson I was attempting to teach. But the fact still remains that there are people everyday who encounter not only the Greek system, but also people on the individual level and these people sometimes do not take away the gist of who or what we are based on appearances.

We are a society in which first impressions mean everything and there is little room to fix things after the fact. Again, I wholeheartedly apologize to those I have offended and I invite you to join me in the ongoing struggle to make our campus the accepting, home-away-from-home that we all need and want it to be.