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A
Dear Greeks, Cadets, DG red-asses and others so inclined to an opinion,
At first there were just a few. But just a few years after the first Greek organization colonized at
Texas A&dVl, there are 18 national fraternities and 10 national sororities. The numbers are getting
too large to ignore. And if the actual numbers aren’t reminder enough — there are the sweatshirts,
\isors, decals and koozies, all branded with the various letters of the Greek alphabet.
Well, anyway, they’re here. A drive down Athens Way is signal enough that many people and many
dollars are involved. But it does go deeper. We were suspicious that it did, so the At Ease microscope
zoomed in on the Greeks among us. Yes, Davis-Gaiy they are among us.
To get a clear view we went first to the people involved, then to the administrators and finallv to
someone that might cross the line between the usual fraternity brother and quasi-brotherhood of
the Corps. Fortunately, we have among our writers a sorority member who can be trusted with her
journalism ethics to present a fair picture of the system. Her assignment was merely to tell us everv-
thing that there is to know about the Greeks. We certainly didn't know much — in fact, (we just
can't resist it) it was greek to us! The average Joe Ag probably doesn't that much about these people
either.
The lead storv is a good history of the development of the fraternities and the addition of sororities
as women had to look harder for a place to fit in at this intant co-ed university. Oust how did these
groups get here in the first place if it's the Old Ags that are so hell-bent on keeping them out? Just a
thought.)
And next with the administrators. They say they are thinking about the possibility that there is a
likelihood of a remote chance that the sororities and fraternities wall be accepted by the university —
the usual beating around the bush. After sifting through the verbosity we found that the real hold
up for the official stamp of approval seems to be the civil rights cases currently against the Univer-
sitv. Once those are taken care of, well our yearbook just might have a whole section of composite
pictures —just like the other big universities do.
And we found a student who, thinking that the comraderie of the Corps was not enough, opted to
join a fraternity too. He admits that the tendenc\ 7 to cheat them both in the dedication department is
there, but his storv makes for a good profile and a good look at the differences and similarities be
tween the Corps and a fraternal organization.
The lifestyle is uncommon here. It’s really not that unusual though. Unfortunately, too many blind
opinions have been based on stereotypes — but that goes both ways, too. Take a look and decide
what you think — are they truly brothers and sisters or are they Friends for Hire? Either way, we
hope we’ve presented the facts.
Sincerely,
■—/l T ^7^^-
Shawn Behlen Leigh-Ellen Clark
Co-editors