• Greek Life Before “TrueLies”
• Top Five Ways to a Fulfilling Greek Experience
• Video and Podcast of “The Future of Greek Life”

Since my beginning of “TrueLies”, I have tried to portray a positive side of Greek life, greatly incorporating our accomplishments and breaking the stereotypes. In my short time researching Greek life, I was curious to see if we were always dealing with controversy and chaos. So, my quest began.

I searched the last three years of articles in the Mustang Daily, Cal Poly’s student run newspaper, to see if Greek life was portrayed in a positive light before 2007. I started in 2007 since it is significant with my involvement at Cal Poly.  Sadly before 2008, only one article is printed,  “Fraternities and sororities clean up area around campus.” Woo-hoo. The whole article is about how Greek life wants to prove to the community that they mean some good. It probably helped somewhat, but seriously. The start of 2008 was fine till rush started in the fall. Fraternity sandwich boards were seen as lewd and overly sexual, and the incident with Carson Starkey was the only thing concerning anything Greek there after.

So what can we do about this? Panhellinic has done everything to promote a healthy and safe environment for Greek life. So, here is my question. Why the hell aren’t we complying with these simple parameters? I don’t think we are doing enough to prove to the San Luis Obispo community that we deserve to be treated with respect.

You Better Listen Up!

In order to push Greek life along, here are some tips for not only Cal Poly’s Greek community but any other schools who choose to listen.

The Five Ways to a Fulfilling Greek Experience

1.     Each house is stereotyped for something. So, don’t be the stereotype! We have this secret power to positively influence our peers by helping and being involved with everything. So why not take advantage of the abundance of opportunities that we have and show our school who we really are.

2.     Tanning and hydrogen peroxide. The movie depicted sorority girl is always tan and blonde. Don’t be that (unless you are naturally). BE YOURSELF. Your house picked you because of who you are, not what you could be.

3.     Go to events. By being a part of Greek life, you get invited to great events, philanthropies, and socials. Putting your face out there (from a journalist point of view) gets your name out there. Opportunity awaits.

4.     Don’t be selective. This is the perfect time of your life to meet everyone. Greek life is a family, so take in everyone as a whole. Don’t think of your sorority or fraternity as the best or the hottest. We are in this together so treat everyone like your brothers and sisters.

5.     Be apart of something huge. Join the executive board of your house. Helping out is a great way to feel completely involved. It also looks good on a resume later on.

Since I can’t attend Cal Poly forever and my Greek experience will end, I greatly encourage future generations of Greek members to give your all to your house and school. Wear each letter with pride and make sure to be involved. With every mistake comes the experience to learn and mature. Learn from your wrongs and you will know how to do right.

I am not sure that we will see significant change within a year, but I do not doubt my peers. I greatly rely on younger generations to pull us out of our slump. Sorry, for the burden. Until we can prove that we are in fact here to make Cal Poly a brighter place and give a positive influence, who knows where we will be in a year or ten.

With the conclusion to my persuasive post, I want to leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Margaret Mead. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Here is the link to my podcast interview with the Delta Sigma Phi up and coming president, Andre Huaman.

• Trials and Tribulations of Filming
• Why Greek Houses Can’t Be Seen
• So Where Do I Go From Here?
  

  Foothill - I had to sneak around a public road to film a glimpse of a sorority house. Why is this?

I have never encountered a more difficult task than trying to figure out how to keep a house secluded

in a documentary featuring Greek houses.

I began this video with the idea that I would film and interview a sisterhood event and the people that made it all possible. A sisterhood event is where two or more sororities get together and have a fun activity planned so they could meet and get to know one another. The basis of this is to diminish the competition between sororities and create a feeling of being a family. I was very excited because my sorority was having an event with two other sororities and was putting together a concert.

I knew this would be the perfect event to film; sorority girls getting along wearing different letters. But due with conflicting work schedules the night of the event, my plans had to change.

With the sisterhood idea in mind, I decided to interview girls of different sororities and have them explaining what a sisterhood meant to each of them and how they contributed to being in a sisterhood. I thought this idea was less than exciting than my first, but still had something to give to the audience.

I filmed two girls and got some pretty interesting quotes from each. I felt pretty confident that everything was going well. But the moment I asked to film a sorority house for my educational (basically homework related) film, I was asked to leave the property.

It was then did I realize that I had picked a very touchy subject. I asked another sorority house if I could even photograph the building that held their letters in plain sight, for all the public to see, and they said it was against policy and I would have to present them with papers ensuring their house would be depicted in positive light. Since I didn’t have such papers except for my promises that it wasn’t at all a negative video, they told me to leave.

I asked around why this is so, and I got a full and almost broad answer. Because of the ongoing negativity towards Cal Poly’s Greek life, no one is allowed to be interviewed, shown in letters, or seen near the house if being filmed or photographed. The Greek houses are also under this policy, it just can’t be seen.

I found this understanding but a little absurd. Yes, in the past couple of years, Greek life in San Luis Obispo is seen as anything but uplifting, but being stereotyped in a group surely isn’t fair.

My video undoubtedly turned out anything but fantastic and I am very disappointed that it even is on my page. It hardly meets the guidelines and the filming is terrible.

To get the little footage I had, I walked the public street, Foothill, and quickly filmed the houses enough to see the actual building, but not the letters hung from the door. My pictures were of surrounding objects of the people or buildings. It was terrible work on a subject that should have been taken in with open arms. Who wouldn’t want to share the positive light of being in a sorority? It basically could have been a recruitment video!

So, with all my effort to come up with nothing, it has only made me crave for more. I hope to one day make up for lost times and really get to show each Greek house as an individual, not as a group stereotype that all we want to do is haze and injure the innocent.

When will Greek life ever learn?

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The most frequently used words within my blog

http://www.wordle.net/.

• The history of JuicyCampus.com
• First hand stories from JuicyCampus
• How to (if possible) stay untraceable on the internet
  

  The JuicyCampus logo. "Always Anonymous, Always Juicy"

My friend was a victim. My fraternity friends were definitely victims. We were all victims.

In the years leading up to my decision to join Greek life, one website steadily gained popularity tearing down the walls of the Greek community. It had quotes reading, so and so “has herpes, stay away”, “this girl sleeps with everyone!” It was a terrible time for not only Cal Poly, but also Greek members. JuicyCampus was all the rage and set fire to everyone’s gossip of the day.

Created in 2007, Juicy Campus was a site focused on the gossip, rumors and social businesses of college universities. The site allowed students to anonymously post tabs about gossip they found to be the most “juicy” or worthy of attention. Although the site was open to the whole campus, the topics with the most visits and comments on the site were focused on the fraternities and sororities, both Greek and multi-cultural.

Gossip spread like wildfire after each login of JuicyCampus

“Anonymous” free speech turned into a cruel and slippery slope. Anyone was able to access the site, pick his or her school, and relieve all tension on some poor student or teacher that didn’t sit right with the author.

After the discovery of this site, the atmosphere of Cal Poly Greek life was in frenzy. The site allowed the author to comment without logging in, making it the perfect place to spread rumors.

When JuicyCampus came about in 2007, none of the website creators could ever imagine how big this site would explode. Over 500 campuses around the nation were picked to be on the site’s page. Anyone with access to a computer could pick a school and see what students were saying.

In an opinion article featured in the Mustang Daily, Chelsea Bieker states, “It’s unclear how site creator Matt Ivestor goes about making his selection on which universities gain “juicy” status, but apparently Cal Poly is a hit. Already there are over 2,000 gossip threads just about our school. The top two most viewed threads: “Hottest girls at Cal Poly” and “Who are the biggest man-whores on campus?”

The top 500 schools were now the laughing stock of the nation. Everyone’s dirty laundry was hung out to dry, whether it was his or her boxers or briefs or not. Greek life was falling apart and everyone was out for blood trying to pin point the authors of each comment. Sororities and fraternities were rated best from worst pointing out who was fattest, ugliest, sluttiest, or prudest. No one was safe. For the first time, sororities and fraternities were running on their numbers on JuicyCampus and the Greek letters were the laughing stock of the school.

I had a good friend, let’s call her Martha for her reputation’s sake, and her name was posted on the website a couple months after school started in 2008. I happened to be with her when she got that fateful text telling her to quickly check out JuicyCampus. Oh boy, let me tell you, the waterworks were turned on FULL blast. The comment was sadly truthful, explaining an “incident” that happened to her one night during WOW Week. Her first and last name was posted which put the icing on the cake.

A screenshot of the Oxford JuicyCampus site. Note the classy headline: "Dorm Sluts"

This situation made one website seem like playing with fire. No matter how hard she tried to cover the comment up, she couldn’t. The official JuicyCampus blog said, “Everything you do on the Internet is traceable as long as you’re using private computer. This is especially true for college networks where they log who is plugged into each network outlet and have your unique network card address.” One incident caused a stir in the anonymous community when the creator of JuicyCampus gave up the IP address of a comment author after a shooting threat was made. But other than that, “If your school calls upset about some girl being called a slut, we’re not handing over access to our server data. If the LAPD calls telling us there is a shooting threat, you better believe we’re gonna help them…”

I’m glad JuicyCampus is out for some good… if you can even categorize it as good.

The site was taken down around February 2008 but reposted on September 2, 2008 under the new name collegeacb.com. Thankfully, the new site hasn’t gotten as much traffic from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Greek life finally had some time to reboot and heal their wounds.

Just like Chelsea Bieker said, “we’re a classy campus, not a ‘juicy’ campus.” I hope we stay that way.

Please report hazing. You can save a life.

Because of all the buzz around campus pertaining to Greek life and hazing, I have to continue my previous blog’s idea and expand a bit.

Greek life throughout California and the United States has taken many blows with the constant stream of hazing news. A recent article in the Mustang Daily, “Geeked on Greek? Look before you leap”, takes a somewhat objective side on the the subject of hazing.

During WOW week at Cal Poly, the Greek system is a buzz with rush events and practices getting ready for the new members of their house. A “no-hazing policy” document was handed out to many sororities defining the acts of hazing and the consequences taken if hazing is used on new members. All the members of the house must sign the document, agreeing to partake in a safe and responsible new member initiation. The document stated that hazing involved the following: no glasses shall be given to any new member (alcohol intended or not); no boys can be involved in any activity; a new member will not be involved in any lewd, embarrassing, or sexual acts; any act intended to harm physically or emotionally; and the list goes on.

In this article, many students from the Greek system came forward with their stories of hazing. Rachel, the author of the article found “Sororities might haze with acts that have a potential for more emotional harm, fraternities tend to engage in more hazing acts that have a potential for physical injury.”

An article from the Associated Press showing the statistics of hazing related incidents.

John, a Greek member from the article said, “A more common act of hazing within Cal Poly fraternities is called “don’t fuck your bro,” in which all the pledges sit and circle and are given a 60-ounce bottle of hard liquor and told to pass it around in a circle. Whoever is holding the bottle at the end of a song must finish it.”

A story like this can only lead to controversy after the death of freshman student Carson Starkey in December 2008. Fraternities have greatly decreased their use of alcohol in their “new member process.”

Rachel described an incident of sorority hazing that included the girls “taking a bunch of shots, some girls dressed up in bikinis and some put condoms on their nipples. Then they had to answer the door like that to fraternity guys who were delivering us our baskets (gifts given to new members by their big sisters),” she said.

The reasoning behind hazing in the Greek community is a very slippery slope. Hazing involves the whole house coming together to bond and become a sister or brotherhood. The group has the mindset “if the older members went through it to prove themselves worthy to the house, so should I.” The idea that you can overcome anything to be a part of something is rewarding but also ridiculous.

If I were to overcome high altitudes, gale force winds, and a high lack of oxygen to climb Mount Everest, I would hold a great pride in that. But sustaining emotional and sometimes physical pain from your peers to prove you are worthy to wear Greek letters doesn’t seem like the thing for me.

Although there was a strong opinion of the negativity of hazing, Rachel found some students who were for the idea it shared. John, a Greek fraternity member said the goal of hazing “is to make you come together as group stronger that we were as individuals with the philosophy being that as you go through these different act you make connections with your fellows brothers.”

“Whatever I’ve gone through, you can to.”

He goes on to say, “It teaches your body to be able to push through things that you thought you would never be able to get through before. That is at least the theory with all this stuff,” he said. “The old adage is ‘whatever I’ve gone through you can to’ when an old brother is talking to his younger brother.”

It is a person’s own opinion to think whether hazing is a sign of bonding. Through the course of many years and many upsets in the Greek community, most of us can agree that hazing has been taken too far.

I am so thankful that I joined in a time where I am accepted for who I am, not what I must prove under strained conditions. That really is what Greek life is all about; finding your place and feeling comfortable with your surroundings.

The bottom half of the Performing Arts Center. Jam-packed.

Taken aback by the mass crowds pouring into the Performing Arts Center at Cal Poly, I was nearly knocked over by people racing to get seats at Thursday’s speech by Michael Pollan.  There was an excitement in the air as everyone took their seats and I was also pretty excited since I got the top level seating with the swivel chairs.

I talked to a woman named Sandra Evans, a San Luis Obispo native, who was telling me about how she first came upon Pollan’s ideals when she read his books about gardening. She said, “I really like him and am very supportive of his plans about sustainability.” She was with a group of people, obviously friends, as she joked that her husband is also supportive since she was. Many people, like Sandra Evans, came to see what other ideas he had to share about sustainable agriculture, and ask questions concerning the cost of potentially expensive earth-friendly agriculture in a troubled economy.

Many students who sat around me were attending the speech only for an extra credit assignment for their classes. Julie, a kinesiology major, said even though she “wasn’t aware of the ideas concerning sustainability,” she was still excited to get a better look at how she can help out the environment.

Michael Pollan sitting in the panel while the Director of the Agriculture Department gives his welcome speech.

Michael Pollan sat in a panel during the discussion including Earth-bound Farm co-founder, Myra Goodman, and distinguished Colorado State University professor, Gary Smith. A moderator also sat in the panel. He was in charge of asking questions during their answers to give the audience a better feel for their concerns and opinions of the subject.

The first question to the panel was to define sustainability for the audience. Pollan stated, “sustainability is simple, it is really an ideal. We don’t need inputs on how to be involved.” He explained we really just need to be motivated to better our earth and ourselves.

He talked about fossil fuel and it’s meaningless place in our economy saying solar energy to create power is the best way to run our country and our planet. He took out four glasses, a thermos filled with (what he said was) oil and a McDonalds Big Mac. He filled each glass six ounces to total twenty-six ounces. The oil (which was later identified as chocolate syrup) represented the amount of oil it took to produce one Big Mac or any other fast food item.

Keeping this example in mind, Pollan went on to say that even though America takes pride in selling cheap food, we shouldn’t take pride in the rising health concerns after consumption. Although cheap food helps feed our citizens, healthy, natural food grown from farmers become more expensive. Because of higher prices, farmers are feeling the heat. The highest grossing health risk in America is related to poor diet causing the most harm to the body. Pollan says, “We are moving into an era where it is either pay the farmer or pay the doctor. What we are doing, as you know, is pay the doctor. But what we should be doing is paying the farmer.”

Pollan raised awareness in his speech that sustainability is the only way to a healthier individual and a healthier planet. The controversies surrounding the topic are ever growing.

Just like the controversies Pollan addressed, Cal Poly’s Greek community are also dealing with many controversies. The greatest one deals with the act of hazing within Greek houses.

Cal Poly describes hazing as “any activity that causes physical or emotional harm, degradation, or humiliation during initiation into a social group,” according to Cal Poly’s Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities Web site. (Mustang Daily). Many common acts of friendship now are considered hazing if taken the wrong way, such as: sleepovers, giving nicknames, glasses that can be used for alcohol, and even memorizing active members names. The state of California defines hazing if an act or situation is likely to cause serious bodily harm.

The four students charged with assisting in Starkey's death

Cal Poly, however, had to crack down on hazing after the 2008 death of Carson Starkey. Carson Starkey was a pledge member of the fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) “after he was given large amounts of alcohol at a pledge event known as “Brown Bag Night” (Mustang Daily). Sadly, Starkey died of alcohol poisoning soon after the event.

After Starkey’s death, SAE was quickly taken out of the Greek system at Cal Poly and four former members of the fraternity are being criminally charged with his death.

Strict hazing policies have now been put in place in the Cal Poly Greek community for very good reason. Greek members must now sign a waiver that no one will part-take in any hazing activities.

In my opinion, hazing is a complete waste of time. A new member should be picked not for their willingness to put themselves in awkward positions, but for what they can contribute to a positive experience in the Greek system.