This is not an anti-greek column. Some people might call me anti-greek, but I really think they’ve just misunderstood exactly what my opinion is about those big houses south of campus.

I’ve never lived in a greek house and I never will. But even though I personally don’t want to be in one, I don’t think they’re necessarily all bad. They’ve got their ups and downs just like off-campus living and the residence halls do.

They’re like the military, a group we need around, but I’m glad I’m not forced to do it.

Nearly everyone in both systems seems to love what they’re doing, and most of them feel like everybody else should love what they’re doing, too. But there is always going to be a segment of the population that doesn’t want anything to do with greeks or soldiers, and that’s unavoidable.

Now that I’ve got that out of the way, I’ll get to the point. To me it seems like the fraternities and sororities are moving on to some suspect ground on two different issues that have been gracing the pages of the Daily recently.

The first is wanting the Department of Public Safety HelpVan to serve the greek system.

Adam Oris, president of IFC, was quoted in a story that ran last week as saying that the greek governing houses were trying to put some pressure on DPS to get them to extend their HelpVan service.

In fact, an officer at DPS said the HelpVan was already running in Greekland and had been since late last November, although Oris disagreed with that assertion.

I can see two sides of this. First of all, the greeks might feel that they are entitled to HelpVan service since they are policed by DPS.

There are four DPS cars whose main coverage areas just happen to run straight through the heart of Greekland. I understand that — it’s frustrating to receive only the cat crap and never get to pet the cat.

On the other side, DPS is supposed to be restricted to university-owned areas. Greek houses aren’t one of these areas. Plus, running the HelpVan into Greekland might irritate private entrepreneurs who used to do jump starts and tire fixes for the greeks but who would literally lose all of that business if the HelpVan started scooting through on a regular basis.

It’s pretty much a question of whether you consider greek houses to be on-campus living. Obviously they’re not your standard on-campus arrangement.

But it could be argued that since the university regulates their behavior heavily, they should receive some benefits of being Jischke-ized. Just letting the HelpVan run to greek houses doesn’t seem like that big of a concession, and it’s something they would really appreciate.

But to me it’s just a matter of principle. The more steps the greeks take towards trying to convince people that they live on campus, the more regulations the university is going to feel comfortable imposing on them.

The next thing you know, student security and RAs over in RCA have to stroll across Lincoln Way to do rounds at Sigma Chi. That’s not what anyone wants.

Sure, it might not be fair to be arrested by DPS one night and then call the next day for a jump and get laughed at, but those are the breaks. Just consider it a concession for being beautiful.

Secondly, there is currently a group of students who are pushing to get CyRide to add a new Black Route. The proposed route runs all the way through Greekland, and then before and after swings by old RCA, Helser and Friley to hide the true purpose of the route. It’s clearly created to serve greeks and almost exclusively greeks.

It’s just a little irritating when they come to groups such as the Inter-Residence Hall Association (IRHA) looking for dough when we both know what’s going on.

Nobody in the dorms would ever consider going to IFC to try to get anything funded that would only nominally serve the greek system, so I’m not quite sure what these people are thinking.

Basically, both of these issues involve the same key concept. The greek system as a whole seems to be getting a little hyperactive. Settle down and look around.

Is where you’re at right now all that bad? Are you sure that you want to give up time-honored, appreciated practices for a few privileges like a bus stopping in front of your house and the HelpVan?

And that’s exactly what will happen if the greeks start pushing to get more services from the university and the Ames community as a whole.

They’ll expect more and more of the greek system and the next thing you know every house is required to go dry.

They push and they push and all of a sudden somebody is doing rounds through greek houses.

I don’t think that’s what is best for the greek system.

I urge greek leaders to keep in mind the consequences of more rights — more responsibility.

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David Roepke is a sophomore in journalism and mass communication from Aurora. Viva la Jischke!