To the Editor:

The opinion piece on The University of Iowa’s ban on fraternity drinking is one of the most outrageous things I have ever read in this newspaper.

Before I begin, this letter is in no way anti-greek, nor is it intended to be. The problem of alcohol abuse by students is a university problem, not just a greek problem.

The Daily writes that “If students can’t drink socially at parties, they will do so in smaller, more private groups with fewer people to take care of those who drink too much.”

Just like the people at the big party took care of Matthew Garofalo. They took such good care of him that they let him stay unconscious for several hours, then drew a magic-marker beard on him for fun, and let Matt die over the course of several hours from acute alcohol poisoning. He might have lived had someone done something earlier in the evening but no one did because they were too self-absorbed in the “social drinking” of the party. No one cared.

Then the Daily has the audacity to say that drinking is just as dangerous as driving or playing a sport, or at least has “an inevitable risk.” Binge drinking is far more dangerous than driving down Lincoln Way or suiting up to play the Hawkeyes. There aren’t any campus organizations that condone the dangerous use of automobiles or athletics, yet there are groups who at least tacitly condone using alcohol dangerously.

There may be a lot of lip service paid to the issue, but when it comes down to it, the words are forgotten, the keg is tapped and that’s that.

Don’t think that this is something only isolated in the greek community. I used to be a student at the U of I and I know that what goes on in the dorms is the same thing that goes on in the dorms, fraternity houses and anyplace where people gather on weekend nights here; a blind eye is turned to the problem, whether it’s by an RA who doesn’t want to be a jerk or a greek leader who doesn’t want to spoil the party. We all know what really happens and it isn’t what the Student Handbook recommends.

It’s confusing to see The University of Iowa doing something to address these problems then the Daily turns around and blasts them for it and for reasons that don’t really make sense.

As a last defense, the Daily laments that drinking is “just a part of college life.” Why bother trying to solve this problem? It’s decades old. I wonder if that’s what Matt thought, that drinking until you die is just part of college. I wonder if that’s what his parents or girlfriend or anyone else who cared thought. The Daily is right to say that Matt’s death was tragic, but it’s even more tragic to ignore why he died. He died because everyone else’s fun had a higher priority than his life.

I thank God that there are people in this world who don’t accept the tired old excuse of “that’s just the way it is” as a defense of the status quo. Talk to someone who works with minority student affairs (the problems they work with are centuries old, not just decades) or those students who worked hard to save non-revenue generating sports. They are people who refuse to accept the way things are and things will be better off because they refuse to just stand by, shrug their shoulders and say (like this newspaper) “it’s a part of life and that’s just the way it is.”

It’s not a greek problem, it’s a university problem. As a part of the university community, it’s time the Daily stops being part of the problem and becomes part of the solution.

Dennis Ellison

Senior

Political Science