Their University chapter has already made their main floor alcoho l-free and will have to be totally dry by the national deadline. Sigma Nu and Phi Delta Theta, as well as all sororities governed by the Panhellenic Council, have already completely banned booze. Drinking first became a prominent part of the greek lifestyle in the 1950s, which coincides with the beginning of their slide away from the mainstream of campus life. Fraternity and sorority leaders can cry all they want about the public services they perform, the volunteer hours their members put in and the high personal standards they foster. Both views are, of course, wrong.
Fraternities do a great deal of good, for both their members and the community.
For the greek system to matter again, fraternities and sororities must come to embody as institutions the type of people they intend to mold as individuals. The alcohol ban should become universal and it should happen sooner than 2000. Greek houses must a sk themselves why they exist. The answers, which will be as various as the fraternities and sororities themselves, must be found soon and publicly. Borchard's column appears every Thursday in the Daily.