This is an open letter to the administration of Ohio University. As a member of the social greek community on this campus, I am disturbed by what has become an apparently hostile attitude toward the student community I am proud to be a member of.
This turn of events began with the hiring of Michael Sprinkle as the greek affairs adviser. One result of his hiring is that Homecoming and Greek Week pairings have been consistently contentious because some of the teams have rivals put together, creating an atmosphere where mistrust and animosity reign, not the unity such events seek to foster.
Sprinkle has rapidly earned the mistrust and dislike of the greek community he was hired to serve. This became readily apparent at the Greek God and Goddess competition of this past Greek Week. When he was introduced as one of the judges of the competition, an audience of nearly 1,000 greek community members roundly booed him. This is a very clear indication that relations between the OU administration and greek community have grown poor over the past two years. During the Greek God and Goddess competition the panel of four judges was given an opportunity to critique each performance à la American Idol. After one performance of a song which did not include dancing, Sprinkle's comment was Nice voices
but where did you learn to dance? Although this may seem to be a minor comment, keep in mind it was in front of the greek community and given by its adviser. Such a comment was taken as an offense to the individual fraternity and sorority members as well as their fraternity and sorority a whole. While Sprinkle may not have liked the performance, there are more professional ways to give critiques.
The OU administration is rapidly closing in on the fine line of alienating its greek community. Some individuals have already become alienated. This is a potentially problematic turn of events. Historically, universities' biggest contributors and supporters are athletic and greek community alumni. The potential exists that this administration may be alienating future donors, making the budgetary crunch here even tighter. Some greek community members have already told me they will only contribute to their greek organization and not to the university.
I write this letter in the hope that it will serve as a wake-up call to the OU administration and not an excuse for retribution. Some of the most loyal students and alumni of this university are members of the greek community, and Ohio University cannot afford to lose that support.
-Jesse Davis
jd321601@ohiou.edu 17
Archives
Letter to the Editor
