Well, boys and girls, its time for the first installment of your weekly dose of Rucker after a wonderfully relaxing winter vacation. I hope all of you rang in 2002 with great vigor and hopeful optimism, as everyone around me tells me I did.
As most everyone else, I have made my New Year's resolutions, and somewhere between swearing off Playstation 2 battle royals and marathon Scotty's sessions, I managed to come up with some things we can all strive for in our greek system during the next 12 months.
1.) Gain respect for our fellow greek members. It seems like every week I rant and rave about greek unity with little results or response, so I guess this week will be no different. Once again, we all are basically the same people. We seek something more fulfilling than the average college education. Forget the delta, ignore the iota. We need to stand together as one body.
2.) Boost our Ball State involvement. In case you haven't noticed, there are more than 330 student organizations on this campus. Let's take control. If we can have tremendous involvement, we will have tremendous respect by the administration. I think it is no small secret the university's powers that be give us the benefit of the doubt nine times out of 10 simply because they cannot afford to lose our involvement. Aside from this, recruitment numbers will be boosted, and the quality of men and women we attract will be of great benefit to our respective chapters.
3.) Wear your letters. We have all earned the right to don our letters. For some this is not a problem. They would as soon wear a homecoming shirt than a dress shirt, and for that I applaud them. I have fallen into this habit at times, as well. Eventually, we all grow up. But, the next time you go out to Worthen Arena to cheer on the Cardinals, wear some Ball State stuff. And if you don't wear Ball State colors, throw on your letters, wave your flags and let everyone know you were a "chosen one" of a greek organization.
4.) Boost our community service efforts. I sat at home on Christmas amid my family and friends, and it dawned on me that not everyone has it so good. There are people cold and starving year-round, and yes, we can make a difference in their lives. As college students, we are in the top 1 percent of people in the world when it comes to education. We owe it to ourselves to help those around us in our communities and towns. You may not get trophies, T-shirts or recognition, but the feeling you get when someone is truly thankful for your contribution or efforts is its own reward and worth its weight in gold.
There you have it, folks, my four-step program to a better greek system. And the great thing about this program is that even a meager effort to achieve the desired results still makes a better system for us all to be a part of. Senior or freshman, we all can make a difference, and 2002 is as good a time as any to start.
Write to Alan at bsugreek@hotmail.com.
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