When it comes to its outwardly-expressed views on the Greek system, Cornell has recently been broken into two groups (which I exaggerate a bit for effect):

Group 1: “Fraternities and sororities are the spawn of Satan and should be destroyed. Their members deserve to be expelled immediately and marooned on a deserted island never to be heard from again.”

Group 2: “Fraternities and sororities are wonderful entities that produce exemplary citizens. Upon graduation, their members deserve the most lucrative job offers or admission to the graduate schools of their choice.”

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like Group 3, the middle ground, is getting any airtime. These are the people who, smartly, realize that the Greek system is neither evil nor wonderful. It just is.

I am proud to say that I was a member of a fraternity when I was an undergrad, and I am a proud alumnus of my chapter today. That said, when I heard last week that a student passed away from drinking way too much at one of our chapters at another school, it obviously troubled me.

It continues to bother me on several levels. First, any senseless alcohol-related death at any college just generally makes one’s stomach turn. Second, people don’t seem to realize that fraternities and sororities are different from school to school and from chapter to chapter. Specifically, what one fraternity on a college campus does should not reflect on the other fraternities on that campus. Likewise, what one chapter of a fraternity does should not reflect on the other chapters within that fraternity.

This problem has similarly appeared in

the ethnic-themed party controversy that has been festering on The Hill over the last week, and both those bashing and those defending the Greek system were wrong.

To say that fraternities in general are bastions of “institutionalized racism” is just plain incorrect. But that’s exactly what some are saying.

Look, let me make one thing clear: I think that the parties at issue are abhorrent. I never went to any similar party as an undergrad, and I certainly would not go now. I would just prefer that the blame be placed where it is deserved: on the chapters themselves, not on every single Greek organization on this campus.

The people who feel the pain of stereotypes should not be using stereotypes themselves — hence the thesis of Erica Fink’s column last week and the problem with the quote, “I don’t bother to learn Greek letters,” stated by a protester when asked which particular fraternity she was protesting.

That said, if Fink was trying to defend the fraternities involved, I think that she went a bit too far.

At some point the Greek community is going to have to deal with all of the bad press. At some point the chapters that refuse to stoop to offensive conduct will need to take action against those fraternities that give the Greek system this stigma.

In the five years I have been a student here, it hasn’t happened. And it needs to happen now.

Members of fraternities and sororities are so prevalent on this campus that they continuously infiltrate the S.A. and the heads of campus organizations such as The Sun. While I think that this is great for the Greek system, it also means that generally, when a fraternity or sorority does something wrong, people get angry about it for a couple days, and then it goes away because enough leaders say it should. That’s a problem.

Someone is going to have to have the guts, whether it is someone within the IFC, a group of presidents of Greek organizations or the University itself, to deal with these issues and hold the specific fraternities responsible for their actions. Otherwise, it is to the detriment of the entire Greek system.

While the rumor has always been that the University would eventually like to shut the Greek system down in favor of the West Campus Residential Initiative, I don’t believe that. Rather, I believe that Cornell would really like the Greek system to thrive, to create social and educational opportunities for its students and to generally make the University more attractive to prospective students who are looking for a world-class university with a world-class social scene.

The point of this column is not necessarily to point the finger at the particular fraternities responsible in this instance, but to generally ask the Greek community to look inside and ask itself if it really wants to protect the organizations that give it a bad name or if it is time to start taking some action.

The stigma placed on the Greek system after damaging events like this is unfair and wrong, but the Greek system itself must work to repair the damage.

Eric Finkelstein ’06 is a former Sun managing editor and is currently a first-year student in the Law School. He can be contacted at ejf33@cornell.edu. Saturdays Excepted appears alternate Mondays.