Dear Editor,

As members of the Greek community, we find last week’s editorial to be an embarrassing misrepresentation of fraternities on the UT campus. Certain statements lead readers to believe that Greeks are looked down upon here, such as “Incidents like this do nothing for students who do not consider Greeks a valuable part of UT. Instead it’s another black mark on Greek Life and the student body.”

Greeks are more than social organizations who throw parties. Evidence readily available on BlackBoard proves that fraternities have higher average GPAs than the All-Men average, and the All-Greek average beats the All-Campus grades.

Fraternities and sororities are also campus leaders in community service. Members of our fraternity recorded over 120 hours for the months of September and October. Also in that time, our Derby Days theme week raised more than $1,000 for the Children’s Miracle Network. In the past nine years, the international Sigma Chi Fraternity has given more than $2.5 million to CMN.

When The Minaret runs editorials such as last week’s, this is covered up. The actions of the offending fraternities are reprehensible but the men were not allowed a chance to explain themselves or their actions. Since we have been on campus for less than a year, we chose not to participate in the event as we, at the time, had 19 active members and a week full of philanthropic events upcoming. As was evidenced in the October 13 issue, Sigma Chis have worked with the P.E.A.C.E office to help in the Tampa community.

We find the Nov. 17 editorial to be inflammatory and disrespectful because it paints all Greeks on campus with a broad brush. Instead of picking the actions of a few and saying they leave “a black mark on Greek Life,” The Minaret should promote fraternal unity and acknowledge the positive actions that most of the Greek community contributes to the UT campus.

Signed,

The brothers of Sigma Chi Tampa