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Stop talking and start doing
To the editor, I would like to offer a critical response to Ferdie Echiverri's letter "Greeks are everywhere" (Arizona Daily Wildcat, Nov. 24). It seems that whenever the Greek population here at the University of Arizona comes under attack, a senior fraternity member writes in, espousing the worth of the Greek community in relation to their community service. This latest letter attempted to dazzle us with statistics which, at first glance, may support this view. However, based on the cited statistics, we may also conclude: If Greeks compose 11% of the UA student population, then based on a population of 35,000, there are only about 3850 Greeks at this university. A small minority, to say the least. If Greeks have raised $42,000, and there are about 3850 members, then that averages out to a mere $10.91 per person per year. This is not a significant contribution from the individual members, who spend a great deal more than that on membership dues alone. Following a similar logic, if Greeks have contributed 24,000 hours of community service in the past year, then this averages out to only 6 hours per member per year. That would be the equivalent of one hour of service every two months. Clearly, these numbers are not as respectable as our Greek community would presume them to be. If the Greek community wishes to truly play a more philanthropic role in the community, then they should spend less time trying to convince us of their worth and more time showing that they truly care.
L. Nicole Giedinghagen |
