Editor:

It is an understatement to say that I am outraged at the prevarications and misrepresentations regarding me by Donald Frerichs, president of the Interfraternity Council, that were published March 21 in the Wildcat. In his letter, Frerichs, in his capacity as the representative and spokesman of the campus fraternity system, asserts that I, in my capacity of faculty advisor to MEChA, was quoted in the Wildcat as saying that "all Greeks are racists." Frerichs knows fully well that I never made that statement and that, given that I never said what Frerichs claims I said, I was never quoted to that effect in the Wildcat. A simple perusal of Wildcat files will confirm that Frerichs' assertion has absolutely no basis in reality, that is, that it is a purposeful lie. I challenge Frerichs to produce and bring to my office the copy of the Wildcat in which I am quoted as saying: "all Greeks are racists." Unless he can produce such a copy of the Wildcat, I expect a public apology. His lie about me was purveyed publicly and so should his apology.

Moreover, contrary to Frerichs' assertion, I never promised him a letter of apology in which I would recant a statement that I never made. Something has to exist in the first place for it to be recanted. Frerichs is purposely distorting a good-faith gesture that I made: In a meeting with Frerichs and others, Frerichs indicated to me that many members of the Greek community were upset by a letter that I had written because they perceived that I was condemning the entire Greek community. I responded by saying that my intent surely was not to condemn all Greeks, and that I would write him a letter in which I clarified that misperception. That is a far cry from a letter of "apology." I offered to do that so as to keep things in perspective. I have not yet written that letter. As it turns out, I am now glad I did not write it, for it is apparent to me that its content and purpose would have been misrepresented.

Salomon Baldenegro
assistant dean, Chicano/Hispano student affairs