Response to Lauren Swanson's "Greek Affiliation of Administrators"

   In Lauren Swanson's blog about the events of Greek Week, she discusses the possible problems with the affiliation of certain administrators to fraternities and sororities on campus. When I read Lauren's blog, I realized I was conflicted about her argument in some ways. I completely agree that it frankly doesn't look good for Carol Nicholson and Jon Duraj to openly proclaim their affiliation with fraternities and sororities on campus. But the reason I am conflicted with this is that as young people looking for mentors, we need to be able to relate with the role models/administration set before us by Wittenberg. I can easily see a Greek affiliated student who is sitting in Carol Nicholson's office facing disciplinary charges or attempting to get a social approved thinking, "What does she know about me or my sorority? She was never in one." I think it is perfectly ok for Nicholson and other Greek affiliated members of Wittenberg's faculty and staff to openly state that they are a member of the Greek community. It is part of their identity and I think hiding that fact would indicate they were ashamed to be a part of the Greek community, which would make us all look bad frankly.
   Now, what is questionable is if those faculty and staff members should announce which fraternity/sorority they are members of. This one is tricky because of the special circumstances that surround some members of the faculty and staff. There are a good amount of alumni who work at Wittenberg, Jon Duraj being one and Mallory Roth being another, who were members of fraternities and sororities here on campus. It would be impossible to get rid of that knowledge of which fraternity or sorority they were affiliated with, especially since the two employees are young and people still remember their time here on campus as students. Obviously, the reason why this knowledge could cause problems and controversies would be for the possibility of favoritism between fellow brothers and sisters from the administration. I think that since Wittenberg hired these folks, they are trustworthy. I know that our faculty and staff are awesome people and would never stoop to a low level such as that.  That all might be blind faith but I know also that if the university got any kind of feeling that that sort of unfairness was occurring, those faculty and staff who violated that privilege would definitely be removed.
   That being said, I do agree with Lauren to say that the particular question posed to the participants in the competition asking for the affiliations of Greek administration members was very wrong. The reason being is for the favoritism aspect that was previously mentioned. But I think that it would be a perfectly acceptable question to ask if a student could list off faculty and staff members who participated in the Greek community in their years at college because there ain't no shame in being Greek affiliated. At least, I hope not...