No Greek life, no party, no problem for administration

In My Opinion

SHANNON KEOUGH

STAFF WRITER

SEK723@CABRINI EDU

Starting a sorority at Cabrini College last year seemed like a really good idea to my roommate and me, especially as freshmen. A lot of our friends seemed to be pledging for fraternities and sororities at other schools, but we were stuck at Cabrini without those opportunities.

Our first question was why don’t we have Greek life on our campus? Maybe it’s because it’s a smaller school, maybe it’s because it’s a Catholic school. Either way, we were determined to find out why and try to change it.

We did research on various sororities, spoke to our advisers and met with people in academic affairs. We finally e-mailed Dr. Christine Lysionek, vice president of student development, and she invited us to her office to speak about the organization.

We thought that this was a positive meeting, but we were too optimistic. For us, sororities meant sisterhood, loyalty and friendship, but Cabrini had other views.

Lysionek was great in this process. She met with other staff members to discuss our proposal, but the final say was no.

She explained to us that the school rules say that organizations that exclude certain groups of people are not recognized by the school. In this case, a sorority would exclude men.

Sorry, no greek letters allowed on this campus! Sororities and fraternities are not permitted because they could exclude certain groups of people.

Of course, we were extremely disappointed by the result, but it also made me think about everything she has said and what she had really meant.

If what she said were true about exclusive organizations, then why is it that an all-girl soccer team, all- girl lacrosse team and allgirl basketball team exist at Cabrini? Furthermore, exclusively male teams also exist, including basketball, lacrosse, soccer and baseball. How can all of these “exclusive” teams exist if it goes against the school’s rules?

Perhaps it’s because rules change.

Probably the biggest rule that has changed in Cabrini’s history is that it