Despite flaring tempers and flying accusations about greek life at Ball State University after the beating of a student outside a fraternity house on Saturday, representatives say the organizations, overall, are respectable.
Problems and negative attitudes towards greeks come from the way individuals behave, not the way entire fraternities and sororities act, Interfraternity Council President Jamie Manuel said.
Bob Rutherford, Delta Tau Delta fraternity president, said he, and the rest of the fraternity, still could not comment on the Saturday night beating in front of the house. He could only comment on what the fraternity was doing to help the ongoing investigation he said.
"We are doing everything we can to cooperate with the police department," Rutherford said. "I hope he gets better soon; he is in my prayers."
The IFC and the Panhellenic Council are working to make greek members help each other to prevent problems and to revive greek values individuals might have lost, Manuel said. Ball State has a smaller greek community than many other schools, which helps leaders monitor students closely.
"We are able to support them a little bit more and hold them responsible for the reasons they were founded," Manuel said.
Incidences such as the student being beaten unconscious outside the Delta Tau Delta house are unfortunate, Panhellenic Council President Sarah Aldridge said. Students pay more attention to those problems because they involve greeks.
"One of the things that puts us in a bad spot is greeks are easily identifiable," she said. "Because we are greeks, and we wear our letters, they can tell what we are."
An external consultant came in a year ago to examine the Ball State greek community, and to point out strengths and weaknesses, Aldridge said. One of the things he noticed was that some of the members were not in touch with the values the fraternities were originally founded on, Manuel said. While that observation has no direct connection with the events outside Delta Tau Delta this weekend, as no one knows who was responsible for the beating, he said a lack of values can create problems.
"When you aren't living by your values, things like this happen," Manuel said. "I encourage people to not take the actions of one person to represent the actions of the whole."
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