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Newspaper playing to greek stereotypes


Okay, seriously now The Pacer is getting a little desperate if they have to tie every drunk issue with a greek name. I don’t think the stories would be interesting without greek letters in the title, but is this honestly the best method for informing students on the issues of Alcohol? On the front page of the past Pacer are stories and pictures from S.O.A.R. This attracts the up-coming freshman when they come to S.O.A.R. and campus tours. One of the first things they do is pick up a Pacer, or even better go online, to see what really happens on the campus. The students and parents open it and bam, right there are two articles bashing greeks. Most parents aren’t going to allow their children to go through recruitment because The Pacer reinforces their stereotypes, which obviously aren’t valid for all greeks.

First of all, Brandon Niblock was at a party that was not providing alcohol. Secondly, what does “IFC Recruitment Officer” have anything to do with his arrest, exactly, absolutely nothing? So why put it in there? Oh, and I especially liked the added line about his fraternity. Why bring all of the guys down because one of them messed up? Not all of them get arrested. Not all of them drink. Not all of them get in fights.

Also, the fight that occurred a couple of weeks ago took place after the AKA pool party. I understand that was clearly stated, but why even attach greek letters to the fight? Were the two groups who got into the fight greek? No, I didn’t think so. They weren’t even UTM students. So why bring down the greek community just to make headlines? The AKA’s did the right thing and were the ones who noticed the fight and informed the police. I know that greeks do not allow any of their letters to incorporate with alcohol and especially not illegal substances. I can’t believe The Pacer would have mentioned marijuana in the same article as greek letters. That baffles my mind!

Why doesn’t The Pacer actually post the good things about greeks? Articles are submitted all the time about events coming up and people we have helped, but I guess they would rather save those ads for empty spots of nothing than put good things about us. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, pick up a Pacer from last week and look at the bottom of page 5. You see, no one is perfect. Mistakes can happen, but we don’t blame the entire Pacer staff for that individuals fault, so why do it to us? Maybe for now on we can just say UTM student arrested instead of bringing down greeks. I think the article on the front page was nicely written and I wish every article could be written as that one was, with no affiliation.