AJC.com > Opinion > Opinion Talk > Archives > 2007 > March > 09
Friday, March 9, 2007
Sorry Sisters?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When membership at the Delta Zeta sorority at DePauw University in Indiana started slipping, the national office dispatched a team to assess the problem and bolster recruitment. The DZ leaders decided some of the sisters themselves were the problem, dismissing 23 of the 35 members from the sorority house, including the women who were overweight or minorities. The slimmer, prettier sorors weren’t affected. Six of the 12 sisters who made the final cut eventually quit in protest.
News accounts of the purge have set off a national debate about DZ’s actions, and about the nature of the Greek system on college campuses. Do Greek-letter organizations exist to exclude and, in the case of sororities, can the criteria be as superficial as dress size?
Fraternities and sororities contend that they don’t choose members based on their appearance or their family income. Read our complete editorial and tell us what you think: Is this an isolated incident or does it reveal an ugly selection process that mostly favors good looks over good character?
For more coverage, see DePauw University’s Web site
Highway Horror Stories
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After the March 2 fatal bus crash at I-75 and Northside Drive, readers were invited to write about highways that scare them- because of bad design, confusing signage or other factors.
Drivers depicted the Atlanta freeway system as an increasingly complex, high-speed maze, not for the faint of heart, where even a moment of confusion can be deadly. ” I saw one accident where a car flew off the westbound side and flipped over in the eastbound lanes,” wrote Kevin Kitchen of Austell.
Jim McKune of Woodstock’s description of a bottleneck was so complex he worried if anyone would understand it. Yet, it was telling about how confusing roads can be now.
“The problem occurs when two lanes of on-ramp traffic coming from the South Loop east side, try to merge into the five lanes of traffic of I-75 north,” he wrote.
Let’s talk about highway problems and how they can be fixed.
