To the Editor:
On Feb. 8, a friend and I arrived at the Pavilion early to get seats in the front row of the middle section for the anticipated basketball game between UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara. Because it was Greek night, the fraternities and sororities had come together to grab seats in the front section, but were being quite rowdy and pressuring those who had already been there early to essentially relocate to other spots.
This had occurred to my friend and me, despite us being there about 40 minutes before tipoff. We had no choice but to move and find different seats, considering how immature and rude the fraternities and sororities were acting that night. We were frustrated and upset because we were forced to abandon our seats to the overflowing crowd of fraternity and sorority members who felt entitled and superior to those who were already there before they had arrived.
I understand this was a highly anticipated game and passions were high, but it was also quite classless and immature to see certain members use such crude and vulgar language against the players of the Santa Barbara team. All in all, even though we lost a competitive game and were disappointed with the result, what had been equally disappointing was the conduct and behavior of the fraternities and sororities, particularly the members who occupied the central student section of the Pavilion. What had meant to be a fun and enjoyable game to watch was ruined by the rudeness and entitled privilege of the Greek life members — a wrong and unjust privilege that shouldn’t be permitted. Their attitudes must be addressed, considering that their whole mission is to recruit new members to their different houses and to include and be respectful to others, which certainly wasn’t the case that night.
Greek life, in general, allows many students to feel that they have a protected sense of entitlement and privilege, to boast and feel empowered by their continuous and unchecked behavior that will carry over as they progress to future studies or the professional world. The purpose and understanding of Greek life is to improve and make members feel as though they are a part of a brotherhood or sisterhood. However, it’s an unchecked organization that will continue to enable some ill-mannered, unprofessional characters to act and feel superior to other students. This is a tradition that needs to be revised and retaught because, from my point of view, it’s a disappointing and unsophisticated culture on campus.
VIKRAM SINGH, DAVIS
Vikram Singh is a third-year history major at UC Davis.
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Mr. Singh… I appreciate your thoughts and concerns but I do not agree, whole-heartedly, with this piece of writing. UC Davis has a student section, like every other school has, to support their respective team. This is supposed to be a section for students to back their team, and at times, help bother the other team if that means your team will win in return. If you truly felt this way towards greek life, or felt a certain way during that one game, I believe you should have talked to the people who were bothering you. This article puts a very harsh title on a fairly large organization across campus. You can’t blame these students in greek life for being an energetic and passionate group of people. Lastly, I hope you did not feel “forced” out of your seat because there is no way any of the people involved would have made you do that. We all have the right to support our team in our own particular way and from that, I am sorry you felt “rudeness” and “immaturity” at the last game from greek life.