LETTER: Whole Truth

To the Editor: After almost two-and-a-half years of applauding the DP's fight against stereotypes and other forms of bigotry, I was amazed to see the editorial page promote exactly these qualities in your editorial, "Shades of Animal House." After all of their efforts to eliminate stereotypes, the DP uses almost half of its page six to perpetuate a bygone stereotype of a wild fraternity member. Once again the DP chooses to portray the Greek organizations on this campus in a negative light through its yellow journalism and sketchy reporting. Precious little coverage was offered by the DP last year as a highly constructive lecture on the dangers of hazing was given on bid signing night. And of course there was no editorial on this subject the next day. The Daily Pennsylvanian simply did not see this as news because it did not offer the opportunities to attack greek organizations on this campus. Given all of the positives that fraternities and sororities contribute to life here at the University of Pennsylvania, I find it amazing that time and time again, the DP can only search for some negative point to bring up on its pages. I plead with the officers, writers, editorialists and staff of the DP -- please, do not condemn our organizations because they are different than yours. I think that once you begin to print the whole truth, not only will you find that the community respects you more, but also you will respect yourselves more. MICHAEL FIRSTENBERG Engineering '94