LETTERS: Community service confusion

I'd like to clear up some confusion regarding Greek involvement in community service that has been evident in both articles and columns, especially in Shiraz Allidina's "Forcing lazy students to do good," (DP, 2/26/97). The common perception seems to be that the University and its alleged stooge, the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, is forcing fraternities and sororities against their will to perform community service. This accusation is completely in error and displays a general ignorance concerning initiatives taken by the Greek system as a whole in recent months. In the 21st Century Report for an Ivy League Greek System, written by fraternity and sorority brothers and sisters and unanimously approved by chapter presidents, there are indeed community service standards. We as a system expect individual members and chapters to fulfill these goals because they have been recognized as efforts that should be encouraged among our members. Accordingly, the initiative was taken on our own to create a minimum service requirement in the hopes that it would result in greater involvement. The point was not, as Allidina would have us believe, that we knew what was good for fraternity members and thus would force them to do it; it was that within the system we acknowledged that with the privilege of being in a Greek house comes certain responsibilities. Such an initiative is not new, nor is it radical. Most houses already participate in service programs led by their national organizations. For example, my fraternity, Pi Kappa Phi, takes part in a national program known as PUSH America (People Understanding the Severely Handicapped)? There are also many more aspects of the Plan that should not be overlooked. Its contents express the Greek system's commitment to higher academic standards, greater faculty involvement, diverse social activities, a safer West Philadelphia, and heightened religious and cultural sensitivity? As a Greek and as a columnist, Allidina should be ashamed of his lack of knowledge on the subject. Greek community service has nothing to do with OFSA or the University. It has everything to do with fraternity and sorority members and their chapters. Had he read the 21st Century Report or asked myself for some information before writing his piece, he would have known this and, perhaps, may have found himself praising a system of which he should be proud to be a member. Aaron Kotok InterFraternity Council Vice President, 21st Century Planning Pi Kappa Phi College '98 An unfair headline To the Editor: While we appreciate the relatively balanced nature of the February 27 article profiling our company and its services ("With IvyEssays, students can buy their way into school," DP, 2/27/97), we were chagrined to see the headline accompanying the article which read "With IvyEssays, students can buy their way into school." Headlines should be written in a way to attract readership, but in this instance, The Daily Pennsylvanian chose to sensationalize and misrepresent our company for the shock value of this particular headline. If we truly wanted to offer students a means to "buy their way," into a school, we would not require that customers agree to terms and conditions stating they will not infringe any copyright laws or plagiarize our essays; nor would we state our intention to cooperate with any admissions official who believes that an applicant has misused our site. We are no more on support of buying one's way into school as admissions officials are, and regret that your paper chose to characterize our service in this very misleading way. For the record, let's get the story straight; IvyEssays exists to provide students with previously successful essays to use as a resource. Our service is no different from existing books containing sample essays for perusal. We have just expanded the scope, quality, and accessibility of these resources for today's applicants. But we are not just about providing models of successful essays: on our site, we also have hints and tips concerning the admissions and essay-writing process, as well as an editing service if people would like our feedback on their essays. Our site is not about buying an essay to pass off as one's own. It's about understanding the admissions process better, and it's about using our resources to help writs a solids memorable essay of one's own. It would be a shame if anyone did try to use our essays in an ill-intended way. For a plagiarizer, we see two possible outcomes: either he or she will be caught, or the illegal act will catch up to that person some day. Either way, it's not worth it to even think about plagiarizing from our site -- especially now that most if not all admissions of officers are well aware of our existence. (And we are glad that they are.) We hope our stance is clear, and also hope that The Daily Pennsylvanian will print this letter with a headline is both alluring and accurate. Helen Lee IvyEssays, Managing Editor PQuad needs peer health To the Editor: During last night's town meeting on the Perelman project, Provost Stanley Chodorow presented a laudable plan for an improved student center. His model for space allocation, however, does not take into account the unique dynamics of peer health education. We work closely with our coordinating advisors who make possible the synergy that exists between the different goups. Ongoing examples include the joint DART/STAAR workshops on alcohol, drugs and sexual violence as well as the constant cross-education that goes on between the group, advisors and leaders. This dynamic exists because our groups and our advisors share a common workspace that allows us to interact regularly. Peer health is integral to student life, and any plans to alter student spaces must maintain the peer health groups and their advisors as a unit in their own office. Juan Diaz STARR, College '97 Scott Friedberg RAPLine, Wharton '97 Jared Miller FLASH, College '97 Jennifer Ehrhardt SHAB, College '99 Jordan Greenbaum DART, College '97 Rachel Domers GUIDE, College '98