The Undergraduate Assembly voted against condemning a mailing sent to incoming freshmen warning them about underground societies at its weekly meeting last night.
The mailing, which was sent over the summer by the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, was funded by fraternity members' dues.
The UA statement, which began as an attack on the InterFraternity Council, was so greatly amended that even IFC President Conor Daly found it inoffensive by the end of last night's UA meeting -- yet it was still voted down.
UA Chairman Seth Schreiberg, a College senior, and Treasurer Gautam Mashettiwar proposed the statement regarding the mass mailing that OFSA sent out over the summer to parents of incoming students.
OFSA sent a letter to incoming freshmen warning them about underground societies, which it labeled "renegade" organizations.
Fighting against these societies is a main issue on the IFC's agenda for this academic year.
The UA's originally proposed resolution criticized the IFC for attacking "pseudo-Greek" societies. It stated that the "IFC ought to focus on policing its own groups... before encroaching on other students' rights to associate themselves with a non-Greek society." The statement also criticized the mailing because, the writers believed, it only served to publicize these underground societies.
After a three-hour long meeting and discussion to table the issue for next week because of time constraints, the UA body voted down the statement, with eight people voting against and 14 people abstaining.
Mashettiwar, an Engineering senior, said that he thought the IFC was infringing on the rights of some students by trying to remove these underground groups.
"I don't see why the IFC or OFSA has the right to go after them," Mashettiwar said. "I'm admonishing the IFC for actions borderlining on persecution."
During the meeting, Daly argued strongly against the original statement.
"This isn't just a group of guys living in a house," the College senior said. "They were once fraternities that were part of IFC, and they broke the rules. This is our business. They have everything to do with us and we have everything to do with them."
"These are groups obviously skirting the law that the school should go after," added UA member and Wharton and Engineering junior Matt Lattman.
Daly also felt that the statement that was originally proposed unfairly attacked his group.
"It reeks of anti-Greek sentiment," Daly commented.
Other members disagreed with the proposed statement because they said they felt the UA was getting inappropriately involved in the affairs of other groups.
"I think that we as the UA should recognize... when it's not appropriate to meddle in the affairs of other organizations," said UA member and College senior Aaron Short. "I don't think we have the power to deny a group free speech, and I think that is what this proposal does."
However, after numerous amendments to the statement, the original message was so completely altered that Daly said he could live with it.
While originally there were UA members in support of the proposal, the watered down amended version did not receive even one vote in its favor.
During last night's meeting, the UA did approve a proposal regarding the subsidizing of registered parties.
Since 1998, there has been a trend that shows a sharp decrease in registered on-campus parties. Some say this trend, in part, stems from the University's current drug and alcohol policy which makes off campus parties cost significantly less.
The UA passed a proposal recommending the University to "completely subsidize fixed costs of registered parties in order to increase the number of on-campus parties" which are inherently safer than off campus parties, according to University officials.
