Time Machine: The Gilded Semester Pt. 9 (Spring 07)

So the Fall of 2006 happened, and that's all some of us attempted to say about it at the time... but we all knew that things were going to be drastically changed in the very near future. As I said, we talk about things as if they aren't big deals... but when some people are having lines that people don't finish from, and others aren't having lines at all (for whatever reason) it actually starts to throw things out of wack... the cycle wasn't in tact any longer and as a result, student leadership and Greek Life would eventually be forced to adapt.

The Spring did however start of with good news for Black UT... This was the semester that the Almetris Duren Residential Hall was opened. Almetris Marsh Duren is a first generation Black UT historical icon. Click the link to get the abbreviated history... in addition to what Mama Duren is remembered by in that article, she also helped students organize and secure resources for some of Black UT's oldest student groups including Alpha, AKA, and Innervisions of Blackness Gospel Choir (now known as Innervisions Gospecl Choir - IVGC). This dorm building is one of only 3 buildings on campus to be named after a Black individual (the other two - the PCL (Perry Castaneda Library) and John Hargis Hall - the Freshmen Admissions building)

It was a good semester to come back proud of who we were. We had just survived a semester of ignorant shit and we actually came out with an opportunity to claim more of the campus and its services... administration and other student entities would be happy to oblige us as long as we didn't continue to bother them with protests and etc.

A committee that would work on getting our X-Lounge officially named "The Malcom X Lounge" was put together... this wasn't a new committee at all, but it would be the last time this committee would need to be formed.

Meanwhile there were two other committees on campus that were planning the design, placement, and unveiling of two new statues on campus - Barbara Jordan and Cesar Chavez. This was very important for a few reasons:

1. The MLK Statue was at this point the ONLY statue on campus of a non-white individual. Oddly enough, it was also the only statue NOT located in the main/south mall area and NOT facing south... you see, the architects that engineered the aesthetics of our campus ensured that important historical figures (i.e. The Tower, Jefferson Davis, George Washington, and several other slave owners from the antebellum era of American History) faced south to show respect to the Confederacy... Even the State Capitol faces south. The newer statues are reflective of how society and the campus itself has changed since the institution's founding.
2. The Cesar Chavez statue, much like the MLK statue, represented a group of people and a mentality of individuals on-campus and far beyond... the placement of this statue would work as a beacon... it would welcome new faces to campus and give them something to relate to, whereas when they walked on campus before it was just confedarate war heroes.
3. Barbara Jordan would be the third non-white statue figure, the second black statue, the first female statue, and the first permanent structure that represented members of the LGBTQ and disabled communities as well... needless to say, there would be some bickering as to which image of this woman would be the most acceptable.

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The first week of school started off differently this semester. Monday, the MLK Parade was cancelled due to inclimate raining and cold temperatures... it escalated to a point that school would be cancelled on Tuesday. I'm sure everybody had their own way of celebrating the College Snow Day, but at the G-Spot we coined a new phrase for our Monday evenings... GRAVITY NIGHT... because "it goes down".

ahhh.... nostalgia


Once things did get going again, BSA decided to change the tone of our meetings to a more social/less political tone in order to build a "family" culture for ourselves before we left for Nebraska in February. This was facilitated by the forcing of CP-time via the "meet and greet"... while some were upset that meetings started at 10 after as opposed to at 7 PM sharp, I think those 10 minutes helped people warm up to each other... for those who want to ride the nostalgia bus, remember these songs during meet and greet? "Wipe Me Down" by Lil' Foxx, "I Done Came Down" by Fat Al, "Morris Brown" by OutKast, "We Fly High" by Jim Jones, "Upgrade You" by Beyonce.... ok I'm done...

Outside of BSA, I don't really remember much in terms of what community organizations did this year. This could be due to a few reasons... A - I'm getting too old to remember this shit, B - there wasn't shit to remember, C - what I do remember outweighs what I don't...

There may be such a vast LACK of detail for the following reason...

King's Law: THE FRESHMEN ARE THE PULSE OF THE CAMPUS.

If the freshmen class is social then the community is social, if they are active then the community is active, if they are lame then the community is lame... In any given year, the efforts of the upperclassmen to maintain the quality of campus life will be comparable to the initiative exhibited by the freshman class.

So with that said, what do I remember?
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Big XII

This particular Big XII was a great one for UT... for the most part we had a bus full of students and we could all get along/be cordial. To be frank, alot of us had one hell of a trip... with a few funny stories.... alot of which wouldn't be shared with the community when we returned. What we did share was an award for the Most Improved BSA in the Big XII Council. This made it the 4th time in 5 years that UT received an award from the Big XII (we were the BEST BSA from 03-05...3 years straight). This award was good because it legitimized the amount of work we were doing and it also punctuated that BSA's year was already considered successful because we had definitely improved on the previous year's efforts.

The Freshman Action Team assisted in our efforts to be recognized by continuing with successful trends from the year before as well as starting some new ones. They had successfully upgraded the Talent Show in the fall and thereafter had begun to hold weekly study hours for interested students. It looked as if the F.A.T. was all of that, but the surface always looks better than what's underneath... What most of the exec board saw was a functional and organized group via the word of the FAT Chair... because I saw what happened the year prior and was once the FAT Chair myself, I understood what was really going on was an imbalance of power within their committee... This would become hurtfully evident later in the spring when the FAT had trouble organizing a budget proposal for another large scale program (that didn't end up happening). But I wasn't too upset about this... at least I had freshmen that were trying to do more. Freshmen weren't particularly seen searching for the mainstream leadership positions throughout the community. Some believed this to be a product of their study habits (which only holds probably 21.385% weight as an actual contention)... I'd attribute it more to their apathy about community issues. Maybe the upperclassmen choked them out - we did so much they felt there wasn't anything left for them to do... or maybe they never had an interest in it... regardless, it would make interest meetings much more interesting...

After our triumphant return from Lincoln, Nebraska, a GREAT opportunity became available... Barack Obama, a relatively-little-known senator from Illinois had recently went on Oprah and she coerced him into running for President.... jokes... but he had started his campaign and had announced a visit to Austin, TX. The primary organizers of his visit were the University Democrats (U-Dems), and although they had grown significantly in the 2 years prior, they didn't have as many black people involved as they would like. In order to get the word out quickly, they cosponsored their efforts with AACC . . . needless to say, people immediately began jumping on the band wagon. AACC and U-Dems drafted every student that they could in order to prepare for the crowd that was to be seated in the Gregory Gymnasium. This plan was axed 2 days into planning as they realized that over 10,000 people wanted to attend this speech... they moved the venue to Auditorium Shores, an outside venue.

The entertainment for the crowd consisted of live speeches from other notables as well as live music.... AND... The Alphas stepped for Obama... by the time we hit the stage there were over 17,000 people in attendance... standing in the drizzling precipitation waiting for their future President to address them... it really was beautiful, anybody who was there that day can attest to how powerful it was to have been even minimally involved... it would be the first time (out of three) that I met Mr. Obama.

Meanwhile, the administration on campus were making political moves as well... in an effort to appease students looking for a more diverse campus (or better yet a campus more reflective of its diversity) the DDCE headed by Dr. Vincent began interviews for possible faculty members who would be able to be assets to the University. One name that then and still now sticks out more than the others was a man from LSU that Dr. Vincent had worked with in the past. His name was Dr. Leonard Moore. He was initially invited to the university to lead a "round-table" discussion amongst a small group of student leaders about diversity and tolerance and how discomfort is vital to the development of both. The message actually wasn't half-bad, if you could get past the unnecessary yelling and his need to employ stereotypes as "the truth" in order to make an aggressive point... I noticed that he had a unique skill for entertaining folks through his banter, and that's how he draws them in... I just wondered what his overall message would be in the end....

It didn't take long to find out... he would be invited back for a second speech, this time it would be to a less exlcusive audience, and more black students in general. I could discuss everything he said, but I'll just discuss where he lost US... this nigga said that our community will never have unity without the involvement of the athletes. We responded to this saying that if we waited on them to fix our community we'd be holding our breaths forever (not to mention that most student leaders don't have faith in this theory). He then replies that if we ever wanted to be considered successful, we would change our meeting times to accomodate our schedule around athletes and their lives.... **crickets**... "Are you high?"

Like for real... crack, PCP, lean, the list goes on... he had to be on something to think that we would respond to some BS like that with a smile. What kind of self-respecting (and thus incredulously proud) student organization would willfully step out as athlete bops, and cater to their "needs"? Better yet, when did people start respecting their opinions (as they related to the community) and who was this???
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Mixed Student Union

This has to have been the most successful yet unsuccessful venture into student organizing from this year. It was a unique concept marketed with an above-average initiative for a mission about as vague and cloudy as Snoop Dogg's piss.

The Mixed Student Union was supposed to be an organization that discussed society in settings that allowed the point-of-view of anybody present, thus allowing a MIXture of cultures (which is how the name was derived). Their publicity efforts were off the chain... not only did they pass out flyers, but everybody at their table knew every vital program detail so that they could actually discuss it as they announced it. Furthermore, the members all had great networks of friends that would allow for maximum support at the programs. Unfortunately, the majority of the group's membership was undeniably fair-skinned and female... it soon became a joke to prod them with that they called themselves the "Mixed Student Union" due to their apparent mulatto membership "requirement". Where it all became a wash was the "Color Complex Forum" (similar to colorism/brown-paper-bag/"Imitation of Life" forums done before). Their was a panel set to discuss their views on colorism as the moderator for the evening hashed through main points for everybody to be in the same framework of discussion... sadly we would find out DURING the program was that the motivation behind what would become an inane series of questions about DATING, came from a random convo between an MSU exec member and an athlete about his dating preferences. Assuming that the majority of attendees would either side with her or the other, she place him on the panel in hopes of having "clash" in the discussion (which is actually a good thing, without disagreement, people don't analyze why they agree).... However what it actually became was a discussion about "why don't the athletes date the dark girls???"....

It kind of sucked for them because they actually seemed to have good intentions, and they definitely had a good following in terms of support. However, as per the community assumption theory, people sadly assumed it was a ploy to build a collective resume for Greek life... I'm not making this up... some came to this conclusion after assessing that the organization had more significance than substance in its beginnings... the reason why I'd agree with this assertion was because they wouldn't be active beyond this semester (and if they were, it wasn't active enough to be perceived)... worse things have happened to UT organizations... worse things have happened to people waiting to be in organizations...
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This had to be one of the funniest semesters in terms of the emotional imbalance of the female population.

As I have mentioned before... Greek Life works in a cycle. There were at least 50 girls waiting in line to be chosen by one of two organizations, and neither would have a line this semester. This hurt alot... why? The community sets up expectations and tries to be proactive at times in order to adjust. These random 50 had been running around campus looking for leadership, friendship, favor, and high GPAs... thus when this Spring came around, they had registered for the easiest classes they could (mostly electives) in order to lighten their academic load while being "busy". This is a common practice for alot of people approaching Greek Life... the saddest thing is that it is never discouraged (by sororities or fraternities). How is it that organizations that are nationally recognized for their commitment to promoting academic excellence employ slackers during intake... sounds like a retrogression of purpose to me... but that's another blog.

I digress once again, but the community expects people to go Greek... and thus disappear... and because of this, people start getting their excuses and "busy"ness ("business") plans together... and against the advice that they hear from day 1 (freshman year) they tell ALLLL of their friends about it. The general feeling of esteem in the female community was especially low when so many that were expecting to enter "business" realized that the market was closed for the semester... so they proceded to do them in the mean time... SMH

For a lot of women, this meant being themselves and getting back to their normal lives... which means (sadly for them... happily for the males) promiscuity flourished... from those in waiting and the Greeks themselves. When people don't have places to be at night and they expect to be busy/"busy", they tend to find other things to do with their time... and since they already planned their studying for the day... it's usually tomfoolery... this ultimately leads to their "moral character" (which is a prerequisite for Greek membership) being placed in question.

This led to a virtually forced ultimatum (not a real one tho) that the women would either a) stop pursuing greek life or b) pursue it extra hard. You saw alot of women drop off the scene in terms of showing interest at this time... the rest of them jumped on the "leadership" scene, thus mitigating the presence of male leadership on campus... the shit got all skewed at this point. To put it bluntly, there really are just TOO MANY positions labeled for "leaders" within our community. People started realizing this and as a result decided it was no longer relevant... especially within organizations that were already established and thus already headed in whichever direction (with or without the new leadership's help). In summation, leadership lost its value not only in the community, but also in regards to resume building within the community because everybody knew that a position didn't necessarily justify an individual's substance.
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Relays rolled around again... yay... and in terms of parties there's not much of a story for this year. Thursday night was shared by the Alphas and the Deltas. The Deltas secured Visions (the new age go-to venue... which was on its way to being played out) and us, The Alphas, secured Vicci for the only undergrad party to ever be thrown at the venue... shit was too playalistic... the place looks like it's owned by a cocaine dealer.

The Deltas party was expected to have their regular crowd, which at this point consisted of alot of the athletes... because of the happenings discussed in past blogs (fights) a lot of the male population decided not to attend their party... a lot of females followed suit... except for those who chose option B of the ultimatum above.

Vicci was just too tight of a venue... plus bruhs from other chapters traveled to support us, it truly was a good example of how college parties should be... no fights, no drama, no problems (except for a super long line that was moving extra slow).

The real problem with this Relays was circumstantial as opposed to consequential... the weather... after Thursday, it was cold as a polar bears toenails. This didn't stop the normal happenings from going as planned... The Kappas had their annual probate and introduced 5 new members (2 of them freshmen...), and the SGRhos present 2 new members. It did however stop a good number of people from hitting downtown on Friday and Saturday like normal. The Kappas' party wasn't affected by this, in fact they had to turn away individuals with pre-sale tickets to their party with a promise that it would be valid at the Saturday party... the same issue happened that night.... like I said, they know how to pack out parties.
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So... freshmen going greek... I'm going to approach this as real as I can, and I won't step on toes, I respect the two individuals that crossed that semester, but it is what is.

King's Law: FRESHMEN SHOULD RARELY/NEVER BE ALLOWED TO GO GREEK

There are a few good reasons for freshmen to go greek... they have longer to learn the way of "the yard" and how to work with it, they are connected with "the pulse of the community" because they are a part of it, they get their most unproductive semester out of the way, and it elevates their potential to do more for their chapter (via leadership, knowledge, etc).... so why is it bad?...

1. Freshmen Neophytes have ONE semester to establish themselves as an individual on campus. If they can't make a significant enough impression as an individual in that timeframe, their identity will be limited to their greek label thereafter.
2. Freshmen Neophytes have ONE semester to establish their GPA. They must be above a 2.5 to enter "business", but because of the stresses that semester can introduce, it is only responsible to consider Freshmen with a 3.5 or above, because a 1.5 or below in the "busy" semester will put them on academic probation quicker than they can recite "Invictus"
3. Freshmen Neophytes have not had an opportunity to work within other student organizations which deprives them of general knowledge which can be vital/helpful once they are members of their new organization (this info can be supplemented by an actual healthy/comprehensive intake process or by the experience of their LB/S's)
4. Freshmen Neophytes aren't vetted nearly long enough to evidence that they are truly qualified/ready for Greek Life.
5. Taking Freshmen Neophytes is counterintuitive to the "social fact" that Greek Life is worth waiting for...
6. Freshmen Neophytes (not all the time) have the potential to live in the clouds because they feel special from that day forth... if they do get like this, you can never fix it, because you can't take their status/"significance" away from them... humility will be scarce if not absent.

This is not to say that EVERY freshman who pledges will end up this way, because in all honesty, most don't (In fact I know quite a few notable Greeks who crossed as freshmen), but it is something people should look out for, especially in our new age... the freshmen are less mature as adults when entering the university, and on top of that they are not as well versed in the "natures" of Greek Life as we were in my day... it's just not a smart move for general risk management... then again, when and where organizations can get quality membership (of substance) nobody will judge them negatively for making that choice in the long-run.

Later on in the semester, the Omegas would probate three new members (thus ending their 6 semester hiatus from intake). This was a huge deal simply because it reinforced the fact that Greek Life wasn't dependent on the existence/survival of just a few organizations, rather it is dependent on the well-being of the collective community (including potential new members...)
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A few more events before I (finally) close this entry

This spring brought about a significant advancement in community culture... Mr. DST from this year would be crowned after a revealing self-expression that served as the individual's declaration of his sexuality. It would be the first time (in my time) that somebody would come out and be supported for it. Up until this point, it was definitely known within the community that there were individuals that identified at homosexual, but the common practice was "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"... people tended to act as if they didn't care, when the truth of the matter was that they would rather ignore the pink elephant in the room. After this year, it wouldn't be considered such a taboo subject to recognize that homosexuality existed in our community... but it would test the tolerance and understanding of the community as they adapted to this change... believe it or not, it was a pretty big change.

Towards the end of the semester, the SGRhos and the Kappas decided to cosponsor Friday's events during Sigma Week... the day's events consisted of Kappa Splash (the first year that it was a boat party, as opposed to a pool party) and the First Annual (subsequently, the only) StRHOll-Off... The boat party was planned to be over in time for the party goers to be back in time for the stroll-off. As a result, the Deltas (who were registered to compete) attended the boat party. When the stroll-off was about to start (extremely... even for black people) late, the SGRhos decided to start the show, and thus one sorority act was dropped from the program and the program in general was not executed as planned (this upset the SGRhos) ... I'd say it was a pretty good show... In the finals it was between us, The Alphas, and the men of Phi Beta Sigma... now even though I'm biased and will say to this day we could've won anyway (hehehe), the Sigmas really just wanted to make a show, so their final stroll, while very entertaining, also got them automatically disqualified because of its content (Whipped Cream Pies. . . . .). It was good times tho, until...

The boat partiers returned... there was a public argument that ensued between members of SGRho and Kappa... it involved conflicts between the two orgs and the conditions of their cosponsorship... not my business really so I won't throw that out there, but this was the note Greek Life would enter into Hope Week with... disarry, discontent, disconnect, and disrepute... these types of public altercations, without fail, are always at the least embarassing to black folks.

Additionally... Houston chapters of Kappa decided to take on the annual Greek Olympiad Stepshow for the TX A&M Chapter while they attempted to get re-established.... what ensued was one of the most talked about brawls between Greeks (specifically Nupes v. Ques) ever talked about. Upon hearing the story, it was one of those things that made you say "I wish I was there so I could say that it was a damned shame."
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Hope Week, my favorite week ever, came once again... a few notable things I remember....

On Wednesday, community service day, I went to Texadelphia with the people who came to do service with us and I had an interesting/entertaining conversation with some freshmen from that year (wow, I'm old... ya'll are seniors now...). The discussion basically hinted at the student leadership cycle that I keep referring to. 2 particular freshmen argued with me that what I was saying was full out mularchy... they would both be Greek by the end of 2007... I'm not wrong often (King's Law).

This year's Hope Week included a NEW program that was originally conceived by the BSA-F.A.T. It was called the "F.A.T.est Pool Party Ever". It was originally planned to be a cosponsorship with the Omegas, but because of scheduling conflicts and lack of time to plan it before Hope Week, I proposed to the FAT and BSA exec that we do it during Hope Week, thus allowing a less strict budget and providing more hands to assist in the execution of the program. I think this is one of the best things I've ever done in Alpha, BSA, community... it is a guaranteed actual co-sponsorship that promotes campus unity and fun annually. Some criticized me for stealing this program from the FAT... but I dont think I have... especially since I have always made sure the FAT have been involved in the program since then (at what level... that's disputable but I don't chair it every year either). If anything, in my defense, I'd say I placed the program in the hands of something more consistent... the frat will always have a consistent contingency whereas the FAT will absolutely NOT, and BSA is not guaranteed to have members who worked on the program the previous year either.... at any rate... this was a great cook-out/party... it was fun... and at the end of the night, we all came together.... Sadly, we came together to fight some random Austinites who were talking shit at the pool. Like I always say... fights are embarassing... but as some of my friends would say... that dude needed his ass whooped. UT folks won the fight, but we closed down the cook-out immediately after apparently because the dudes who lost didn't know how to take their ass whoopins like men and threatened to go retrieve their guns from their car. Needless to say, we didn't want anybody getting shot.

The next night was the United Colors Jam... which was at a smaller house than usual... normally we were located in West Campus at the Tejas House, however their new membership wasn't as keen on the amount of negros at their house as the group before. So we played the game and threw it at my frat brother's house. Good Points - it was a safe party, and it went off without an issue (in terms of police, tabc, ambulances, etc...) however it would be the first public display of Greek Life's house of cards beginning to tumble... the scapegoat from the AKA Fall 06 issue decided to attend the party... as did her former linesisters... from what I hear their beef escalated at some point during the party... if it did, I was too drunk to remember... regardless, it was now public knowledge to everybody in the community what had(n't) gone down in the past semester and how everybody felt about it...

It never made since to me why the dirty laundry had to be aired, or why people preferred that it not be held private... I'm guessing because people would rather submit their opinions to the public and let them have control over how to handle it (and at this point, it's still not okay on-campus to be "paper", to act as somebody who is, or to tolerate it)...

It had always seemed illogical to let the entired (un-unified) community have control over that which was created by a select (supposedly unified) few... it's not the community's fault or responsibility to handle it... or was it? Maybe not in the old mentality, but whether the older generation realized it or not, the messiness that allowed such privileged information to fall into the public's hands would change the dynamics of how the community approached and resolved complex issues that were once none-of their business... Once it became their business, it became their issue to deal with... so how would they decide to do it???...

In the upcoming blogs...
finding a solution v. finding a scapegoat