[1384] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Dorm Rush
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Shawn K. Kelly)
Thu Nov 7 12:36:34 2002
Date: Thu, 7 Nov 2002 09:47:02 -0500
From: "Shawn K. Kelly" <skkelly@MIT.EDU>
To: MIT-Talk@MIT.EDU
>Why?
>
>Not to be absurd or anything, but we didn't have any help from people in
>dorms when OUR Rush was being screwed with.
>
>I say that you guys learn to take it like we had to.
>Welcome to MIT.
>
>Dustin Muqiz
>esper@mit.edu
Dustin,
Peter beat me to this question, and handled it very well. There was a
massive, campus-wide response to FOC, much of which was before you
were at MIT.
>FOC was a decision made at the highest levels of the MIT
>administration. Dorm rush was eliminated because Orientation decided
>to increase the number of academic and structured social events
>(e.g. orientation group barrier-breaking) at the same time they
>shortened the length of orientation week.
>James
Were this true, it would make the battle much easier. Dorm rush
didn't die this year just because it didn't fit on the schedule.
It died because:
1. Parents complained that "It's July already and I don't know
my Snookum's address yet!"
2. As has been alluded to already, students were developing more
alliegance to their DFSILGwhatever, and not enough to the Institute
as a whole, meaning less donation income for MIT.
The insidious thing about administration changes to student life is
that they know that any protests will fizzle within 4 years. FOC was
different because it REALLY pissed off students and alums, and because
now, and even in the next few years, some frats are in danger of going
under.
The dorm rush decision, from the administration's point of view, is a
self-fixing problem. In 2-3 years (if you don't overturn the
decision), there won't be enough community left in any dorms to even
mount a protest.
So if you're going to fix this (and you should!), fix it this year.
Shawn
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