FSA is not allowed to book outside of the SLC because Associate Provost Scott said they can’t. That’s the simple truth. She discriminated based on the club, which is absurd. All Feds clubs should have equal rights. I will note though that my motion has nothing to do with FSA.

CRT is a volunteer service, not a job. Varsity Sports are not jobs.

The Norman Shield link works for me…

-Jeff

As a corollary, why, in your opinion, is the FSA not allowed to have full booking rights at UW?

PS: CRT is a JOB, not a club. To a certain degree, so are the campus sports teams. Sigma Chi is not a job.

Finally, your link to the Norman Shield is broken.

It’s general knowledge that I am a member of Sigma Chi as I display a link off my web site and note it on my open Facebook profile. Councillors/Friends who know me are familiar with the fact. I wrote my article and motion as a councillor, not as a member of Sigma Chi. Even if I wasn’t in a Greek organization, I’d pursue the issue at the request of my constituents, because it is the right thing to do, just as I have done in the past for other issues of concern.

The rush questionnaire, open to anyone to fill out, allows us to find and learn about people interested in joining. The information allows us to be able to contact them as well. As you can see, the average is optional. There is absolutely no discrimination based on academics. As per number 8, it is something we like to know because it shows that they are probably interested because their family member is in it. And number 9, is just so we know who to talk to to learn more about the person. You don’t need a recommendation, and there is no commission.

Now, what we do actually have for requirements are made public in the International Sigma Chi bylaws. If you read the letter on the home page of our Chapter’s site, it explains it. Better yet, read all about the Fraternity and its bylaws in a book called the Norman Shield (pdf copy). The Greek organizations are very transparent if you even try to seek out the truth.

What more do I need to explain about what we do? We throw philanthropy events, conferences, attend leadership workshops, have social events, and regular chapter business meetings. Informing people of what we actually do helps to dispell the myths about Greek organizations. We don’t discriminate based on academics as I explained above.

I never said EWB was a fraternity, I said it was an external organization that the University has recognized. That was to give precedent for the university recognizing external organizations. As you agreed, the University and Varsity Teams (and the Campus Response Team) are exclusive. I’ll repeat it once more, as I’ve done to numerous people, the goal of this is to get recognition, which would allow freedom of assembly in combination with freedom on association on campus for tuition and fee paying students. Greek organization members are not allowed to assemble on campus, and that is blatantly discriminatory. That’s what it all boils down to. Liberty and Equality.

-Jeff

What I can’t figure out is the relevance of most of the criteria here. Point by point:

1. Faculty and Major
-For records, or something, I suppose.

2. CGPA
-Totally irrelevant, unless Sigma Chi plans to administer some kind of tests. It says optional, but its mere presence suggests that a higher GPA will increase your chances of acceptance (If you think this is okay because the university does it, you’d be wrong. See below).

3. Any Scholastic Honours
-Just as irrelevant as the CGPA

4. Leadership Experience
-I guess every group needs leaders, but not everyone.

5. Community Service Experience
-I guess thats not a big deal, but I’m not sure why its important.

6. Talents or Activities
-I can touch my tongue to my nose, does that count?

7. Why are you interested in joining Sigma Chi?
-This, to me, is the only question that should even be on here.

8. Is anyone in your family a Sigma Chi?
-This is an important one, I think, and underlines exactly where the blatant exclusion comes in. What is this, Divine Right? Shouldn’t be a factor at all.

9. Name of person who recommended Sigma Chi:
I certainly hope there isn’t some kind of commission. If there isn’t, this question is irrelevant, or should at least be re-worded to ask for people that you know at Sigma Chi.

Now, as for that point I was mentioning earlier. Jeff has brought up the fact that other organizations, like athletics and even the University of Waterloo itself, are exclusive. Given what Jeff has said about what GOs actually do (personally, he hasn’t really said as much as I’d have liked. Charitable activities and social events?), I believe this fact is irrelevant to the matter at hand. Athletic associations need to discriminate based on athletic ability because that is the nature of the position. If you can’t run very fast or long, you certainly shouldn’t be on the track team. Likewise, UW has to make sure their students can make it through university, so they discriminate based on academics. What do GOs do that justifies discrimination based on academics? Nothing, as far as I can tell (please do correct me if I’m wrong).

On another note, Engineers Without Borders is not a fraternity, so no, the same rules about recognition should NOT apply to them simply because they both happen to have international organizations. EWB is a completely different (non-exclusive) type of organization, so please stop making claims that frats should have them same rights as it does. If you want to make the argument that another group has rights that GOs should have, then that group should be sufficiently similar to warrant that comparison. If there aren’t any accepted groups on campus that fit that criteria, then that point should be left out of the argument. At least, I won’t accept it.

I put something up on the uwaterloo community on livejournal so further get the word out…

the link is here

http://community.livejournal.com/uwaterloo/445463.html

In fact this motion has nothing to do with FSA, but I will talk briefly about it. FSA (Fraternities and Sororities Awareness) is a club that is supposed to be allowed to meet to provide awareness of Greek organizations. The problem is that FSA is the only Federation Club that Associate Provost Scott has barred from booking facilities outside of the SLC. As well, any event in the SLC cannot be a single fraternity throwing it, like AOPi bringing in a guest speaker. Any individual Greek organization has no rights of assembly anywhere on campus, even the SLC.

To address your numbered points:
1) The recognition outlined for council is not for club status. Despite that, clubs can hold alcoholic events if they are thrown on campus paying the regular rental fees, pay for servers, security, etc. There is also the ability to throw alcoholic events events off campus. It requires lots of paper work, and unfortunately most just throw informal ones. For the University recognition status sought after, I believe it will allow alcohol related events on campus following all regular University procedures.

2) All of the Greek organizations are bound by their Headquarters rules (and breaking any of them, like anti hazing policies), will have their Charter taken away and they will cease to exist. They are also answerable to the larger Interfraternity Committees.

3) They are values based organizations. To address your question of the predominately Jewish fraternity (AEPi), non-Jewish members are allowed to join. They are all entirely inclusive, as it is a policy of the international overseeing bodies.

4) The only place they receive funding is from members. They will not receive any funding from Feds or the University. There is a clause that allows Clubs at the discretion to manage their own finances on approval of IAC, but again, the motion is not to become a club. The Greek organizations have strict financial rules and report to their Headquarters or be suspended if there is mismanagement.

5) Any one can start their own Greek organization, or colonize (become a chapter of an existing Greek organization that does fit your values) an existing one that does not currently exist at UW (of which there are dozens). I don’t see how you’d be discriminated at all.

I hope that addresses your questions.

-Jeff

The real issue comes down to what advantages or privileges this would entail for GO’s.

1)Will they still be able to organize alcohol related events? Because for clubs, that’s banned, or at least highly regulated.

2)Will they still be completely answerable to Greek HQ (whatever you call it)? Seems to me part of the controversy over the ESA thing ages ago was about student versus student control.

3)Will they be merit-based inclusive, or will there be a perpetuation of racial and other biases (the “Jewish Frat”, whichever of the three it is).

4)Will they be allowed to obtain external funding and manage it externally (as clubs are not allowed, but often do anyway)? University recognition of an organization with questionable business practices tarnishes their reputation.

5)And most of all, and this is the real exclusivity argument: If there isn’t a club that I feel includes me, I can start my own. If I don’t get in to any frats on campus, can I start my own? Or will I be discriminated against based on my (lack of) membership in extra-university organizations?

To support something like this, your somewhat nebulous “recognition” has to satisfactorily answer these questions.

Thanks,
Tim Foster

I have made a very hard decision, made difficult due to my strong beliefs in liberty and freedom of speech.

This week I have a midterm every day and I will not be able to stand by my computer to wait for comments to come in and respond to them. I am going to leave comments open but I am going to require myself to moderate each comment before it will appear and address them as I approve them and they are published. I will approve every comment (unless it is libelous or blatant misuse of my open discussion policy) but my response rate will be slowed due to my studying.

At anytime if you wish to ask me questions, you can email me at jeff@jeffaho.com and I will respond at the earliest convenient time.

-Jeff

Thanks for you comments and discussion.

This issue is being advertised greatly. It has been in the Iron Warrior, I did an interview for the next Imprint (they weren’t able to do it at the same time as the Iron Warrior because of their summer biweekly issue, but expect an article), I sent the motion out three weeks in advance (instead of the usual 5 days), I’ve been writing articles, it was sent out over the Feds mailing lists, and other notable UW blogs have picked it up. This is not hidden at all from the general public’s eye and I’ve been working hard to advertise it.

To address your question on referendum, policy issues generally fall under council due to the fact that theoretically there is full campus representation. A referendum would cost at least $2000, as well as waste the time of the Feds Exec. As with past policy issues, this is the normal procedure.

The Math News editor offered to publish it as well, but we felt that the article didn’t need to be repeated there. I talked to Chris Redmond, the Editor of the Daily Bulletin and he suggested posting it like that on UW Opinion, so I followed his advice.

-Jeff

I don’t think it’s very public at all. I would not even know about this had I not stumbled across it on the UW Opinion site (which I would argue is not much frequented either).