SIX THOUSAND dollars: Roughly, this is the amount of money the four predominantly African-American fraternities at the University spend per semester for rental and security of IFC fraternity houses during social events and functions. Seven thousand dollars: Roughly, this is the average cost of rent per month for all of the predominantly African-American fraternity members on Grounds, if each and every one of them were to rent their own rooms in their own houses. You do the math. And if you do it well, like so many African Americans involved in the Greek system, you can see that this is not just a problem of social space or fiscal budget crunching, but a problem that is pervasive and one that poses a tremendous burden on the backs of the University's black fraternity men.
This is no simple problem of addition or subtraction either, and yet it is one that has loomed over the black fraternity and sorority system at the University for 30 years now. Without a doubt, the largest portion of social programming for students of color is provided for by the minority Greek system -- a system that operates on the tightest of budgetary threads, but promotes some of the most substantial programming of any student groups on Grounds.
Member organizations of the Black Fraternal Council and Multicultural Greek Council coordinate some of the most creative, and by far some of the largest of all student programs at this university that most undergraduates look forward to on those Friday and Saturday nights, packing others' houses on a weekly basis. Most do so without serving alcohol and interestingly, the greatest problems these organizations face are affiliated with attendance -- and the exorbitant number of people trying to cram into any one facility on any given weekend.
So why is it that on a weekly basis, white members of the fraternity system can almost inherently still hear the knocking of black fraternity men on their doorsteps, asking to borrow their homes for just one night? After 30 years, one would think that the fraternity system might change somehow, and even drastically so, as white sororities have in the 30-plus years that women have been attending the University en masse. A good concept in theory, but one that has not held true in reality. The course for black men at this University, just like in this country, is no easy one, as the plight of the black fraternity system over 30 years' time has illustrated.
The complex web that has gone un-addressed and been woven over time makes for a seemingly comfortable situation where black fraternities rent property from white fraternities who own property -- but seriously, who is this situation comfortable for? Black fraternity men certainly aren't comfortable knocking on the doors of the IFC, spending too many of their hours as students trying to serve their own community, while concomitantly providing white fraternities with a nice budget line item labeled rental income.
Many wonder why black fraternities maintain such small memberships, and simply put, the answer, besides the outstanding merits these fraternity men must earn outside of their organizations, is the fact that these men are college students simultaneously operating small businesses as well facilitating mentoring and tutoring programs in the community, while locally running their fraternities out of the Student Activities Center in a less than-adequate student union.
Regardless of the recognition the University bestows upon their black fraternities -- granting them awards, honoring their service to the Charlottesville community, championing them as role models on their fraternity life brochures -- these students still knock from door to door every week in search of a place to "be," because the University has yet to provide them with one that is substantial, adequate or even at this point, well-deserved.
In fact, over the years, this cycle of borrowing others' homes and then charging other students dollar upon dollar for entry into facilities that aren't even theirs is the most egregious form of modern-day sharecropping that the University continues to support, and though perhaps the end of this cycle is near, it may not arrive in such a positive way.
As the IFC contemplates ending house rentals for minority Greek organizations altogether, leaving BFC and MGC groups at a dead end, I venture to say I dare the IFC to do it. The proposition would simply end a great deal of the social life for students of color at the University, and perhaps then the University would seriously have to sit down and give these students a place of their own at the table, saving them both time and money in the long run. Why should these students have to contend with other students exacting their own forms of self-governance in their own houses anyway? If this were really everyone's University, students of color wouldn't have to worry about their social scene falling apart just because white fraternities say they can't borrow their living rooms anymore.
If the IFC passes the proposition, then the administration should prepare to deal with the ramification of an ethical responsibility they have been dodging for decades now, and the severe consequences that stem from it: Thousands of students looking for their social needs fulfilled, with nowhere to turn, but to them.
(Kazz Alexander Pinkard's column appears Thursdays in The Cavalier Daily. He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. He can be reached at kpinkard@cavalierdaily.com.)
Read More
CASTAGNO: Closing the Federal Executive Institute fails local residents
By Conall Costagno | 21 hours agoThe unwilling departure of the FEI from Charlottesville represents the severing of a constructive accord between the government and the University.
COHEN: Facing federal cuts, U.Va. must defend affordability
By Ryan Cohen | 2 days agoIn this uncertain environment, the University must act creatively and strategically to ensure it can maintain its commitment to affordability.
EDITORIAL: Commit to protecting noncitizens on Grounds
By Editorial Board | 3 days agoThis has grown into a pattern of failing the rights of noncitizens to due process and overstepping judicial checks and balances on the executive branch.
