No catchy introduction, no attempts to be witty this time. We'll just come right out and say it: We're proud of the Interfraternity Council and the Panhellenic Council.
The two groups, which oversee many of UF's fraternities and sororities, decided to impose sanctions on themselves during the week of Homecoming. They decided that each chapter must have at least five sober students every night, and one of those five students must attend a risk-management seminar.
But this is just a short-term fix to a much bigger problem. As IFC President Ben Caswell said, this needs to be taken into consideration for "the next 10 years, not just the next 10 days."
The sanctions are most likely in response to recent lapses of judgment within the Greek community, particularly Zeta Tau Alpha Sorority's restaurant fiasco and Pi Lambda Phi Fraternity's pre-rush party this semester, when marijuana and drug paraphernalia were confiscated from its house.
Zeta still awaits its punishment, and Pi Lam is banned from social activities through the semester and cannot have alcohol in its house.
Of course, five people out of an entire fraternity or sorority aren't that many, but we trust the judgment of the councils. We don't want them to get in any more trouble, and we know they don't, either.
Prevention is the best policy. If those five lucky sober people can prevent an incident from becoming front-page news, it will be worth it for the entire Greek system.
In a perfect world, every house party and tailgate would have their own babysitters. In a perfect world, Greeks wouldn't be picked on by non-Greeks, newspapers or even rival fraternities and sororities. But this isn't a perfect world by any stretch of the imagination, so this just might be the next best thing.
Besides, a perfect world wouldn't be any fun.
