After A Year At The Helm, Dr. Binder Sees Reformed Greeks

Sam Davis
After a year at he Helm, Dr. Binder Sees Reformed Greeks
Since Dr. Ron Binder took over as University of South Carolina’s new Director of Greek Life, everyone knew change was in the near future. Now, nearing the end of his first year at the helm, its obvious that changes were made towards making Greek life a safer environment by prioritizing two major actions: education and enforcement.
“They say if you want to make a change there are two things you have to work on: education and enforcement. So we’ve really beefed up our education tremendously in terms of risk management,” Dr. Binder said. “That’s kind of what I go around the country speaking about so I go around and speak to a lot of chapters… But we also made it clear we’re also going to enforce the policies. Fortunately, we have the knew Greek judicial board to deal with that on the organizational level, and the university on the individual level.”
Since taking over, Dr. Binder has certainly taken care of the educational aspect. He’s made a visit to every fraternity and sorority’s chapter meeting to make a lecture about hazing and underage drinking among Greeks.
As for the enforcement, he’s been tightening up the reinforcement policies for when Greeks do break the rules. So far, two fraternities and one sorority have been caught breaking the underage drinking policies and were given sanctions as a result. Two more were disciplined for hazing. With the stricter enforcements on Greek behavior, Dr. Binder does believe that it is helping to clean up the social life of fraternities and sororities.
“Do I feel better about where we’re at? Yes. I feel like we’re getting much more compliance with the policies,” Dr. Binder said. “That’s something that’s a continual educational effort with our students.”
After working with Greek life at several other universities, Dr. Binder had earned a reputation for bringing down the hammer and correcting an out of control situation in which too many rules were being broken. Comparing Carolina to other schools he was at, USC didn’t have as bad of a situation coming in, he says.
“I’m kind of the person you hire sometimes when you have some problems. When I was hired at UGA and UNC it was kind of similar,” Dr. Binder said. “In terms of putting out fires, if you want to use that phrase, definitely Georgia and UNC were a little different.”
Dr. Binder thinks that in many instances, if one group is caught doing something illegal it will lead to other groups putting a halt to that same activity.
“With DU’s scavenger hunt, were they the only group doing a scavenger hunt? I don’t know; but it was the one that was brought to my attention. I can tell you this much: any other group participating in scavenger hunts probably doesn’t do it anymore.”
Sophomore Connor Allgood was the President of Delta Upsilon at the time when his fraternity was caught in a hazing incident in which the newly initiated members were sent out on a “scavenger hunt.” The chapter received punishments from its national headquarters, and the judicial board also doled out sanctions to several students involved, including the new members.
“In my opinion, our punishment from the international fraternity was fine. It just included us making a new associate member program, which I think was needed. It made us complete GreekEdu [an online course educating students about the risks of hazing and alcohol abuse] which was fair,” Allgood said. “But from the school, I thought that was a little too much - too many community service hours, especially because they told us we couldn’t do them at our philanthropy location, but only at another charity.”
In another instance, Lamda Chi Alpha had its social privileges revoked after supplying alcohol at a tailgate.
“Lamda Chi Alpha didn’t have social privileges for about an eight week period or so. We put that out there with the caveat that if any Greek out there notices that they are having a social event then here’s a phone number to call 24/7 anonymously to let us know,” Dr. Binder said. “And also, we told all the other groups, you can’t party with them because if you’re partying with them than you’re in trouble as well.”
Perhaps the reason authorities came down so hard on Lambda Chi was because distribution of alcohol by a chapter is now one of the more serious offenses as Dr. Binder sees it.
“What we’re really looking for is chapters providing alcohol. In terms of risk, when the chapter provides the alcohol, it is a priority for us to put a stop to that,” Dr. Binder said. “That’s why we say every event is BYOB. We also say it’s a twelve pack maximum to bring to an event.“
Football game tailgates during the fall are a prime situation for fraternities to supply alcohol. That’s why Dr. Binder has made special guidelines to follow in order to avoid distribution to underage students.
“Chapters aren’t stupid enough to get a keg… So what they were doing this fall at tailgates, was bringing numerous cases of beer,” Dr. Binder said. “Then, we had to make sure all the beer was kept in coolers so that everybody kept their own beer to themselves.”
Communication policies are another way in which Dr. Binder feels the new strategies are improving Greek life. He has it set up so that the entire campus knows exactly what transpired when a fraternity or sorority is disciplined.
“We’re also one of the few universities that are incredibly transparent about who gets in trouble. If you look at our Greek report which is on our website, it has which groups got disciplined as a group,” Dr. Binder said. “The summary of the case is sent out to all of the chapter presidents, all the advisors, and we encourage them to put them up on their chapter listservs.”
Yes, change is certainly prevalent in South Carolina’s Greek atmosphere. Slowly but surely, Dr. Ron Binder is bringing fraternities and sororities to comply with the restrictions while still having fun as a college student. Some of them just have to learn the hard way.

2 days late

No, not my period, my blog. I was supposed to post monday but I had a golf tournament (took 6th in the county, no big deal), and yesterday I worked on my paper with Mr. Saxon. Now, I have just had the legendary and beautiful M.O.B Mobbish Megan read over my paper. She made several grammatical corrections and was, as always, extremely helpful. I feel I am a little behind on my paper with only my opening paragraph and some of my body paragraph written at this point, but once I get a little more research done, the words will jump out of my mouth and onto the paper. For now, during class I will be working on my research paper, and I will hopefully have it finished by early next week. Also, I will soon begin reading the book Bringing Down The House as well as watching the movie 21, to prepare for my final project. Well, I best be getting to my paper.

slammy - outttt

monday/tuesday 4/28 4/29

It is monday night and I am blogging on my home computer. Break was boring, just like every weekend except longer. Today in class I did not have my laptop because Miss Van Gunten took it after I wasn't taking good care of it. I tried to rent the book Bringing Down The House from the school library but they were out. Because of this, I wasn't able to get much done today. Tomorrow, I will start my website that will ultimately be my final project. Now, I am going to bed. I will finish this post tomorrow.

K, It's tomorrow now. I was going to begin my website but I was just informed that the research paper should be our priority at this time, so that's what I will do. I must first finish the book I am reading and then watch the movie 21. My research paper will be ready to be completed at that point. The paper will make the overall statement that the American people are suckered out of millions of dollars every day by Las Vegas. To prove this, I will use statistics, books, personal accounts and more. So for the rest of my week I will be partially researching Las Vegas gambling statistics as well as reading my book.

Final Project, Finally

Brainstorming for the individual 4th marking period project has commenced. My mom ordered a book for me from the library called Bringing Down The House, which is the story line of which the new hit movie 21* is based on. This gave me an idea. One of the biggest passions in my life is gambling. I have been betting all my life. In 5th grade, I ran a march madness pool with a buy in of 25 cents. I've maintained the pool every year with an increasing buy in and amount of participants every year. Riding the points, letting it all go on a toss of the dice - there's no better rush. That's why, anticipating Mr. Saxon's approval, I am going to do my final project on gambling. I know that two of my materials will be Bringing Down the House, and subsequently, the movie 21*. One minor dilemna however, is I need to find atleast one more book because as of right now, my repetoir is quite shallow with one book and one movie. Thankfully, I found a website listing books that deal with betting, so hopefully by the end of the week I will have atleast one more novel to read. Also by the end of the week, I would like to have an entire plan for the marking period - what my paper is going to be about, what my final presentation is going to be, and what I am going to use as research or for other opinions. I'm afraid this post must come to end because I need to finish my PIP before my interview tomorrow. Expect to be hearing more from me in the near future.

Slammy - out

Clockwork Paradox

My favorite dialogue of the novel is on page 106 when the Prison Chaplain is talking to Alex about the treatment that he is about to undergo. During this conversation, the Prison Chaplain asks several hypothetical and paradoxical questions. At this point, it is obvious that the treatment that Alex is about to receive is still doubted by moral standards. "Very hard ethical questions are involved," says the Chaplain. "You are to be made into a good boy... It may not be nice to be good, little 6655321. It may be horrible to be good." And then the Chaplain is spiraled into deep thought and questioning in which is not so much talking to Alex as he is asking himself. "What does God want? Does God want goodness or the choice of goodness? Is a man who chooses the bad perhaps in some way better than a man who has the good imposed upon him? Deep and hard questions, little 6655321. His speech ends with "And yet, in a sense, in choosing to be deprived of the ability to make an ethical choice, you have in a sense really chosen the good. So I shall like to think. "so, God help us all, 6655321, I shall like to think." The questions that the man asks will never be truly answered - not until you sit down for coffee with the big guy upstairs. It can't hurt to toy with the ideas though. Here are my thoughts...
Our current system in which the bad are punished and the good (supposedly) are rewarded is the way God intended. People are born with a choice. They make a choice to be good or to be bad. This very choice is what makes this world diverse and colorful. If everyone was forced to be good, that would obviously mean there is no bad in the world. With no bad, there is also no bravery, no courage, no ability to overcome adversity because there is no adversity. The difference between the good and the bad is what keeps the world circulating and revolving. That said, Alex does not choose to be good, like the Prison Chaplain tries to think toward the end of his rambling. The man thinks that Alex has chosen the good because he knows that this process will only allow him to do good things, but that is not the reason for Alex's choice. Alex clearly wants to be a victim of the process because it will get him out of the staja much earlier than planned. Alex believes he will have freedom when he is released, but there turns out to be less freedom after he is released then there actually was in the prison.

ACO the movie

On my plane ride to Orlando I began watching the controversial movie version of A Clockwork Orange. However, it was interrupted after one of the early scenes when a woman sitting next to me caught a glimpse of Billyboy and his droogs raping, or doing the old "in-out" on a young woman. She made a face and turned the other way, so I finished the scene and then turned it off. Later on in between rounds, I was able to watch almost to the end of Part I. What I appreciated most about the movie was the extroadinary acting by Malcom McDowell, who played the part of Alex. He steals the show with an uncanny ability to personify and bring to life the fictional character that Anthony Burgess created. I was most impressed at the scene when the four droogs knocked on the door of a young couple and Alex tricked his way into entering the house. The boys get in and beat down the husband and tape him up. They then direct his eyes right at his wife as Alex cuts her clothes off with a knife. What made the scene so much more entertaining was when Alex broke out into song and dance as he both beat the man and prepared for the in-out on the woman. He sang "Singing In the Rain" as he undressed the woman and himself. I was able to appreciate McDowell's talent here because his acting was so fluid and realistic. For a moment I even got spooked because I thought I was watching a real raping. A review of the movie accurately states, "If not for the presence of the youthful face of established thespian Malcolm McDowell, one could be forgiven the assumption that the movie was made far more recently than 1971." It is undeniable that McDowell makes the film 10 times more enjoyable with his animated and accurate portrayal of Alex DeLarge.

Clockwork #3

I am now almost done with Part 2 of the novel, so I am figuring that I will finish it sometime around 2012. My past posts were focused around the intriguing character and narrator, Alex DeLarge. Unfortunately, his true character was revealed as he was being captured by the "razdraz" at the end of Part I. Upon meeting the police, he immediately screeches the identity and demands the capturing of his droogs, saying "It was all their idea, brothers. They like forced me to do it. I'm innocent, bog butcher you." Alex's cowardly reaction to the unfortunate events reveals his true identity, disproving any pretenses that the reader may have been under in believing that Alex was a real leader or a bold and mentally strong person. I must confess that DeLarge had me believing that the kid was hardly short of a genius - a strong-minded, headstrong boy that was simply always up to mischief. The scene where he emerged victorious in fights against two of his droogs had me further on the Alex DeLarge bandwagon. Now it is apparent that Alex uses weapons and preys upon weaker, defenseless victims to hide his pusillanimous and spineless nature. On a geocities site the critic writes "Alex hypnotizes his readers into becoming fans of his 'ultra-violence' but his gutless tendencies are later revealed." It's good to know that I am not the only person who sees right through Alex's transparency. I am disappointed in this revelation that I have come across, although I am now happy that he was captured.