SIUC administrators trying to force Select 2000 upon greek fraternities must face the fact that they are trying to take alcohol out of greek chapter houses too quickly. If they cannot work with greeks in implementing Select 2000 and slowly removing alcohol from SIUC’s greek system, then improving the system’s image might best be left to other options.

Select 2000 is the nine-part initiative that includes calling, in part, for campus greeks of four participating campuses to remove alcohol from greek fraternity houses. The participating schools, SIUC, University of Northern Colorado, Villanova University and Florida Southern College, agreed to Select 2000’s overall plan to improve the images of their respective greek systems and remove alcohol from the greek system by the year 2000. The actual implementation of this plan was left up to administrators at each campus to decide.

While administrators at UNC and Villanova are gradually phasing alcohol out of the greek system, SIUC administrators want to jump ahead of schedule and remove alcohol from fraternity houses by 1998, and this year greeks are not allowed to sponsor parties with alcohol. Greek leaders and student governments have voiced opposition to Select 2000. Administrators should consider this student opposition and realize their actions are not at all similar to those being taken by the other pilot schools.

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If Select 2000 is to work for SIUC, the gradual phasing-in of an alcohol-free greek system cannot have a target date of 1998. In all honesty, a target date of 2000 also may be too early for SIUC to comply with the Select 2000 initiative. These are reasons why the initiative never will be embraced by the greek system and why Select 2000 at SIUC is doomed if administrators keep the plan on its present course.

Rejecting participation in Select 2000 is a viable option for SIUC if administrators choose to follow the lead of two fellow state schools that have taken matters into their own hands. The University of Illinois and Illinois State University are toying with self-devised plans to eliminate alcohol from their greek systems. A similar grassroots movement could be useful here. Another method would be to follow the Interfraternity Council’s vote to delay phasing alcohol out of the greek system until 1998. But before either of these routes are to be investigated, SIUC administrators should salvage Select 2000 by rethinking their present intentions.

A look into history shows that nearly 24 years ago, SIU’s Board of Trustees passed a resolution that allowed students of legal drinking age to consume alcohol in their on-campus places of residence. One part of that resolution stated, This is not to say that alcohol may not have detrimental effects on the learning of individual students or that alcohol-related disciplinary problems are non-existent. This change of policy is based on the lawful right of the student to indulge his private tastes and values. Southern Illinois University at Carbondale is merely making the use of beer and wine a matter of individual choice . . . Today, SIUC administrators are hoping to erase some of the campus’ alcohol-related problems since that decision by forcing greek fraternities to participate in Select 2000. In essence, Select 2000 is a good attempt at preventing future alcohol-related deaths on college campuses the recent binge-drinking death of an 18-year-old freshman at Massachusetts Institute of Technology is the latest such occurrence to receive media attention.

But while Select 2000’s preventative purpose is a noble one, administrators need to realize that the eliminiation of a long-held individual choice from fraternity members cannot happen overnight. If this is the idea they choose to stick with, then participation in Select 2000 needs to be delayed.