THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, March 27, 1995 TAG: 9503270039
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
The only questionable feature in Old Dominion University's just proposed 20-year plan is a Greek Row of fraternities and sororities.
This is an ideal time to consider phasing them out. Such cliques have become obsolete at ODU and at Norfolk State University or any worthy school of higher education.
Our two great educational dynamos, along with Virginia Wesleyan College, Christopher Newport University and a host of community colleges, join with the U.S. Navy in giving Hampton Roads an ever-enlarging grasp on the future.
No more fervent admirer of ODU exists than I. Its development eastward is an exciting prospect. I plan to be around 20 years hence to salute it. Preferably without sororities and fraternities.
You don't agree? You think that elite, expensive clubs are vital to convivial living on a campus?
Then visit ODU's recently expanded Webb Center, an animated web of activities. No one need go hungry or lonely in that scene, which resembles the plaza of a volatile town. It is invigorating to walk through - as do many students and non-students, one of the broadening benefits of an urban university.
In the center are a vast book store and a fine cafeteria and, in the food court, a sub shop, a Mexican cantina and a coffee shop.
You find a branch bank, a copy center, and an arcade offering arcane amusements of pinball machines, video games, pool table.
Every Thursday near noon, there's an hour of staged entertainment or a gathering of the campus community to discuss an issue.
In the center's spacious lounges are large-screen TV sets and areas for group or individual study.
On the second floor are offices for campus activities including radio station WODU. Each fall at an organizational fair, ``Main Street,'' groups vie to recruit members. Last September's fair with tables dotting the lawn was a lively success.
Leaders in ODU work hard, with success, to create a sense of family in a student body of nearly 17,000, including those who commute daily to the campus. It is a diverse village of all ages.
Two issues are troubling about fraternities. On other campuses they are defended fiercely as ``a way of life.'' If they are so dear to a student's metamorphosis into adulthood, why isn't anyone afforded easy immediate access to them?
At ODU, they are fairly benign, but across the country not a year passes without tragic incidents, notably during hazing.
It is urged that troublesome off-campus frats need to be housed at ODU for monitoring.
That would seem to argue that the best solution would be to ease them out of existence. Let their members join the bracing mainstream. There lies education.
Do not be surprised if you find me picketing the frat tables at the next fair. After all, students indulge in harebrained protests. Why shouldn't a near-octogenerian bear a banner with strange device? by CNB