Vote wisely. Vote Well. Vote now.

The right to vote is one of the most precious rights we have in this country. "We the people" get to choose who will lead us and who will represent us in Congress, in our states and in our local municipalities. We at S&P urge all SigEps to due their civic duty and vote in the elections next week. Many states have an early voting program and you can avoid the rush and crush of election day by taking advantage of the early voting options. Plus, you can get a head start on celebrating your candidate's win (or mourning the loss).

The presidential election this year is one of the most hotly contested that I have seen - and I have been a political junky since the days of Barry Goldwater and Lyndon Johnson. No matter which candidate you favor, chances are you see a win by the other side as a step down the road to ruin. The only way to have any affect on the race is to go and vote your beliefs. With so many people expected to turn out this year - the early voting in Texas is double 2004 - you may think that your vote will not make a difference. I would remind you of Florida in 2000. Less than a 1000 vote margin ultimately decided the course of the country for the next 8 years. Whether you think that course was the correct one or not, imagine how those Florida voters who did not bother to vote feel about their choice. Once when I was in college and working on the Mayor's race my candidate lost by 29 votes. Don't tell me "it doesn't matter"!

SigEp proudly claims to be "building balanced leaders for the worlds communities." One of the obligations of a leader is to participate in the change he would make. What better way to practice that on a personal level than to help chose the path our country will take?

Go. Vote. Now. You will feel good about yourself. You also get the right to bitch about those jerks in Washington when they screw everything up - again!

A SigEp starts group protesting Facebook Layout - 1+ million strong!

SigEp member Scott Sanders did not like the new Facebook layout. He did what Facebook themselves encourage - started a group about the topic. Now that group has over 1 million members. That is over 1% of Facebook's entire population.

Scott comes in at about 39 seconds into the video. He's wearing his SigEp shirt.



Millions of facebook members protesting new layout - iReport.com

I don't use Facebook enough to care, but some of you obviously think it is a BFD. Go for it. Scott's group is "http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=21195574231".

Paper: Skit featured student playing Obama in blackface

CNN reports that a student at North Dakota State U. appeared in blackface as Barack Obama during a sorority(Alpha Gamma Delta) sponsored "Mr. NDSU" skit presentation. Horrors! Call the PC police! (Does it matter that NDSU is 92% white so that might be the only way to have a portrayal of "a man of color"?)

North Dakota State University is investigating complaints about a campus skit in which a white student in blackface portrayed Barack Obama receiving a lap dance.

The same skit, part of a charity fundraiser held at a campus theater, also featured a depiction of cowboys having sex with each other, witnesses told The Forum newspaper, which first reported the backlash Friday.

"We're trying to find out the right approaches for accountability, but at the same time try to heal wounds that have occurred and allow the campus to move ahead," Janna Stoskopf, NDSU's dean of students, told The Associated Press on Friday.

In fact, the description of the skit makes it sound offensive on a number of levels. But one wonders what, precisely, is the reason it rises to the level of national attention?

Paper: Skit featured student playing Obama in blackface - CNN.com

Further: A link to the original student newspaper article. CNN did not see fit to include that link in their story.

SigEp stirs trouble at the Supreme Court

Sam Arora, a Georgetown Law student and member of the "SigEp Feds", was waiting to get into the Supreme court building when he was accosted by the police.

I'm #2 in line for the SCOTUS 11 AM argument. A policewoman standing at front told me I wasn't allowed to wear my Hillary button "on the plaza." She said it was rules.

I asked if she was sure, because I'm just standing here in our single file line with my friends. She said wearing a button was "demonstrating," and I had to take it off.

Yeah, but if it had been an Obama button Sam would be on his way to the "Rendition Raddison" by now.

Abovethelaw.com

Juicy Campus?

Tough call, here. On the one hand it's good to see a fellow SigEp working the web. On the other hand if what the reviewer is saying is true then how can we endorse it?

About a month ago I received an e-mail from a Duke alum named Matt Ivester. I didn't know the kid when he went here, although with a little research I do know he was the one-time president of Sig Ep fraternity in '03-'04, if that is at all relevant.

Anyhow, the e-mail informed me of a new Web site he was promoting-which many of you have probably heard of by now-entitled JuicyCampus.com.
[...]
On the one hand, I was shocked and horrified by the comments I was reading. On the other, I was mesmerized. One look and I was unknowingly sucked into an addiction. I wanted more. More names, more dirt, more hate. I knew it was wrong, and I couldn't morally justify adding to the hateful insanity, but I also couldn't and can't stop reading.
[...]
The possibilities are endless. Anyone with a grudge, or a sick mind, can maliciously and often libelously attack defenseless students. I am aware that a lot of times the posts are not be taken seriously, but I am also aware that certain posts lack any sort of intent other than malice and hate.

We take a non-position on this web site (sort of like Hillary Clinton and drivers's licences for illegal aliens). We report it, but no opinions and no links. You are going to have to find it and decide on your own.

Juicy Campus - Columns

ACLU Helps Radford University Greeks

Even in the middle of a Conclave the world doesn't stop. We picked up this disturbing piece of news from Fratastic. It seems that the city council has decreed that fraternities and sororities can't put their letters on their houses unless it is a "special occasion" such as rush or homecoming. Now the ACLU is getting involved.

The American Civil Liberties Union is threatening to sue the city if a section of the zoning ordinance passed by Radford City Council in May is not repealed.

The section states that Greek letters, banners and signs are only to be displayed during special events, which are “limited to Radford University Homecoming, Rush and Greek Week.” The location, size and type of sign must be approved by Radford University’s Office of Student Affairs and the city’s zoning administrator.

THat is really just not right. How on earth can a display of the organization that is a major part of your college experience be so darn bad? C'mon people, lighten up!

ACLU Helps Radford University Greeks

Announcing - Blogger's Breakfast at Conclave

Get ready - The "Unofficial Blogger's Breakfast" will again be held at Conclave!

Mark your calendar for 8-9:30 am on Thursday, August 9

New! Sign up here so we can get an idea of how many to expect.

Join the S&P blog team for an informal breakfast gathering in the Kafe Köbenhavn restaurant, located in the Atrium Tower lobby. Hit the buffet, then come on over and find out what we are up to.

Everyone is welcome - even HQ staff!
Look for our sign on the table.

Why would you want to come to the Blogger's Breakfast?

• Meet the folks who put this blog together.
• Cure last night's "fun" with a Bloody Mary.
• Exchange ideas about better use of the web for communication.
• Share an opinion about the blog - pro, con, suggestions - all are welcome.
• ...Unless you had too many Bloody Marys.
• Get a "Heads-up" on our plans for the coming months.

No reservation needed. There is no extra fee for this event - you are already paying out the wazoo for the "official" registration - but you do have to buy your own breakfast. Just show up at Kafe Köbenhavn between 8 and 9:30 Thursday morning.

Questions? Contact us: wordjunky@gmail.com

Hippies and Deadheads and SigEps, Oh My!

What does "The Summer of Love" (that's 1967 to you kiddoes out there) have to do with SigEp? You might be surprised.

People involved in the local hippie scene recall that only in Plaza Park, which is now known as Cesar Chavez Plaza, did large numbers of long-hairs congregate in public. There, says Gus Kaplanis, a newsletter publisher and former owner of the underground newspaper Aardvark who in 1967 was a history major at Sacramento City College, “you’d see groups of kids and young adults walking around. You know they’re not working and probably not going to school. But they’re having a good time, sitting around, playing guitars. It’s an easy life. You’d see hippie vans converted. You know they were living there.”
[...]
“What was so vibrant and so exciting about that time--there was a great hope about our youth,” recalls Linda Parisi, who now heads the public defender’s homicide division. She was a 17-year-old suburbanite attending El Camino High School in ’67. “As a result of, really, a youth movement, fundamental social changes occurred.”

“It exposed me to the term 'Free Love,’” remembers Kaplanis, now a balding, gray-bearded, golf-playing retiree with a shy smile. “Everybody was safe. Everybody was friendly. Free Love was the big deal. I guess it showed rebellion, that you don’t need a piece of paper to like somebody.”

In many ways, Kaplanis, who today drives a convertible white Thunderbird--golf sticks popping up out of a bag on the passenger seat--embodied Sacramento’s counterculture-lite take on the Summer of Love. Not a true hippie, he was, instead, a frat boy. “Gooser,” as everyone called him then, lived in a Sigma Phi Epsilon frat house on the corner of 22nd and T streets. But he imbibed many of the mannerisms and lifestyle choices of Frisco’s hippies, especially after his first visit to the Haight.

“A bunch of us from City College played hooky, went down there, spent all day and some of the evening, and my eyes opened up to the counterculture, to what was going on, the runaways, the people fed up with government, with regular city life. I was impressed. This is really cool.”
[...]
Politically, the campuses--or at least a vocal minority on the campuses--drifted leftward, as they did throughout the country. “This was a very freewheeling period when, how shall I put it, student-teacher relationships were very friendly,” reminisces 73-year-old Jerry Fishman, a now-retired English instructor at City College. “We’d walk into a class and say 'party time.’ And then we’d party with students that night.”

He still recalls the contact high you’d get simply walking down the pot-smoke-filled corridors.

The radical African-American activist Eldridge Cleaver came to CSUS in 1968, a year after he’d participated in the Panthers’ Capitol Invasion, and caused a stir by using the word “fuck” while speaking from the podium. “The students were just like 'Oh my God!’” Kaplanis recollects. “There were hundreds of them.” City College had a series of bomb scares.

And guess what? Yup, all those "crazy hippies" you see in the documentaries and movies like "Woodstock" grew up to become your Moms and Dads. I know. I resemble that remark. I'm told I had a wonderful time.

SN&R > Local Stories > Hiding out in Sacramento > 06.07.07

Indoctrinate U - Our Education. Their Politics.

We generally stay away from politics on S&P. After all, a fraternity that can embrace Ron Brown and Scott McClellen must have a bond that transcends traditional political boundaries.

However, this documentary came to our attention recently and it seems to impact right where most of the undergraduates members live - on college campuses. The people who made the movie are having trouble getting it shown so they are asking people to sign up so they can give the proof to the distributing companies.

Watch the trailer and decide for yourself. If you want to see the movie head to the web site and let them know. They will arrange to bring a showing to areas with at least 500 sign ups.

Indoctrinate U - Our Education. Their Politics.