Page 35 - 1918 October - To Dragma
P. 35

330 TO DRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI

 student who knows anything about sorority life in other universities and col-
 leges knows that the conditions at Wisconsin are so far above the average that
they might almost be considered Utopian. No girl need feel that her career
is ruined because she has not the right to wear a sorority pin. I f she is made
of the right material she will get just as far as any girl who does belong to a
sorority. She has never been made to feel that she is a "barb." Neither has
she ever been made to feel that she cannot number among her best friends girls
who do belong to a sorority. Her activities are not curtailed, nor does she
suffer through the faculty.

    Supposing that, as these girls have said, the sororities are not as democratic
as they should be, have these girls taken the best course to further their object?
Whether or not these girls are the truly democratic girls in college, the best
girls to "boost" the cause of democracy, we will leave to the student body to
decide. Would it not have been better for them to remain within their own
organizations and to initiate their propaganda from within these organizations,
than for them to form a new and exclusive organization in the name of democ-
racy?

    The reasons why sororities should not be abolished are just as numerous as
the reasons why every girl in school does not belong to one. From my point
of view the most important reason for their existence is that they offer the
most efficient machine for creating sentiment and pushing the vital*activities
of the school. The sororities have responded to every call that this present
year has been sent out. Liberty Loan, Y . W . and Y . M . C . A., W. S. S., Food
Conservation, Belgian Relief, and numerous other causes of the sororities have
received prompt support as well as questions which more commonly occur in
college life. Not only have the sororities responded to the best of their ability,
but we have also known that they could be counted on to help create a senti-
ment which would cause the rest of the school to fall in line. The sorority has
been one of the main supports to every good cause that has been instigated
either by faculty or students.

    I n conclusion may I suggest, that if some time in the future democracy at
Wisconsin seems to need a push, this extra impetus should not be given by girls
who, for the most part, have received all that their organizations can give
them, then within the last weeks of their college life, decide that they might
have been better off and their college might have been better off if they had not
been in these organizations. May these future Democrats work from within
rather than from without, and may they be the true Democrats of the university.

                                                                                                                    GLADYS M . WISE.
   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40