The decision was made at the IFC chapter presidents' meeting where 11 of OU's 15 fraternity chapter presidents were present and agreed to distribute voter registration materials in their chapter houses.

While I suppose registering anyone to vote is a positive move, the IFC missed out on a great chance to help OU and the community at large.

The IFC is acting as an interest group in local politics by working to register its own and neglecting the rest of the residents of OU and Athens, thereby dominating other interests at the polls. The overly proud news release to announce this voting drive even quoted IFC President Neil Hoover as saying, "Particularly in Athens with its large student and greek population, it's important that the city be responsive to this segment of the population. And for our voice to effectively be heard, we have to register, and we have to vote."

If the IFC is going to conduct a voting drive, why not expand the focus to include all of OU's students and the rest of the community?

With a little extra effort the IFC could have helped to eliminate the stigma attached to fraternity life by doing something to really advance the community. Instead, once again the IFC managed to make itself and its members on this campus look like selfish fools.

I was involved in greek life for a while and I know that fraternities do mean well. It just seems as though they don't do themselves any favors by holding events like voting drives solely for greek men.

OU and the Athens community could benefit from an area-wide voting registration drive. I can only imagine the number of students and townspeople alike who are not registered to vote or do not even know where to register.

Throughout my four-plus years at OU, voter turnout has never been good. To be honest, it has been downright poor. Now whether this has been voter apathy or the fact they were unregistered, I'm unsure, but let's suppose for a minute that this low turnout was because the students on West Green weren't registered. An all-out IFC voting drive would help eliminate such problems, or embarrassments, such as four students voting from an area that houses about 1,800 people.

Given the countless benefits from registering mass numbers of voters, why is the IFC only registering its own? Is there a hidden agenda behind this voting drive to register only Greek men?

Seriously, I doubt there is a hidden agenda, but at the same time I take from the news release, specifically the excerpt above, that the IFC wants its voice to be heard louder than any other group in the community. I would argue, though, that with a community-wide voter registration drive, all greek men would be registered to vote. Regardless of the fact that all 20,000-plus students and townspeople would be registered, a unified vote by greek men still would produce the results desired by the IFC.

There is no reason for the IFC not to put forth a little more effort and hold a community-wide voter registration drive because given that scenario, everyone involved benefits. The most important aspect of such a scenario is that all members of the OU and Athens community are registered to vote. With this, the IFC looks like it is trying to help the community, and if everyone in the community gets registered to vote, that group would naturally encompass the greek men as well. With a unified greek vote, the IFC would gets its desired results.

An all-out voting drive resulting in the lessening of a stigma for fraternities, everyone in the community becoming registered to vote and the IFC can still attain whatever it is they may want in this town? That sounds like a win-win situation to me.

Come on IFC, the community is waiting for you self-serving gentlemen to get it together and register people to vote. It's up to you.

Coovert, who has nothing against greek men, but understands the importance of helping the community, can be reached at bc225095.