The Michigan Daily - New Student Edition - Fal 2003 - 9C
A Coniversity opens new Honors
r s- - Coliege lounge in Haven Hall
By Maria Sprow
Daily Staff Reporter
Students in the Honors Program now have their own
lounging and meeting space inside Angell Hall, reserved for
them through a donation to the University from two Univer-
sity Honors Program alumni.
In her first visit to the new Haven Hall, University
President Mary Sue Coleman, along with benefactors
Rick and Judy Perlman, cut the ribbon to the Perlman
Honors Commons on March 6, 2003. Before cutting the
ribbon, Coleman praised the students in the Honors Pro-
gram for their diverse skills and talents.
Several students spoke about how participating in the
program changed their undergraduate experience.
"The Honors Program here is about the people. The
people here who are in honors are really interested in edu-
cation, and I mean real education," LSA junior Jessi
Grieser said.
The room - which overlooks the Diag and is attached to
three 22-person seminar rooms, a smaller conference room
and four spaces for faculty office hours - was a $500,000
project that started in the summer of 2001, said Bob John-
coffee and food, lounging space, wooden flooring and wall
murals featuring some of the University's most-well known
alumni and historical moments.
A photograph of playwright and University alum Arthur
Miller decorates one wall, along with the Robert Frost
poem "Fire and Ice." Across the room, former President
John F. Kennedy is shown standing on the Michigan
Union steps during his Oct. 14, 1960 speech proposing
the Peace Corps.
LSA Dean Terrence McDonald spoke about the impor-
tance of having spaces available to students to come togeth-
er and meet in an educational environment outside of the
classroom. "This is one of the nicest spaces that we have
built for students in the 20 years since I have been here,"
McDonald said.
He said the Honors Program had not previously set a
space aside for its students that reflected the prestige of
the program.
"(The best donations) are the ones that match the pas-
sion of the donor with the need of the University, and I
think that is what we have here," he said. He added that
the old space designated for honors students "was a
space of tremendous creativity, but it really didn't send
the kind of message we wanted to send to people about
the Honors Program."
SETH LOWER/Daily
The Perlman Honors Commons was completed on March 6, and Is located on the ground floor of Mason Hall. Inside,
honors students can find food, beverages, and a view of the Diag.
ston, director of facilities fqr the LSA.
The Perlman Honors Commons features
a bar space for
Delta Upsilon becomes the campus' first dry fraternity house
By Dave Szostek
For the Daily
Delta Upsilon became the only current fraternity on campus with a nationally
mandated alcohol-free policy to obtain full-member status with the University's
Interfraternity Council in October. By an unanimous vote, the 28-member DU
was voted in as an active member of the IFC - a move that allows DU to lead the
way toward a new trend in the University's fraternities: alcohol-free.
"I can feel confident in saying that within the next five to 10 years the majority
of our fraternities on campus will be alcohol free," sid IFC President Joel Win-
ston, an LSA senior.
"In our social events, we are starting to see that the houses that are making
the effort to start planning social events outside of the fraternity house are
being more successful because people are enjoying those more than the typi-
cal fraternity party with the warm beer, and the dance floor and the 'Baby
Got Back' playing in the background. People are tired of that - they've
done that," Winston said.
"We represent the new era of fraternity life on campus - not for better or
worse, inferior or superior - but simply a new tradition built on brotherhood,
philanthropy events as well as social events," DU President Brandon Phenix said.
Philanthropy interests include setting up a boys and girls club connection,
adopting a highway, collecting pop-can tabs for the Ronald McDonald house and
erecting a field goal in their front yard to be used for a charity field goal kicking
event during Homecoming.
They are in the process of erecting their second field goal; the first one was
vandalized. Aside from their philanthropies, however, DU is also involved in
ongoing social events.
One sorority president Maggie Weston, who requested that the name of her
sorority remain anonymous, explained that it was great that DU invited every
sorority for a game of dodge ball on DU's front lawn during the midst of rush, as
it let all of the girls relax, have fun and see friends from other sororities. Over 150
sorority women attended.
"We made them all T-shirts, we gave them hot dogs, food and pop. And
they were here for a couple hours as a break during their rush," said Phenix,
an Education senior.
Although DU's social events do not include alcohol, a mainstay of frater-
nity-sorority relations in the past, DU's individual members are not restricted
from drinking.
"We're not touting alcohol as some type of evil. What we're saying is that
we don't need it in our house," Phenix said. "For the guys who like to go out
and have fun - they do that. They visit other fraternities who have been real-
ly cordial, or they can go to the club - wherever they.want to go. We have
brothers who are not interested in that scene, and we'll just stay here and play
naoker on a Fridav night"
But there are consequences for breaking the alcohol policy.
"Anyone who is stupid enough to bring alcohol to our house is automati-
cally fined $100 and they come before our executive board. The chances of
them sticking around is slim to none," Phenix said. "We really make a point
to stick to (our values)."
Others members of the Greek community agree that DU maintains its values.
"These are a wonderful group of guys and I have no doubt that they will be
successful just because of the type of guys that they are. They don't need alcohol
and they don't focus on the fact that they don't have alcohol," Winston said.
Weston, an LSA junior, added, "There are fraternities and there are frats ... and
DU lives up to all their fraternity values and ethics daily."
The methods that DU utilizes to extend bids to potential brothers also
reflect on the fraternity's values.
"Guys' rush is nowhere near as formal as the girls'. We can extend bids when-
ever we feel like it. We're going to keep extending bids probably all year," Phenix
said. "We are always looking for new guys."
DU's pledging process also sets new standards. "We don't lock guys
behind doors and ask them to do things," Phenix said. "We have events
where guys will be doing house chores, but that is only with brothers work-
ing right beside them."
"Our events are not meant to intimidate and not meant to haze. They are meant
to build brotherhood and cohesion within our brotherhood," he added.
It is that brotherhood, cohesion, interest in philanthropy, atypical social events
and an absence of alcohol that sets the new trend for fraternities.
"I'd like to think in DU we are building Renaissance Men," Phenix said.
"These guys are changing things up. I am excited for them," Winston said.
"For me, I will know when our fraternities here at (the) University of Michigan
have hit the ideal point - when you walk into a fraternity and it looks like a
sorority house,' Winston added.
Weston also praised the condition of DU's house.
"I've never understood the attraction for guys to live in a house that is disgust-
ing and dirty. (DU's) house is beautiful."
"(Alcohol-free) is the general trend - it's where we're heading. A lot of people
are afraid to deal with it, but I don't think a lot of the leaders and the presidents
that I deal with are afraid to face it," Winston said.
Delta Upsilon, which returned 2 years ago, is the campus' only dry frat.
I S _______________________________________
G c
.Weed Information?
CAMPUS INFORMATION CENTERS
Whal ' ihappeninge rnampms?
First FMoor, Michigan Union
rist u: Lobby, Pierpont Commons
764-INFO
eveiits.iuiniell.edu.
,low mn.ty sludentlgromps are there?
wwwivumich.edu/-nia i epgs/
Contact Its..
hifoquindch.edu
-'civ.mich.edu/iitfo/
AIZ
University Health Service...your comprehensive outpatient medical facility!
. Staffed by licensed medical professionals
- Specialty Clinics available at no additional cost
- Advance appointments or same day
walk-in services available
. Pharmacy, Radiology, Lab,
Eye Care & Optical Shop on site
- Convenient & confidential
yC - Free educational materials,
, condoms and more!