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The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is
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spring and summer terms by students
at the University of Michigan. One copy
is available free of charge to all readers.
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2

Thursday, May 14, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
NEWS

Resort to file suits
against Greek life
members on ski trip

Findings of additional
investigations suggest
further legal actions are
necessary, Treetops says

By CARLY NOAH

Summer News Editor

Tuesday
afternoon,
Treetops
Resort announced it will file a civil
lawsuit against individual members
of the Sigma Delta Tau sorority and
former members of the University’s
disbanded chapter of Sigma Alpha
Mu fraternity for damages during
their ski trip the weekend of Jan. 19.
More than 200 members of Sigma
Alpha Mu, along with members of
Sigma Delta Tau, were present at
the Northern Michigan ski resort
that weekend. Following the trip,
the SAM chapter was disbanded due
to allegedly costing the resort more
than $430,000 in damages, and the
SDT chapter was placed on a two-
year disciplinary suspension for
their failure to intervene.

SDT recently launched a bystand-
er intervention program centered
around providing students with the
tools necessary to intervene in diffi-
cult situations.
Treetops spokeswoman Susan
Wilcox-Olsen confirmed to the
Detroit Free Press the resort plans
to sue several fraternity and sorority
members.
Barry Owens, general manager of
Treetops, could not be reached for
comments about the specific num-
ber of fraternity and sorority mem-
bers the resort plans to sue.
“Treetops’ legal advisors have
recently completed a review of the
facts of the case, including recently
released material prepared pursu-
ant to the criminal investigation,”
the resort said in a press release.
“Criminal
charges
were
filed
against three students last month.
Several facts from this review now
suggest that legal action beyond the
criminal matter should be pursued.”
The resort also said the resort’s
management confronted the group
of students involved after the first

See TREETOPS, Page 3

Faculty, students
discuss diversity
of Great Books

Current classes only
study Greek and
Biblical literature

By RACHEL PREMACK

Daily Saff Reporter

As students challenge the
status quo of academic require-
ments at the University, one LSA
Honors Program requirement is
hardly unchanged since the pro-
gram’s founding in 1947.
Freshmen in the Honors Pro-
gram were, up until Fall 2014,
required to take Great Books.
Although that requirement has
since altered slightly, Great
Books remains one of the few
options, and, at about 200 stu-
dents, it remains the most popu-
lar Honors course, according
to History Prof. Sara Forsdyke,
director of the Interdepart-
mental Program in Greek and
Roman History. The reading
list for the class is composed of
Greco-Roman
literature
and
excerpts from the Bible.
One Honors newsletter from
2007, the 50th anniversary of
the Honors Program, notes,
“The founders of Honors wanted
a course that would allow stu-
dents to immerse themselves in
the study of a significant culture,
and classical Greece seemed the
obvious choice.”
However,
some
scholars
say this choice shouldn’t be so
instinctive, especially as the
University pledges to prepare
its students for an increasingly
global society.
Microcosm of an ongoing
debate
Debates on increasing the
diversity of university’s curricu-
la grew in the early 1990s, when
the term “dead white European
male” was coined. Students and
scholars alike began to ques-
tion why their social science and
humanities courses contained

only the experiences of white
men from bygone eras. These
activists wanted to amplify the
voices of women and those out-
side white European and Ameri-
can heritage.
Critics of that movement
claimed that Greco-Roman lit-
erature retained its significance.
They praised the Greeks’ inno-
vations in areas such as politics,
science and rhetoric, some-
times with a tinge of annoyance
toward what they perceived to
be political correctness.
Few
elite
schools
today
require Great Books courses,
which were developed at Colum-
bia University and the Univer-
sity of Chicago in the 1920s. At
Chicago, Greek Thought and
Literature remains one of the
eight options for undergraduate
students to fulfill the requisite
humanities
course
sequence.
But world literature and open-
ended topics such as “Language
and the Human” are also appli-
cable.
The University of Notre Dame
has a more traditional Great
Books course for students in its
Program of Liberal Studies. Save
for readings from Confucius,
Bhagavad Gita and Black Ameri-
can author Ralph Ellison, the
sequence is dominated by Euro-
pean perspectives.
But Notre Dame’s Liberal
Studies program professes a
much different task than our
diversity-focused University: it
is “anchored in the Western and
Catholic traditions,” according
to their website. The LSA Hon-
ors Program, on the other hand,
pictures itself a “vibrant com-
munity,” emphasizing inclusion:
“There’s something for everyone
and all are invited.”
Why are these books so
great, anyway?
While Great Books courses
occasionally include upper-level
courses on contemporary Euro-

@MICHIGANDAILY

See GREAT BOOKS, Page 3