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The Michigan Daily is a member of The Associated Press and The Associated Collegiate Press. 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