Don't request her to be your friend

The decision made by the Panhellenic Association to bar sorority members from fraternizing with freshmen via Facebook might seem unnecessary, unwarranted and just silly to students not in the greek community. For non-greeks, there's a lot about the greek community that might seem silly. All the same, the new ordinance makes a certain sort of sense.\nThe decision goes hand-in-hand with the pre-established rules discouraging greeks from interacting with freshmen in any way. The basic justification is that rushees should decide for themselves which sorority they're most interested in, and not get skewed impressions of the houses or the members from Facebook.\nIn an Indiana Daily Student article ("PHA discourages 'facebooking' pledges," Sept. 16), Zeta Tau Alpha recruitment chair Johnna Kingery explained that not everything you read in Facebook profiles "is representative of what the chapter's like." \nAnd she's right. \nFacebook profiles are fantasy reflections of ourselves. They highlight all the things that we want to highlight given some preconceived socially accepted conditions. Few and far between are the greeks or non-greeks who drink and smoke themselves into oblivion as often as their profiles suggest.\nThink of it this way: A Facebook profile is like that one good picture you show all your friends. You know, the one that makes you look like Adonis in Abercrombie. Learning the ins and outs of a sorority house from a Facebook profile is like reading about the personal life of celebrities from tabloids and People magazine. \nSome sorority sisters might not like the new rules, but being greek means you have to follow them. The Panhellenic Association is an independent entity, with oversight by the University but with social regulations set by greeks. By signing a pledge and joining a house, you agree to abide by the rules set down by the leadership. That's how it works. Deal with it.\nIt's not like these are new rules -- they're just expansions on the old ones. Originally, greeks were prohibited from interacting with potential recruits in person. Parties, phone calls and dinner plans with sororities have always been off-limits to freshmen. Those rules still exist, but they've been expanded to include the Internet as well. \nRegardless, this decision is nearly completely unenforceable. For the sneaky sorority sister that needs to break the rules, not much is going to stop her.\nBy this time next year, everyone will have forgotten the radically life-changing edict passed down from the hallowed halls of the PHA, and this new tenet will be another in a long list of formalities dictating the proper way to induct women into greek community.\nThere are some 36,000 students at IU, only a fraction of which have the slightest intention to participate in recruitment. The point of joining a sorority is to interact with actual members, not potential pledges. \nBesides, it's not like Facebook friends really count.