Rochester Institute of Technology - Techmila / Ramikin Yearbook (Rochester, NY)

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H0LZEM6R Another fairly well known character around Colby D, was known not by name only but by such nicknames as The Perv, Sicko, etc. This boy had a problem. At the end of the hall at Colby D there is a large window which directly faces another window in the stairwell of Kate Gleason Hall. Early in the morning, just as everyone at Colby D was rolling out of bed and into the bathroom, The Perv could often be found peering through the window in the stairwell of Gleason masturbating in full view of all who were in the hall over at Colby D. He was reported a number of times and finally caught. I hope he was given the psychiatric help he needed rather than getting dis- missed from school. As long as we're on the subject of demented individuals, I might as well mention another occurrence which I witnessed with astonishment during my freshman year. I was walking with a few friends towards Grace Watson at some ungodly early hour when we witnessed a small flame near the sun dial. In seconds, the sun dial was totally ablaze. As we got closer, we saw a very strange looking guy in a bathrobe and shower sandals. He was burning some sort of sheet that he had apparently drenched in gasoline and hung from the sun-dial. 1 didn't recognize the person, and I'm sure 1 wouldn't if 1 ever saw him again, but he had the sort of smile on his face that you would expect to find on an old man at a porno movie. In my sophomore year I moved to the 2nd floor of Sol Heumann, but I still frequented my old floor when I got bored. On one visit upstairs 1 found my roommate from the previous year and a friend of his try- ing to locate the phone number for the poison control center. They weren’t really alarmed . . . just concerned. Earlier that day they made two batches of brownies. One was your normal Betty crocker variety and the other contained an entire box of chocolated Ex-lax.” They offered the ”Ex-lax brownies to anybody who happened to stroll into their room, while they munched on the normal brownies. Un- fortunately, one particular passer-by was qu ite hungry and ate abou 170% of the spiked brownies. It was even more unfortunate that this same individual who's name nobody can seem to remember, ate one of Campi's famous steak bomber's before eating the brownies. If you've ever eaten a Campi's steak bomber, you know about their extra cleaning” power. Add that to an entire box of Ex-lax and you realize the need to find out the number of the Poison Control Center. Reflecting back on these once forgotten memories has led to a single conclusion; it's difficult to live in the dormitories for any length of time without becoming subject to at least a minimal degree of derangement. I myself feel as though 1 have recovered . , , others never will. —MARK FELTON

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IN LIKE A GREEK The Greeks are controversial. I've heard them compared to every kind of group imaginable — from the best to the worst. Some people compare the Greeks to Nazis who use mind control and brainwashing to recruit their members. Other people tell me the Frats are comparable to utopian societies in which everyone lives peacefully and no one feels lonely and blue. Still others tell me the Greeks are only interested in good times, while the campus magazine tells me they are mad for power, and are planning to take over the student senate. So, what's the story? Can anything honest and objective be said about the Greeks? Recently I was talking with Tom Roche, president of Greek council, and he was giving me his objective view of the Greeks. The Greeks are ex- cellent citizens; we support charitable events, we work hard with the student senate, we provide a large part of the social life on this campus . . If you have talked with Greeks about the Greek life, you know that once they start talking in this vein, it's almost impossible to shut them up. So, 1 in- terrupted him and asked, Tom, what do you think is the one worst feature of the Greeks? He thought for a few seconds and then answered, Well, the only thing that comes to mind is that when we are having a party, we tend to have a good time together and ignore everybody else. This explains why the Greeks are so controversial. You're either in or you're out. You know the Greek secrets or you don't. You're a brother or sister or you're not. You can't strad- dle the fence. Wherever there are secrets and secret societies, imaginations will run wild. Even though the Greek secrets are mainly harmless initiation rites, secret hand shakes, and the like, the element of secrecy makes all Greek ac- tions and motives suspect to outsiders. These suspicions are reinforced by horror stories which appear in the news occasionally; the stabbing death of a pledge during initiation rites earlier this year is a good example. Also, there is suspicion that some of the discriminatory Practices that were common to the Greeks during the fif- ties have remained secretly in force. But a few secret rites hardly explains why the Greeks remain, perhaps, the most controversial group on campus. The heart of the explanation lies in the fervent commitment that the Greeks have made to their way of life. Ask any Greek if he considers his frat or RIT more important to him, and he will invariably answer, RIT has just given me a lot of hassles, but my brothers have really made me improve myself. They will also point out, RIT is a place to go for four years and then its over, but the commitment to your brothers is a lifelong thing. In this day and age when 'in- dividualism' and sexism are fashionable, the concept of a lifelong commitment to your brothers is heresy. Subordinating yourself to the needs of a group is not in vogue. This partly explains why the Greeks remain controversial — they have made a for- mal commitment to each other. Not only that, but most Greeks prefer to live in a single-sex environment to develop the feeling of brotherhood . 29