Memories of Delta Tau Delta

I am one of more than 1,100 university alumni who was also a member of Delta Tau Delta Fraternity. I read with much sadness about the fraternity’s demise and reflected back a bit about what the fraternity meant to me.

I joined Delta Tau Delta in the fall of 1965 when I was totally lost as a commuter student on a campus of more than 30,000, having just left a high school with a senior class of 78 students. I drove to school, went to class and went home.

When I was approached to join the fraternity, I was thrilled to have found a place that would allow me to become a part of the university on a full-time basis, and shortly after joining, I moved into No. 3 Fraternity Row.

1965 was a transitional year at the university. Mandatory ROTC had just ended, and the war buildup in Vietnam meant that all of us faced the real possibility of being drafted and forced to go to war in a place we neither had heard of nor cared about. During the next four years, the university rebelled against the war and the stereotypes of the late ’50s and early ’60s. Hair grew longer, attitudes turned to the left and beliefs in such things as racial and gender equality sprouted and began to grow. We marched on Route 1 against the war and struck against the administration in protest of just about everything we felt was wrong.

Throughout all of this turmoil, there was one safe-haven, that was Delta Tau Delta. Beyond just partying and studying, we did such things as washing an airplane for charity, collecting canned food for needy folks at Thanksgiving and supporting our university through sports and involvement in student government. We were not pure by any means, but Delta Tau Delta was a home away from home.

We also faced hazing. Brought to us by a Midwest chapter of the fraternity, I went through the demeaning practice and was thrilled that by the time I left the university it had gone from hell week to help week. Looking back from a point 40 years removed, it is now easy to say how stupid the practice is, but it is clear hazing just won’t go away. I would love to shake the leaders of the fraternity to say “How stupid can you be?” but it’s too late. I can understand how the majority of the university can say good riddance to Delta Tau Delta. I am just sad that a very important part of my life is disappearing.

James OrmeAlumnusClass of 1970

The torture resolution

I was extremely disappointed to learn that President George W. Bush has vetoed the House Intelligence anti-torture resolution 2082, which would prevent intelligence agents of our country from using highly questionable interrogation techniques involving waterboarding, sexual humiliation and dogs to obtain intelligence.

It goes without saying that moral questions and sadism are involved, but also as a practical matter, torture is more often the source of misinformation, extorted confessions and irreparable injury than it is a sign of good intelligence practice.

The U. S. Congress should investigate all of the reports of torture, and those responsible for allowing and performing torture should face the consequences of their actions. Most soldiers are aware that “waterboarding” was banned under the Geneva Convention. The president has said the U.S. “does not torture.” He and everyone down the chain of command should stand by his statement.

What goes around comes around. Someday, any of us who travels outside of this country might be considered a suspicious person by a foreign state. Though we may not have any involvement in the military, we are complicit in actions committed in the name of our government. We may be blamed for this humiliating and dangerous treatment which is as ineffectual as it is degrading. We must demand that waterboarding and other such practices cease to be used by the United States, or we may see our turn come.

Ann BaylissGraduate StudentFrench and Italian