Dear Collegian Editors,

I feel compelled to reply to the Feb. 7 article “Greek organizations continue to see lower recruitment levels” due to its blatant disregard for data and the recruitment process.

The article begins by stating that “in the last two years, recruitment numbers for fraternities, sororities and societies at Kenyon have dipped.” According to the data published by the Collegian in 2017, 182 students accepted a bid from a fraternity, sorority or society, whereas in 2019 160 students did. However, this is a dip in the number of students who accepted a bid, which is different than the number of students who wanted to join a Greek organization.

To deem a decrease in the number of students accepting a bid a decrease in recruitment levels is factually incorrect. Recruitment levels refer to the number of students interested in joining a Greek organization. Greek organizations typically do not give bids to every student interested in joining.

Thus, a decrease in the number of students accepting a bid could have nothing to do with changes in recruitment.

The Collegian should be ashamed that it allowed a front-page “news” story to be editorialized into an implicit critique of Greek life. The writer demonstrates a lack of understanding as to how the Greek recruitment process works and produced a story that improperly painted Greek life in a negative light. This piece is a textbook example of bad journalism and should not be tolerated by the Collegian.

Jake Barnett ’20

Vice President of Greek Council