City of Berkeley Touts "Voluntary Greek Cleanup"

The City of Berkeley has published a press release praising the students of the Greek community who came out to help clean the streets of Berkeley after the game. Some choice quotes:

"...over 250 fraternity and sorority students from UC Berkeley came together with City workers and other community partners to conduct a massive clean-up of the Southside area of the City."

I was there for a short time, and I very much doubt that there were 250 Greeks there. Try about 150. And I definitely didn't see any "community partners".

"The plan worked because of the students' willingness to work shoulder to shoulder with the City in the interests of the surrounding community."

Or was it the students' willingness to simply get drunk again? Most Greeks were there because of the social probation imposed on them by IFC during their trigger-happy period in Fall Rush. A certain level of attendance was mandatory for those fraternities with the threat of an extension of social probation.

"The student contribution was huge this year and they really need to be commended for it...the trick is to make it a matter of routine and replicate it in other areas of the City. Because of the budget crunch, this is really one of those situations in which 'Necessity is the Mother of Invention."

So really, the trick is to trick students into doing this more often by working with the university and its organizations to make civic duty a punishment, freeing up our funds from paying salaries to our employees. It would be great if the city even had the money to institute a program like this, but considering recent precedent, they'd probably need to put a tax initiative on next year's ballot to get the funding.Email This Post!