Letters to the Editor

Greek Derby Days deserved Daily's attention

To the Daily:

While much of the campus was watching the game on Saturday, many members of the Greek community were at Sigma Chi watching Derby Days.

Derby Days is a philanthropic event run by Sigma Chi which features a number of events including boxing and tug-of-war competitions.

The lack of coverage of this event in the Daily is perplexing. Besides ignoring the accomplishments of the winning boxers from Sigma Chi, Phi Kappa Psi and Beta Theta Pi, the Daily missed a golden opportunity to show the Greek community at its best.

Unfortunately, this has proven to be the rule rather than the exception at the Daily. While scores of philanthropic events and other Greek accomplishments are ignored, it seems that the Daily jumps on every opportunity to write about fraternity transgressions.

This anti-Greek bias has never been as clear as last spring, when a wildly successful Greek Week received minimal coverage.

A click on the "articles" link of the Greek Week webpage shows one article and two pictures for the entire 10-day event. With dozens of fraternities and sororities working together for charity, this could have been a great opportunity to shed some much deserved positive light on the Greek system. As usual, however, the opportunity was allowed to pass.

When I talk about the University Greek system, I acknowledge the negative and accentuate the positive. The Daily, it seems, accentuates the negative while all but ignoring the positive. The Greek system has accomplished so much in recent years, and there is so much more yet to come. It'd be a shame if all Daily coverage of the Greek system continued to be filtered through a clear anti-fraternity/sorority bias.

Steven Kyritz

LSA junior

Carr's coaching responsible for Purdue loss

To the Daily:

I would like to register my disgust at Lloyd Carr's coaching. After watching the Purdue game, a worse display of coaching would be difficult to imagine. Scoring three points in the second half, getting the ball back with a two point lead and two minutes remaining, and still giving Purdue the opportunity to beat us with a field goal. There's not much you can say about that kind of coaching - though the terms dull, uninspired, conservative, unimaginative, predictable come to mind.

I've always said Coach Carr is a towering mediocrity, who manages to win because the program draws superlative talent from around the country.

The 1998 championship season belonged more to Brian Griese than to Coach Carr. I know the University won't fire Carr this season; I know Carr will probably never be fired. And even if Carr was released, the Athletic Dept. would forego interviewing qualified candidates and simply hire an assistant.

But I can't help dreaming what could be if the University would simply offer the position to, and interview, someone other than a "Michigan Man." There are a lot of good coaches out there - Lloyd's not one of them.

I've suffered through Schembechler, Moeller and Carr long enough. For God's sake, stop the pain!

Patrick Pearlman

Alumnus