Word: oppenheim
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...Noah Oppenheim's scathing criticism of the Crimson Key Society ("My Crimson Key Problem and Ours," Sept. 17) seems both unwarranted and unfair, considering that the Key has just finished an exhausting week of welcoming first-years and parents, working long and unpaid hours to organize events where first-years can have fun and meet one another. If this doesn't fit Oppenheim's definition of a "service organization," I'm not sure what does...
...that the Key is too attractive for his tastes. My apologies. After dedicating hours of my time to selecting members in as fair and objective a process as possible, a process in which a person's cheekbones and social status play absolutely no role, I am stunned that Oppenheim would imply that my fellow board members and I choose tour guides on the basis of "conventional standards of physical attractiveness" or affiliation with some particular social group...
During my two years as a Crimson Key member, I often noticed the same problems and felt the same feelings Oppenheim notes in his column...
...While Oppenheim's generalizations may be oversimplifications, his facts are substantially accurate. Probably 80 to 85 percent of Key members were legacies, athletes, final club members--or, in the case of women, regular club "guests." The remaining members felt the social marginalization inherent during Key functions and, necessarily, when a Key event adjourned to the Fox or the Fly, as it so often...
There would be nothing inherently wrong with the Key's lack of diversity if it were not the only University-sanctioned student tour group. But, as Oppenheim observes, there are plenty of good storytellers in the student body who don't wear khakis, don't enjoy the mindless drinking rituals, and won't reduce themselves to mindless, sycophantic club members. I saw personally how the Key's comp systematically excludes people outside the elitist, insular circle in which so many members travel...