I don't mean specifically to the Greek stuff, but in general, I've read posters calling b.s. on a particular feature of Hearst, because their own schools did something differently (e.g. what level of key-access an RA would have, etc). Different schools do things differently, and an awful lot of posters (particularly on LJ, but some at TWoP, too) seem to think their own college experience is THE college experience.

I'm sure I'm guilty of this kind of complaint, especially with the plagiarism episode. I know that campus life is so close to home for me that I have different expectations, but mostly I can accept all the little ridiculous details of this Fictional!Campus. It's a TV show. But to me, there are just so many incidents this season that bug and take me out of the story because I'm just sure that, because of legal or liability issues, they wouldn't be possible anymore--even allowing for extreme variations between schools. I guess much of what Veronica did in high school was just so out there I could go with it, whereas this year they seem to be trying to make it seem more realistic/probable, and that's where they lose me.

I don't remember rolling my eyes here. The posts here always seem more question/clarification/explanation/nitpick than argument, anyhow (even our arguments are more like that). I saw people (out there) having Stance-Taking arguments about college life details, and in most, it was pretty clear the arguers had each been to one college.

It feels like I saw more arguments about details (out there) than about the portrayal of feminists.

I didn't really think you were rolling your eyes. I just figured I would acknowledge my issues, which mostly stem from my frustration with developments in the profession. When failing a student requires extra paperwork, and you can no longer send group emails to your students because of legal issues, you tend to look at what happens on this show with a jaundiced eye.

College has been so long ago for me, and not really in a strict campus setting (NYU and Hunter) that I can't speak to what most college life is like, especially now.

I'm still wondering about the GHB issue, and Mercer's possession of it. Did I miss the reason they let him off the hook for that the first time? And is there any legitimate use for that drug?

It's an anesthetic, and used to treat some cases of insomnia, according to wikipedia.

Yeah, I just looked it up, which I hadn't before, due to extreme laziness.

Still, he didn't have a prescription for it, did he?

Well, there's also the fact (mentioned by P-C or someone when the ep aired) the cash box was out of his possession for a good length of time and in the hands of criminals who had the combination to the box. So there was no way to prove at the time that the GHB was neccessarily Mercer's.

Ah. Okay. God, I miss so much stuff.

And congratulations, Kalshane! A baby! All kinds of good wishes for you and the baby's mom and the baby to come.

Hey, congrats, Kalshane!

Being also undergrad-centric to my specific college, I have a hard time believing that any school could have a larger or more influential Greek system than the U of Alabama. Their KA frat was also notorious for racist Confederate-mythologizing bullshit, but the Greeks ran everything in student government and received all sorts of leeway from the administration to do so, at least until the administration dissolved the student government for some infractions. Oh, this is all coming back to me: there was apparently a pan-Greek council called Theta Nu Epsilon (or ONE) that chose all the members of the student government on the notion that no other group on campus could oppose the Greek vote. IIRC, one year a disgruntled ONE member ran for president threatening to expose the whole system, and they burned crosses on her lawn and did other craaaaazy things, until the administration decided that too much press might expose their all-too-cozy relationship with the Greek power machine and they dismantled student government because of this.

At my university, frats threw parties. That's all. But they were nowhere near as fun as the engineering/nursing ones. I'm not sure I knew anyone in a fraternity or sorority until long after I graduated.