Ester Joseph

English 250
Meg Johnson
02/16/2014
Rhetorical Essay on Evictions at a Sorority Raise Issue of Bias
In the article Evictions at a Sorority Raise Issue of Bias, Sam Dillon uses various techniques to
describe the issue of discrimination to the readers of his article. Dillon also made use of a few different
strategies to convey his message as clearly as possible as well as the view of the students who were
affected during this particular essay. His goal is to put the readers in the shoes of the students of the
sorority and make them feel how the members and the faculty of DePauw University felt about the
decisions made by the Delta Zeta Sorority.
The purpose of this article is to make known to the students and faculty of the DePauw
University of the eviction due to discrimination that took place in the Greek Sorority called Delta Zeta.
This particular article was written after 23 members of the sorority were evicted for this reason.
However, even though this event took place in 2007, there are records that date back to 1982. In 1982,
it attracted national attention when a black student was not allowed to join, provoking accusations of
racial discrimination(516). After taking into account that the discrimination that occurred in this
sorority, the reader can infer that what happened was not a first for this sorority. Through organization,
Dillon presents his message to the readers. He would talk about the issue of the students being evicted
and would then interview one of the students to listen to their thoughts about the issue and obtain their
opinions on the matter and other facts that was relevant to the event he was talking about. Throughout
his entire article, the organization technique was apparent as to being one of the main writing
techniques that he used to convey his message to the reader.
In the beginning, Dillon explains that a psychology professor surveyed students and asked them
what their opinion was of certain sororities. The way the students answered were particularly

interesting. This is because they described some sororities as daddy's little princesses and several
others as hippies. More specifically, they mentioned that the Delta Zeta sorority were socially
awkward. Dillon then links this paragraph by explaining why this particular stereotype was harming
membership. The decline of membership caused the national officers to review the sorority, which
eventually led to 23 members of the sorority being evicted. Dillon then goes in depth as to why these
evictions caused the sorority to come to the attention to many at DePauw University. This was because
the 23 members who were evicted did not meet the standards. The students who were evicted also
included the only Vietnamese and Korean members. The only students who were allowed to stay in the
sorority were slender and fairly popular with men from the fraternities. This information about the
eviction of the students is what sets the basis for the rest of this article. Following that paragraph,
Dillon begins to interview the previous members of the sorority and the students that were affected.
Out of the twelve students that were asked to stay in the sorority, six were so outraged by the eviction
of 23 of their sisters that they left. This was because the student who were asked to stay felt that the 23
students who were asked to leave were literally told that you're not good enough even though they
had done so much for the sorority. Dillon then brings the article with a conclusion with a quote from a
junior who was the chapter's former secretary. She stated that the national officers lied when they said
that they were evicting the 23 members. She said, The injustice of the lies, is contemptible.
Once the reader is finished reading the article, the author, Dillon, wants them to walk away
feeling that the students were very mistreated. He also wants them to know that the issue was not
ignored in the slightest. The dean of students and 55 other faculty recognized the issue and they all
signed a petition. The target audience for this particular article would be college students and faculty,
parents, and members of sororities. This article shows that no matter what it is, people will not agree to
discrimination and that no one should, including the reader. However, something else that should be
noted is that Dillon never interviewed the other side in this issue. He never interviewed any of the

national officers or people who stayed because they refused to be interviewed. Because of this, this
article only shows a single side of the issue, thus pushing the readers to agree with the opinion of the
author. In the end, Dillon presents this article and the message it represents by using the facts and
interview information that he gathered from the students at DePauw University and conveying it to the
reader.

Works Cited

Lunsford, Andrea A., and John J. Ruszkiewicz. Everything's an Argument with

Readings. Sixth ed. Print.