I found it totally ironic that the Collegian did an article last week (I assume in conjunction with Dance Marathon) about the importance of the independents' participation, but still find it incredibly discouraging after the third year of being involved with the Dance Marathon to see the independents receive spotty attention.

Phi Gamma Nu started the competition within the independents four years ago by raising about $3,000 and since then have increased our totals by over 400 percent. Last year it took Dance Marathon '91 members over half a year to get our second place trophy switched, after they publicly stated at the end of Dance Marathon our total at $4,000 below our actual totals. Imagine if one of the Big Five's totals were announced at almost 40 percent below what they actually raised. Chaos would result.

In addition, the fact that our overall chair wasn't allowed to get a floor pass this year during the final few hours was even more disappointing, because it became a known fact that though the "rules" only allowed Big Five chairs to receive one, other non-Big Five overalls were seen on the floor.

Finally, the coverage by the Collegian to state the spirit winners under the category of overall winners and mention such a silly category this year as poster winners was ridiculous. I'm sure I speak for Alpha Kappa Psi, another co-business fraternity, and all the other fraternities when I say how discouraging it was to look in the paper after all of the hard work and see such an easy fact as placement get totally messed up.

Some of these gripes might seem outdated, and others trivial, but to us they are important and we only hope that in the future the Collegian and Dance Marathon give the independents the credit they deserve.