University officials left Greeks out in the cold this weekend by suspending all alcohol-related events indefinitely; they also left the Northern Star and students out in the cold Monday night by refusing to allow the Star access to a meeting where the past weekend’s events were being discussed.

Administrators refused to let the Star cover the meeting headed by Brian Hemphill, vice president of Student Affairs, and hear what both Greek leaders and NIU officials had to say about the recent stabbing, suspensions and safety on Greek Row.

While administrators didn’t refuse to comment on the matter after the meeting held in the Holmes Student Center’s Capitol South Room, there is no reason why members of the NIU community should be kept in the dark and fed bits and pieces of information that concern more than those sitting around the table at Monday’s meeting.

And although NIU’s intention to remedy a “problem” on Greek Row is good at heart, it is unfair and unjustified to punish the entire Greek system because of an incident that happened in the middle of the street outside a row of fraternity houses.

If a fight broke out in the vicinity of a DeKalb bar (a situation not that uncommon), the city of DeKalb wouldn’t revoke all of the city’s liquor licenses and punish every bar it has jurisdiction over.

What happened Saturday morning was an isolated incident – there isn’t a stabbing problem on Greek Row and those who weren’t involved in the incident shouldn’t be punished.

The victim of the stabbing was not an NIU student and neither individual involved in the incident was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

It’s never a bad idea to examine safety procedures on campus and on Greek Row, but it is a bad idea to incite a problem when there isn’t one and place blame where it’s not justified.