Carnival Cancelled in Response

By Christian Hummel and M. Ryan Clark | Wednesday, February 3, 1999

If President Wright's announcement was intended to shake things up and create a debate on social and residential options at the College, it certainly worked.

Students awoke to headlines screaming from the pages of the New York Times and the Boston Globe — the Greek system as it had existed at Dartmouth was over. Fraternities and sororities would be co-ed.

This announcement came as a complete shock

Reaction was swift and decisive. In a random survey taken by The Dartmouth Review on Wednesday afternoon, an overwhelming majority of students opposed the trustees' proposals. Of 373 students surveyed, 331 were against the plan, 22 supported it, and 20 were undecided.

Not surprisingly, Wright's announcement was the topic of the day all over campus. Some classes were turned into discussion sessions as students vented their feelings toward the proposal.

Fliers were posted announcing a rally on the Green to be followed by a march to the President's house on Webster Avenue. However, that rally was canceled when the Coed-Fraternity-Sororities Council (CFS) decided to hold a meeting to discuss the situation and plan an organized response.

CFS also voted, 24-12, to shut down all parties at Winter Carnival. The vote is binding.

Naturally, current members of Greek houses have found themselves in a bit of confusion. Several house presidents were reported to have been getting in touch with their corporations or national representatives seeking advice and help in this crisis. The national fraternity representatives

Locally, members expressed their displeasure through several creative ways. A few fraternities and sororities were playing Bob Marley's 'Get Up/ Stand Up (For Your Rights)' over outdoor loudspeakers. Brothers at Psi Upsilon constructed and hung a banner which read, 'JUDAS, BRUTUS, ARNOLD, WRIGHT' from the side of their house, facing Collis and Thayer Hall. An American flag flew upside-down.

On Wednesday night, over a thousand protestors gathered on the lawn of President Wright's official Webster Avenue residence, sang the Alma Mater, and left peacably.

'I think the protest tonight showed how united the campus is on this issue, and how seriously Dartmouth students take the Greek system,' said one sorority sister who participated in the protest.

Though CFS had already cancelled the Greek system's participation in Carnival (leaving it little more than a ski race and a poorly realized snow sculpture of a barely recognizeable dog on the Green), President Wright spoke at the official inaugeration of the Winter Carnival weekend on Thursday evening. Protestors, many of them wearing their Greek letter shirts, chanted pro-fraternity and sorority slogans and cheered, threatening to drown out Wright.

Reactions from individual members were predictably blunt.

'I have my rifle ready,' one fraternity brother said.

'I want my money back. All $120,000. I didn't pay to go to a school with a particular reputation and then have it change and have to justify it for the rest of my life,' said a senior member of another house. 'We will never sell this house back to the College.'

Chi Gamma Epsilon President Yale Dieckmann said, 'The Greek system is and long has been an integral part of the Dartmouth experience, and that is what attracts many applicants from all over the country and the world. Should they take it away, the identity of the students who attend the college and that of the college itself will be irrevocably sacrificed.'

The ambiguity of the announcement has prompted wide-ranging speculation about. While an optimistic few hope that little change will occur, others are concerned that Greek houses will be completely banned within the next few years.

One sophomore was 'pissed that the students had no input, that it was just sprung on everyone.'

Many were confused as to what the proposal is supposed to accomplish.

Roham Rafat '01 said, 'If it's [the proposal] to increase on campus housing, it won't. It's not like we would be able to fit any more people into the house if it were made co-ed or if it were abolished. If it's to curb drinking, it will do the exact opposite.

'Abolishing the Greek system will not stop drinking; people will instead drink in smaller groups, to a greater extent, and sometimes even get into their cars to go
somewhere instead of just walking to the next frat or back home.

'At a frat, there will always be a few sober people who can take care of a drunk person, whereas on a small underground level, there is less likelihood that this will happen.'

Across the campus comparisons were being made to other schools which have threatened or banned fraternities within recent decades. For example, Amherst College used to have a vibrant Greek system until they were banned in the early 1980's.

Whether the College will be able to force the Greek houses off-campus is unclear at this time. Bills have been introduced in both Congress and in the New Hampshire State Legislature which could have an impact on the ability of the College to limit or restrict a student's right to live on- or off-campus.

The tactic used by the administration in the case of Beta fraternity in 1997 was to de-recognize the organization's ability to allow members to live in its house. The fraternity was destroyed, although the fraternity still owns the building, now inhabited by Alpha Xi Delta sorority.

Some fraternities and sororities are already owned by the College and face the most immediate threat. Chi Heorot and Alpha Chi Alpha are both College owned as are all the sororities with the exception of Alpha Xi Delta. In the case of Amherst College, the houses owned by Greek organizations were purchased by the College and transformed into residential houses. That seems to be the idea Wright has in mind.

Many alumni are expected to be in Hanover this weekend during the Winter Carnival festivities. Some houses are already planning meetings with the alumni to discuss what the future may hold. Alumni response has been as strident as student response.

Todd Zywicki '88, a Professor at George Mason University's, Law School wrote an open letter to the Board of Trustees.

'I would say that the Trustees don't understand the role of fraternities as an intermediary institution in the educational life of Dartmouth, as Toqueville would have recognized,' wrote Zywicki.

'I would say that the Trustees fail to appreciate the role of fraternities in providing the 'little platoons' that link atomized students to the history and legacy of Dartmouth's greatness, as Burke would have recognized.

'I would remind the Trustees that members of the Greek system provide the backbone of Dartmouth's spirit and traditions.'
Parents, too, have noted their displeasure with the decision.

John Leo, parent of an '02, 'I certainly think it's a waste of money as well as intrusive social engineering and the feminization of male life. People should have the freedom to associate with whomever they like.

'They do it in every country in the world. Soviet Russia would have loved it; control everything and push people around after you and your elite clique has decided what's best for them.'

Dartmouth, being very dependent upon the giving of the alumni and parents for its endowment, might be forced to accept some compromise on the issue.

Local businesses have also weighed in to support the Greek system. Restaurant Everything But Anchovies has announced it will contribute 5% of all this weekend's receipts to the Greek system.

The next few months could represent the end of the Greek system as it has been experienced by generations of Dartmouth students. Whether Wright's proposed move runs counter to the notions of tradition held so dear by so many in the Dartmouth community remains to be seen.

Carnival Cancelled in Response

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