Your Guide to the SLI

By Matthew J. Tokson | Monday, September 17, 2001

The Student Life Initiative (SLI) first came to public light on February 9, 1999, when Dartmouth President James Wright and Dartmouth's Board of Trustees announced a set of five principles around which they would shape the future social and residential life of the College. The announcement was the culmination of a 20-year long movement among College officials seeking to decrease the influence of the Greek System. The Five Principles were:

—There should be greater choice and continutiy in residential living and improved residential space

—There should be additional and improved social spaces controlled by students

—The number of students living off campus should be reduced

—The abuse and unsafe use of alcohol should be eliminated

—The system should be substantially coeducational and provide opportunities for greater interaction among all Dartmouth students

This last principle was directed at Dartmouth's single-sex fraternities and sororities. Wright and the Trustees aimed for the complete elimination of these houses, according to Stephen Bosworth, then Chairman of Trustees. He said that the elimination would begin taking place the following fall; scheduled traditional rush would be 'no longer relevant.' President Wright was slightly less clear in an interview with The Daily Dartmouth, saying, 'What we want to see is certainly a significant decrease in number' of Greek societies. He discussed purchasing Greek houses, and said, infamously, ominously, 'This is not a referendum on these things. We are committed to doing this.' Three days later, a Daily Dartmouth poll showed that 83% of Dartmouth students supported maintaining the single-sex Greek System.

The reaction to the Trustees' announcement was rapid and forceful. Over 1,000 protestors in either Greek house T-shirts or 'Unaffiliated...But I Support the Greeks' shirts marched to the President's house on Webster Avenue on the night of February 10th. The Coed Fraternity and Sorority Council canceled all parties to be held during that weekend's winter carnival, organizing in their place a massive rally on the lawn of the Psi Upsilon fraternity, Dartmouth's oldest Greek house. The rally spurred significant media attention.

Wright and the Trustees backed off from their previous position, to eliminate the Greek system altogether, vowing increased student involvement and contradicting Chairman Bosworth's original timeline for changing the Greek system. These promises and delaying changes until after graduation settled the student body, which has not protested against any anti-Greek action since.

In April of 1999, the Committee on the Student Life Initiative was established, co-chaired by Trustees Susan Dentzer and Peter Fahey and consisting of mostly anti-Greek faculty, administrators, and several students. After much deliberation and 150 hours of meetings, The Committee on the SLI presented their infamous recommendations to the Board of Trustees in January of 2000. The report emphasized the importance of the Dartmouth Principle of Community and said that students 'must expect to see their freedoms restricted, for the good of the community as a whole.' The 55-page report recommended, among other things, a moratorium on the establishment of new Greek houses, the pushing back of rush eligibility from sophomore fall to sophomore winter, and the imposition of residential restrictions and infrastructure improvements such as adherence to the Americans with Disabilities Act (a standard that even residence halls do not meet). The net effect of these recommendations, if implemented, would have been the financial failure of all Greek houses and the sale of the houses to the College. Indeed, the report urged houses that could not afford the changes to '[commence] negotiations for the College to acquire the house.' The full text of the report is available at http://www.dartmouth.edu/~sli/pdf/student_report.pdf.

In an 81-0 vote in February of 2000, the faculty asked for the immediate end of the Greek System. Dartmouth has many more faculty, around 400 total, but the vote represents what has been an active and vocal minority of the total faculty that has voted similarly, to little effect, for decades.

In April 2000, the Board of Trustees reviewed the report and decided to implement its major proposals, going against the major recommendations of a Student Assembly-drafted proposal supported by 87% of the student body. As the report states: 'The Board endorses the continuation of the moratorium on the formation of any new residential, selective, single-sex organizations. The Board requires housing owned by all College-recognized organizations to meet the general physical standards and building code requirements imposed on all student residences. The Board charges the administration to move ahead expeditiously with a facilities audit of all CFS houses, to be paid for by the College. The Board accepts the Committee on the Student Life Initiative's recommendation that tap systems, mass refrigeration units, and permanent bars should be removed from CFS houses.' And, as proposed, rush was pushed back.

Bars and taps were removed in summer of 2000, when fewer students were on campus to organize and protest. This past summer, two new rules were enacted based on Committee's recommendations: consumption of alcohol outdoors was prohibited for all Greek houses, and, after some controversy, pre-announced walk-throughs, 'safety inspections,' of all houses (originally conceived as unannounced ambushes until student protest forced a toning down) by Safety & Security officers began.

This coming year will mark the beginning of winter rush, which was tried once before in the early Nineties and met with intense criticism, especially from houses and would-be pledges. The rush, which will harm Greek houses both financially and socially, may mark the beginning of the end for several of the smaller fraternities.

Your Guide to the SLI

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