Greek System Looks Forward

By Matthew Tokson | Monday, January 21, 2002

In recent weeks, there have been several indications that the prospects for the future of Dartmouth's Greek system have improved significantly since the beginning of the fall term. During that term, both the Chi Heorot and Theta Delta Chi fraternities were on their 3rd term of probation, while Chi Gamma Epsilon (and very nearly Alpha Delta) was placed on probation for breaking the College's rule regulating the maximum acceptable number of people in their house, a rule that until then had been rarely enforced.

Yet the pattern of harsh punishments for relatively minor Greek house infractions was broken by Gamma Delta Chi, which was recently caught with several illegal kegs. No doubt setting a precedent among houses, GDX pled guilty to the offense and was allowed to avoid the severe judgement of the Organizational Adjudication Commission. The Commission is strongly anti-Greek, largely by design, consisting of 18 usually Greek-hating members (six faculty, six students handpicked by Dean Larimore, and six administrators) and six elected students. Fortunately, Gamma Delt's fate was decided instead by the Dean's office, which imposed only a few weeks of limited probation. Given that Heorot was given four terms of social probation primarily for similar keg violations, this represents a major shift in the severity of punishments for Greek houses.

In the first weeks of the winter term, Theta Delt was granted an early end to their probation by their ORL overseer, Deborah Carney. Only days later, ORL's Cassie Barnhardt followed suit, granting an early end to Heorot's probation. Clearly Carney's pro-Greek approach has begun to moderate Barnhardt's anti-Greek tendencies. The more experienced Carney will likely continue to set the course for Barnhardt, who is, according to many Greek leaders, both less competant and less sympathetic than her counterpart. Finally, Dartmouth's Greek houses have been given an enormous opportunity by the administration to ensure their future survival. The administration is replacing Minimum Standards requirements for houses with brand new, individually-tailored standards. While the level of autonomy that houses will be granted to devise their own standards remains unclear, the opportunity to eliminate onerous minimum standards restrictions such as the prohibitions on carrying debt or having more than twice the enrolled brotherhood inside a Greek house on a typical night is a significant one. Greek houses should fight tooth and nail to formulate standards strict enough to satisfy the administration's yen for social engineering (proactive regulations regarding house-sponsored community service and programming, for instance) yet lacking in these types of pointless restrictions. Given the influence of administrators like the pro-Greek Carney and the apparently enforcement-weary Dean Redman, securing more reasonable standards may be easier than the Greeks expect.

Whether motivated by alumni response, persistent student support for the Greek system, the utter lack of social alternatives or housing space for displaced Greeks, or simply the recent behavior of the Greek houses, the College seems to be increasingly reluctant to impose severe punishments for minor infractions or to impose maliciously severe restrictions on social activities. Yet the Greek system is still vulnerable to anti-Greek administrative action, especially if the administration can severly harm Greek houses without seeming to do so intentionally or maliciously. The Trustee-mandated imposition of winter rush (Dean Redman has publicly stated his opposition to the policy) is a sterling example of the College attacking Greek houses where it hurts most and enrages least: their bank accounts.
Winter Rush

The imposition of winter rush will do lasting damage to the social cohesion and leadership of Greek houses, and also may cause decreased off-campus program participation and a winter housing crunch, as it did the last time it was tried (and quickly scrapped) in the early 1990's (see TDR 9/18/2000). The lack of new brothers in the fall also makes it extremely difficult for many of the smaller houses to fulfill the College's full house requirement without non-Greek boarders, which many national fraternities prohibit.

But the most devastating effects of winter rush are financial. At the Greek Leaders Retreat addressing winter rush, it was estimated that the Greek System as a whole would lose roughly $175,000 per year in lost house dues because of winter rush. This breaks down to an average of roughly $7,000 per house per year, a huge portion of houses' annual budgets. The burden is especially high on sororities, many of which will lose over $10,000 annually, due to their large pledge classes. Yet the smaller coeducational houses and fraternities will be most affected; for them, a few thousand dollars can be the difference between a surplus and a debt, which for some unexplained reason is prohibited by minimum standards. If winter rush is allowed to continue, Greeks may also experience a vicious cycle of less money leading to fewer activities resulting in fewer interested pledges leading to less money, etc. The Trustees have yet to even attempt to provide any reason for forcing students to postpone rush. Nor should they, since the only reason for the move is to cripple houses according to the goals of the nearly forgotten Five Principles, only in a more subtle way than simply derecognizing all the fraternities at once.

However, preliminary indications suggest that most Greek houses have maintained or even increased their typical number of pledges in the '04 winter rush. Yet, the number of overall rushees dropped significantly (from 520 to 279) while the overall number of sunk bids dropped slightly (from 253 to 222). These decreases should be mitigated at least somewhat by a larger-than-normal spring rush. Overall, even though house activities may decrease especially in the fall term, the persistent attractiveness of the Greek system for many Dartmouth students will apparently allow most houses to overcome the difficulties imposed by winter rush. Perhaps in anticipation of this result, the College has taken steps to impose a financial burden that no privately owned house could hope to bear.
Required Renovations

The report of the Greek Life Steering Committee set the stage for such a financial attack by recommending that new standards should be set for the 'internal and external cosmetic features, furnishings and grounds, as well as structural, utility, and safety features' of Greek Houses.

Who will pay to bring houses' 'features' up to the high aesthetic standards of Dartmouth College (whose non-Greek buildings include the Choates, the Treehouses, and the Shower Towers)? The houses themselves, of course. Only college-owned houses would be spared, which may allow the College to dismantle all but two fraternities while maintaining all but one of the sororities, which are generally looked upon more favorably by the College.

In October 2000, all Greek houses were presented with a complete physical plant audit conducted by Robert Fuller & Associates. The audit of Kappa Kappa Kappa's house provides a good example. Suggested improvements range from 'Emergency Egress Lighting' featuring footlights like those in a movie theatre or airplane ($16,800) to 'Window System' replacement ($34,700) to 'Ventilation/Exhaust' in the basement ($83,500) to a women-only public bathroom ($77,300) to a 'four stop' elevator costing slightly more than a quarter of a million dollars ($257,000). The total cost is $1,411,300; the total effect would be the bankruptcy of the house. Even if, as Dean Redman writes in his letter to Greek leaders, the audits represent a 'worst case' scenario and will likely be modified in a compromise of some kind, most houses could not afford even a fraction of $1.4 million. And given that the College itself rather than the federal government or the Town of Hanover initiated these audits, the required renovations would likely be perceived by students as a backhanded resort to federal or town regulations that either don't legally apply like the ADA or are not enforced. If the College truly wants to upgrade Greek houses, it should spend some of its own considerable budget to do so.

Again, no action has been taken on this major financial issue since the audits were issued to houses. The issue is ostensibly being resolved by yet another steering committee, which will eventually generate a list of 'required' and 'recommended' improvements. This approach should be a source of hope for Greek houses, since the Fuller reports indicate that very few of the suggested repairs are mandated ('required') by even the most obscure Hanover building codes. Given that many houses have already raised funds for renovation from alumni while others, like AD and Theta Delt, have preemptively renovated much of their physical plant, most Greek houses would seem to be able to pay for any truly 'required' renovations. According to Dean Redman, the College may also provide low interest loans to houses to cover the cost of the renovations. Indeed, Dartmouth is likely to do so since the housing crunch that would result from the mass simultaneous derecognition of houses required to install four stop elevators and extra staircases would, for now, be far too much for the College to handle.
Liability Insurance and 'Restricted' Activities

As if all of this weren't enough for Greeks to worry about, additional financial burdens will soon be placed on houses as a result of the recent surge in liability insurance premiums resulting from the economic downturn and the September 11th attacks. As Hank James, Director of Dartmouth's Office of Integrated Risk Management & Insurance recently wrote in a memo to Dean Redman, the current 'hard-market cycle' that insurance companies are experiencing 'will ultimately affect the entire insurance buying community, including fraternities and sororities.' This includes Acadia, Dartmouth's insurance provider. Since Dartmouth requires recognized Greek houses to carry two million dollars of liability insurance each, the 'minimum 100% increase to the current premium' that James expects from the insurance company will cost each house roughly an additional $6,000 per year.

Even worse, James reports that he is examining the possibility of a reduction in coverage terms that would 'possibly restrict protection for typical 'insured' activities.' These activities are, of course, the consumption of alcohol in a non-policed environment. The College may have to 'require the implementation of a proactive and operational risk management plan' with regards to alcohol in order to maintain the coverage. In other words, using insurance coverage as an excuse, the College may greatly expand its enforcement of restrictions on alcohol use in the private environments of its fraternities and sororities. The problem here is that Greeks themselves have absolutely no involvement with the College's insurance policies, other than having to pay for them.

Despite the positive prospects for the Greek system with regards to pledge involvement, student support, and administrative standards and enforcement, the Greeks are still in an extremely fragile position because of the College's control over their financial situation. Any prediction of the system's future is nearly impossible. As the implementation of winter rush proves, policies will be enacted at Dartmouth despite virtually unanimous opposition from students and administrators, so long as they enjoy the support of the 12 Trustees.

At an institution controlled by so few individuals, long-term predictions are best left to psychology. In the short-term, however, the apparently increasing administrative support for the Greek system coupled with the College's reliance on privately-owned Greek houses to support 400 or so students on an overcrowded campus will likely preserve the system in its current form at least until the insurance renewal policy is revealed sometime around the beginning of the spring term. Based on the renewed vigor of the weekend social scene so far this winter, Greek and non-Greek students alike seem to have the right idea: enjoy it while it lasts.

Greek System Looks Forward

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