Greeks in Review: Greek System Looks Forward

By Matthew Tokson | Sunday, June 9, 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.

Greeks in Review: Greek System Looks Forward

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