Looking Up

By Joseph Rago | Tuesday, June 1, 2004

The College has sponsored a lot of creative philanthropy over recent weeks: a Run for the Kids, a Relay for Life, a Fiesta for Life, and a Festival for Humanity. The last, held on the Green over Green Key week-end, was designed to raise funds for the Habitat for Humanity service organization. It featured performances by arts and cultural groups, among other amusements, including an inflatable obstacle course, a bungee-jump, a moon-bounce, a sushi-making workshop, and a henna tattoo parlor. If the figures I've been given are correct, the event cost $14,000 and only managed to pull in about four grand. I have a feeling the first-ever Festival for Humanity will be the last-ever Festival for Humanity. Next year, they'll simply feature President James Wright feeding bushels of non-sequential hundreds from the College treasury into an industrial wood chipper.

Well. It's a cold heart that's set against Humanity itself, and the Festival's middling returns can probably be attributed to good intentions and honest mistakes—though you'd think they would have caught on by now to the utter wastefulness of inflatable playplaces. And besides, I don't want to be too negative. Attribute it to the workings of the Providence, if you'd like, but of late things at the College have been looking up.

The first high points concern the changing fortunes of the Greek System. Phi Delta Alpha fraternity, after a trial-run 'colony' status, was officially rerecognized by Dean of Residential Life Martin Redman on May 18th at a Greek awards ceremony filled with top administrators and campus leaders. The house, you might remember, was given the heave-ho in 2000 as a disciplinary sanction; its revival as a full-tilt fraternity marks the culmination of eighteen months of hard work by brothers and alumni. To disclose: I'm a Phi Delt and my perspective is completely biased—but, then again, when is it not?

Dartmouth has come a long way since the Student Life Initiative was announced in 1999. Jim Wright promised "the end of the Greek System as we know it," but today the Greeks are more vibrant and dynamic than ever. He must be coming to terms with things, as the houses are firmly entrenched for reasons both practical and otherwise. Without them, there just aren't enough student residences in Hanover to go around. The upcoming capital drive, the 'Campaign for the Dartmouth Experience,' doesn't need the controversy. But mostly, students and alumni are too attached to the frats and sororities to allow the administration to have its way with them.

The fraternity system is the ring-bolt and the sheet-anchor of this College—what holds it together. It drastically improves quality of life. The houses attract students who are sociable, easy to get along with, and work hard at work worth doing, preventing an elite academic institution from becoming a Harvard or a Brown, where Hell truly is other people. They're repositories of tradition and continuity. They create lasting bonds among classmates and between classes in way that that the classroom cannot, and, I would argue, are the incubators for the intense loyalty that most students take away from their 'Dartmouth Experience.'

Shortly after Phi Delt was rerecognized, Dean of the College James Larimore accepted the Inter-Fraternity Council's proposal to move Rush to sophomore fall. It was a tremendous achievement: an indication that Parkhurst is ready to work with the Greeks instead of working against them.

Then, on top of all that, T. J. Rodgers was just elected to the Board of Trustees. He's a member of the class of 1970, the CEO of Cypress Semiconductor, and a man who recognizes the inherent value of the Greek System. He called the administration's past assaults "abominable" and cites "fellowship" as one of the most important parts of Dartmouth.

That's not the half of it. Dr. Rodgers got onto the ballot by petition, bypassing the official nomination channels with more than five times the necessary alumni signatures. Surprise—he was pitted against the usual lineup of indistinguishable doormats and Milquetoasts, and he beat the pants off them. In contrast to their enervated boilerplate, Dr. Rodgers put forward very public ideas. He said that Dartmouth was experiencing an acute leadership crisis; that Dartmouth needed to recommit to undergraduate teaching and writing; that Dartmouth must exercise fiscal prudence; that Dartmouth should reevaluate its admissions policies; that Dartmouth would do well increase alumni involvement in its affairs.

His positions did not earn him the esteem of the faculty. One professor went so far as to publicly brand him a "bigot" and a "Social Darwinist." But they resonated with normal people. They're not releasing a final tally, but a representative from the Alumni Leadership Office said that Dr. Rodgers was the "clear winner" of the election. It was a sign that many—maybe even most—alums are dissatisfied with the direction of the College, and it's not often that something like that makes itself quite so blatant in so public a forum.

Parkhurst and its backers cling to the pleasant fiction that Dr. Rodger's election doesn't mean a damn. Susan Dentzer '77, the Chair of the Board of Trustees, said that she was "delighted" to bring in Dr. Rodger's "full range of perspectives." Wright claimed that he was "looking forward to working with him," and, in a conversation with a member of our staff last week, attributed Dr. Rodger's victory to the alumni preferring a "business type" over the "academic types" served up by the Alumni Council.

Right then. Begging off won't do much to shave away Dr. Rodger's mandate, though surely he's in for a Sisyphian task. Fortunately, he's an intense competitor and an able leader—engaging, vigorous, thoughtful, and certainly loquacious, as our interview will attest. Most importantly, he's his own man, with an open mind free of pieties. "Who are we," he asks, "what do we stand for, and where do we want to go?" Those are explosive and highly-contested questions at the College these days. Now, it appears that there's chance for an upswing.

Looking Up

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