The Man Behind the Curtain

Friday, May 13, 2005

Many of us have long been puzzled by the actions of President James Wright and the College's administration towards the Greek system. It has long been assumed that Wright and his cohorts intended the Student Life Initiative (SLI) to overhaul students' social lives by gradually wearing down the Greek system. But perhaps we have overestimated the extent of Wright's supposed plan. Perhaps the man we took to be the all-powerful Oz is actually the man behind the curtain.

Over the past few years, the administration's actions have been characterized by indecision and vacillation, and President Wright's vision for Dartmouth has been surprisingly myopic.

The new Social Events Management Procedures (SEMP) that Dean of the College James Larimore recently approved for the Greek system are just one example of this sort of puzzling behavior. As Eduardo Bertran notes on page six, the new policies, which will go into effect next fall, represent a considerable loosening of the regulations governing Greek houses' social events. It remains to be seen if the new rules will be enforced, but the very willingness of the administration to make the Greeks' lives easier stands in stark contrast to President Wright's former goal of "end[ing] the Greek system as we know it."

The discovery of confidential documents detailing the Board of Trustees's decision-making process when formulating the SLI in 1999 [see TDR 1/31/05] shows that a master plan of sorts did exist at one time. But the administration's actions over the past few years have been muddled at best: Phi Delta Alpha was temporarily de-recognized in 2000 after several of its brothers attempted to start a fire at Chi Gamma Epsilon and a series of drug and alcohol violations but was re-recognized in 2004. Zeta Psi, on the other hand, was permanently de-recognized in 2001 for internally circulating a tasteless newsletter that detailed the sexual exploits of several brothers with female students.

Both of these infractions were serious and both constituted extremely poor judgment by specific members of the fraternities, but it is difficult to see why one house has been allowed to return to campus while the other has been permanently banned. Moreover, the sanctions brought against Theta Delta Chi, stemming from an equally troubling incident in which a number of Delta Delta Delta sorority pledges were forced to perform provocative dances for fraternity brothers, were relatively light—the house was prohibited from conducting rush activities for spring term.

The severity of the punishment for each house was drastically disproportionate to the act committed: why should Theta Delt only receive probation for what was arguably far closer to harassment than what earned Zete permanent derecognition? The administration has been acting like the proverbial Goldilocks: handing down judgments that are either too "hot" or too "cold" but very rarely "just right."

Furthermore, if Wright truly intended to destroy the Greek system, why would the regulation of social events be loosened, why would Phi Delt be allowed back on campus, and why would Theta Delt be left with a slap on the wrist?

The very difficulty of answering this question leads us to conclude that Wright has either decided that the SLI's mission of transforming the College's social life is no longer necessary, or more likely, is no longer feasible given student and alumni opposition. Re-recognizing Zeta Psi would lend credence to these hypotheses and would be the only move that would render a semblance of consistency to Wright's actions.

What, then, has the SLI, wrought? Greek culture is still substantively the same, but it has been driven underground. There, it is all the harder for the administration to exert any control over events until they boil over and re-enter the public eye.

In, short the SLI has failed. Some of its intentions were good: there is certainly a place for administrative oversight in the Greek system, and fraternities often need, and too often lack, appropriate fatherly guidance from the administration. But Wright's decisions over the past few years that alternate between too "hot" and too "cold" do little to provide such guidance. Until then, we will have to make do with paying no attention to that man behind the curtain.

The Man Behind the Curtain

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