Letters to the Editor

Friday, October 21, 2005

Arabian Nights Revisited

Sir—

I enjoyed your recent article in The Dartmouth Review [see TDR 8/26/05]. I too stayed at the same Moroccan hotel about ten years ago. It is called "El Muniria". It was 110 dirham a night then. I believe that the downstairs pub is called "The Tangier Inn."

I arrived there after a run-in with some Tangier hustlers when I didn't take a cab at the port. They ended up with $450 of my money. After spending a few nights at El Muniria, I decided to make the Moroccan justice system work for me. I went to the police station in the nearby city of Asilah where the crime had taken place. After taking a statement from me, the police quickly brought the thief into the station and proceeded to beat him, a few feet away from me, until he confessed. I was involuntarily held overnight at a so-called four-star hotel with very little electricity or hot water. It was run by women, which is strange in Morocco; I concluded it was a brothel. When my phone wouldn't work, I called the U.S. consulate from a payphone outside.

The next day, the local police chief questioned why I had called the consulate. He had apparently been contacted by an United States official. After using an American acquaintance of his, who was on the phone in Utah, as an interpreter, he decided I had been wronged. By the end of the day I had my money back (in dirhams). We went to court where I had agreed to say that I was satisfied with my compensation and that no criminal charges would be necessary. All this and other intrigue in 24 hours.

I returned to Tangier triumphantly. Peter seemed interested in me, too, so don't take it personally. I had to spend another month in Morocco to spend all that cash.

Regards,
John De Felice '80

A Pleased Reader

Sir—

Excellent! The article, "Noah Riner '06 Welcomes Class of '09," is one of the best convocation speeches I have ever read. Noah Riner is a great representative of Dartmouth, and because of this speech my respect for Dartmouth has increased. The speech obviously came from the heart and hit the proverbial "bull's eye" regarding many of today's problems. Your paper is to be saluted, and I encourage you to keep up the good work. Thank you.

Jonathan Smith
Los Angeles, CA

The SLI Reconsidered

Sir—

Over the past several years you have published articles and commentaries on the state of the Greek system at Dartmouth and the relationship between the Greek organizations and the Dartmouth administration. We thought it would be informative and enlightening to take a look at the Greek system and its relationship with the administration from the perspective of alumni advisors and alumni corporation officers, whose involvement with these organizations is much longer and more extensive—some of the alumni who have endorsed this letter have been serving in various advisory capacities for 25 years or more.

There have been suggestions that the Wright administration has "declared war" on the Greek system. While one may have reached that conclusion in early 1999, we believe this accusation to be a distortion of the current state of affairs. In general, we believe that the Greek system is as strong as it has been in past decades, that the relationship between the CFS organizations and the Dartmouth administration is on a very solid footing, and that the level of trust between the administration and the CFS system is quite positive and growing more so.

In the winter of 1999 the College published the Student Life Initiative. These announcements caused a great deal of consternation among the undergraduates (CFS members and non-members alike) and evoked a strong reaction from many of the alumni of Dartmouth's fraternities, sororities, and coed houses. E-mails and phone calls were exchanged between alumni and senior members of the Dartmouth administration. For those who were following the situation at the time, it became clear within a week or two that the College was backing away from its original statements. Alumni advisors and corporations officers met in Boston and opened a dialogue with senior administrators, while undergrads on campus continued to press for the preservation of the CFS system.

Within a month or two, a formal structure was put in place to examine the Greek system and make recommendations for reform. A committee made up of undergraduates, alumni, faculty and administrators was established. It solicited input from all of the constituencies involved, finally coming forward with a series of recommendations that would preserve the fraternities and sororities as single sex, residential, selective organizations. Mandated reforms for the CFS system required these organizations to better reflect the values and principles of the Dartmouth community and would require the physical plants to be upgraded in order to meet some of the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act, along with certain life/safety/health concerns of the College.

Some of these recommendations were very controversial � the removal of permanent bars and tap systems, movement of rush to sophomore winter, a moratorium on new fraternities and sororities. The cost of physical plant improvements for most of these houses was going to be substantial. And yet, the channels of communication remained open. All constituencies believed that we had the same goals and objectives, and there seemed to be enough good will on the part of the administration to lead us to anticipate future tweaking of these rules and regulations as the fraternities, sororities and coed houses demonstrated that they had achieved and built upon these new expectations.

What has resulted from theses changes?

Minimum Standards were replaced with a process by which each organization established an Annual Action Plan, detailing how their group would meet the principles of scholarship, brotherhood/sisterhood, service, leadership, inclusiveness, and accountability. Now, each year these organizations and their members contribute thousands of volunteer hours to community service programs throughout the Upper Valley, and beyond.
The physical plants, many of which had been allowed to deteriorate badly, are now seeing large sums of money invested in them. Many of the privately owned houses have raised, or are raising, significant funds from their alumni (in some cases, between $250,000 and $500,000, or more). In addition, the College has made available a pool of funds in a low interest loan program, which some organizations are taking advantage of, usually to serve as a bridge until they have raised the necessary funds from their alumni. At the end of this process all of these houses will be in far better condition, and some of them will be in their best condition in anyone's memory. They will be safer, more attractive and more comfortable places to live.
After 3 years of sophomore winter rush, Dean Larimore noted the continuing improvement in virtually all aspects of Greek life, and moved rush back to sophomore fall. Just this past summer, the Trustees removed the moratorium on the addition of single sex, residential, selective organizations (read: fraternities and sororities). Last spring, as a result of an ongoing dialogue between the administration and the undergraduates, new social procedures were put into place, procedures which better reflect the way parties occur on campus. The requirements are now simplified and less onerous, and provide a flexibility for these organizations that is both welcome and overdue.
The percentage of undergraduates joining fraternities and sororities is nearing an all time high—approximately 60% of the eligible men and women are now part of the Greek system.

There will always be tensions between the Greek system and the administration—that is the nature of the beast. However, we alumni who serve as advisors and corporation officers for the fraternities, sororities and coed houses are very optimistic. We feel the College administration has demonstrated a commitment to keeping these organizations strong, secure and a vital part of the Dartmouth community. They are dealing in a fair and open manner with these organizations. The process that was put into place shortly after the announcement of the Student Life Initiative is succeeding. The supporters of the fraternities, sororities and coed houses should be proud of the progress that has occurred and reassured that the administration and the undergraduates are working together for the long-term benefit of the Greek organizations and Dartmouth College.

This letter has been endorsed by alumni advisors and/or house corporation officers from every fraternity at Dartmouth, as well as many of the sororities and coed houses.

John Engelman '68
Alumni Advisor, Alpha Delta Fraternity

The Use of Facts Offended Her

Sir—

I read with serious interest (and grammatical horror) Ms. Chaudry's letter to Mr. Bongers in the last edition of The Dartmouth Review. Hailing from the San Francisco Bay Area, I was blanketed with coverage of the shooting from local news media, not to mention the Associated Press and others. It is generally accepted that Ms. Willis-Starbuck did utter the words, "Bring the heat," as a witness told officers in her statement. Ms. Willis-Starbuck's family disputes this, but I do not believe her family members were present; nay, I do believe their permanent residence is Georgia. Ms. Chaudry would do better to bring her dispute to either the City of Berkeley's Department of Police, AP, the four major local news media who perpetrated this "unsubstantiated" claim, as well as the local radio stations and press. Ms. Chaudry's claim that Mr. Bongers is racist seems to rest primarily on the fact that he reported this "bring the heat" claim. Does Ms. Chaudry believe, then, that racism is rampant in all of San Francisco's media? While I can understand why Ms. Chaudry would be so incensed upon seeing a friend portrayed in this light so soon after her death, her letter bears no consideration for what the authorities and witnesses have deemed truth, unpalatable as that truth may be.

Very sincerely yours,
Brian C. Chao '09

The Early Bird Gets To Ask Questions

Sir—

I must say, I am very dissappointed [sic] by your faulty reporting on the Senator Feingold campus event [see TDR 10/7/05].

You criticize the Senator for "ignoring" students—but had your reporter bothered to look around, he would have noticed that a vast majority of the event's atendees [sic] were older Hanover residents. You can't take questions from people who aren't there. The Senator went through the list of questions in front of him, one by one; it's not his fault that they were from residents. Towards the end, he got tired of it all, and specifically said, "Can we get some questions from students?" After the event, he met with several campus newspapers, which were most certainly represented by students—an interview where the Review's absence did not go unnoticed (I was at the interview for the Free Press).

Your inaccurate paragraph on the event makes me question if you even had a reporter there. If you did, I then have to wonder how hung-over he was, it being 9:30 on a Saturday morning. Either way, it's irresponsible journalism. To disagree with the substance is one thing, but to distort the substance is another. That's a real shame— though I may be a liberal, I usually enjoy the Review's edgy style, and I do prefer it's [sic] coverage of Noah's speech to my own publication's. I hope you won't distort the facts like this every time another liberal comes to campus.

Respectfully,
Nathan S. Empsall '09

The Editors Respond: We find it difficult to believe that any politician attempting to solicit student votes would schedule his appearance for 9:30 on a Saturday morning. We stand by our story and wonder what sort of substance you, as a Free Press writer, may have had distorting your reporting that morning.

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