[Print] Alumni Organization on Sexual Assault

Recently, The Dartmouth Review had the opportunity to speak with Susy Struble, the organizing member of DartmouthChange. A member of the Class of 1993 and a concerned alumna, she recently cofounded the organization with the goal of understanding the extent of the sexual assault problem on Dartmouth’s campus and working with alumni, administrators, and current students to reduce its severity.   

The Dartmouth Review (TDR): Please tell us a bit about yourself, your experience at Dartmouth, and how you came to be involved with Dartmouthchange.

Susy Struble: Well, I’m a 1993 graduate of the College. I grew up in a small town in Ohio, and it was just an enormous deal for me to come from a public school in a tiny, Midwestern farm town and go to Dartmouth College. It meant a lot to my family and it meant a lot to me. While I was there, I had an amazing experience and I deeply love the place. I was involved in the Greek System, and loved that. I definitely got involved in issues surrounding sexual assault [and I] was an early organizer with a group called Greeks Against Rape, which tried to facilitate open discussions in the sororities and fraternities and between sororities and fraternities about the problems of sexual assault and harassment and general relationships between the sexes. That was all during my junior and senior year, so that was about my level of my involvement when I was at the College. Since then, I’ve moved out West. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area right now and I’m a pretty active alumna, and when I became aware of the College’s ongoing problems with sexual assault, it was an obvious place for me to try to make a difference.

 TDR: What were the origins of DartmouthChange and what made you decide to wade into the campus debate about sexual assault?

Struble: The genesis for DartmouthChange was certainly my experience on campus, and that of too many of my brothers and sisters as well. [I really ended up] getting involved after 20 years of being away from the campus after reading the Rolling Stone article that came out. Wherever the truth of all that actually lies, it just put a bug in my ear that things maybe haven’t changed so much on campus in the last 20 years. I can think back to the late 80’s early 90s [and] we were Neanderthals back then certainly, and I thought we cannot possibly be the same as we were then. So I started asking around and [trying] to find out what’s actually going on around campus to see if there’s anything we can do. In thinking about it, I don’t know that there’s ever been a real concerted effort to try to get all of the different constituencies of campus – alumni, faculty, students, employees, greater Hanover community members, and parents – together to have a dialogue and work to reduce the divisiveness of this problem. 

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[Print] Tour Guide Misguidance

The adventure of touring college campuses as a high school student offers a welcome relief from an otherwise hectic, nerve-racking, and impersonal college admissions process. One can pore over a Princeton Review guidebook for hours on end, but for many prospective students, the determining influence in college selection may well be a campus visit. 

Few colleges boast campuses as impressive as Dartmouth’s. When I first stepped on to The Green late in my junior year of high school, by then a seasoned veteran of college tours, I came to a tremendous realization: this is what a college should look like. At the conclusion of my tour, I had determined that Dartmouth also felt like a college should. By November of my senior year, I had long since resolved to make Dartmouth my college, and I was fortunate enough to see my aspirations reach fruition. 

No single factor was more crucial in my decision making process than that fateful campus visit, and when I had the opportunity to apply for a position as a tour guide last year, I relished the prospect of similarly influencing prospective students. This is why, as a proud Dartmouth student and tour guide, I am profoundly worried by the persistent efforts of the College leadership and Admissions Office to ruin that experience for the next generation of prospective Dartmouth students.

A few weeks ago, I returned from an off term in New York to find that a “mandatory refresher session” from the Admissions Office was required of all guides. At this session, a series of changes to the regular tour route were announced. Most were innocuous (the Hop and surrounding buildings are now to be referred to as the “Arts District,” in case anyone was wondering). However, one change to the route seemed particularly calculated and “mandatory:” tour guides are henceforth NOT to bring their groups to Webster Avenue.

On this new tour, guides will squeeze a discussion of Dartmouth’s Greek Life into the tail end of the tour, in Collis, as part of a larger discussion of campus extra-curricular options. Apparently, our Admissions Office has reshaped its tour route in the hope that prospective students and their families will overlook a certain Rolling Stone article if they don’t see Fraternity Row itself: out of sight, out of mind! Pretending, for a moment, that this thinly veiled attempt to defer attention from Dartmouth’s Greek scene is actually a well-intentioned attempt to design a more appealing tour, if I were a prospective student, I would wonder why my tour guide was off-handedly mentioning the very heart of Dartmouth’s social life between explanations of Collis Miniversity and Thursday Night Salsa. 

The fact remains: Greek Life is not just another extracurricular option. This is not to detract from the many extra-curricular activities Dartmouth offers, which are fantastic selling points. Rather, Greek Life is an option that well over half of eligible students choose to partake in; it presents a diverse and multi-faceted group of organizations for students to choose from, and it is the principal source of social life at Dartmouth. In the event prospective students fail to notice their bucolic surroundings, it is worth noting that Dartmouth is not a city school; students cannot choose among bars, comedy clubs, significant music venues, and live theatre on a nightly basis. Naturally, alternative social spaces exist on campus. But for a majority of Dartmouth students, nightlife and Greek Life are synonymous. 

The decision to omit a larger discussion of Greek Life from tours will appear to prospective students, at best, a clumsy attempt to divert attention from recent P.R. setbacks. The truly frustrating result of this revision to the campus tour, however, is that it denies guides the opportunity to highlight the truly unique and positive aspects of Dartmouth’s Greek scene. 

Critics of Greek Life loudly cite its misogynistic character, its exclusive nature, and a host of other complaints. These problems are not unique to Dartmouth’s fraternities. Rather, Dartmouth’s Greek scene is uncommonly inclusive. 

At any other school with a Greek system, a freshman male would be barred from entering a fraternity party unless he knew several brothers, or was accompanied by a number of female friends deemed suitable by the brothers of the fraternity. At Dartmouth, a student ID guarantees entry to any Greek party on campus. My friends at other schools largely rushed fraternities at the onset of freshman fall; they all live in their fraternity houses, eat their meals in their fraternities’ kitchens, and consequently develop a narrow circle of friends. At Dartmouth, these problems are absent. 

What is particularly irksome, as a tour guide, is the utter lack of autonomy afforded by the Admissions Office. Memorable tour guides are effective tour guides, and effective tour guides rarely regurgitate carefully tailored scripts. 

Apparently, the Admissions Office would rather its guides err on the side of mediocrity than be entrusted with the common sense not to mention binge drinking and Andrew Lohse’s “kiddie pools full of vomit” to their tour groups. When discussing Greek Life, guides are ordered to “stay on script” and not to “prolong the discussion” beyond the 180 words the Admissions Office deems appropriate for a comprehensive discussion of Dartmouth’s Greek system. I have managed in the past to complete my tours without terrifying any parents or mentioning my own affiliation. After Andrew Lohse’s Rolling Stone muckraking article, tour guides were even summoned to an emergency session on how to handle any questions about hazing or drinking at Dartmouth. These new measures by the Admissions Office are wholly unnecessary, contrived, and indicative of a worrying trend in the decisions of Dartmouth’s incompetent leadership. 

At risk of beating a dead horse, I would be remiss not to mention the Admission Office’s ludicrous decision to remodel the Dimensions show. In an explanatory email, an Admissions Office representative wrote to all tour guides: “This year, we are designing a welcome program that invites our admitted student visitors to see/hear how Dartmouth students are realizing their passions in significant ways.” What the Admissions Office neglects to realize is that students’ passions are realized at universities across America. A prospective student interested purely in academic prestige, extra-curricular achievement, and impressive student bodies would choose Harvard, Princeton, or Yale over our humble College. Our Dimensions show, our social life, and our quirky traditions are not insignificant afterthoughts for the Admissions Office to conceal from prospective students; they are the life and soul of the school, and the reason Dartmouth commands such fierce loyalty from its students and alumni. Hiding these aspects is incredibly shortsighted. Our system is not broken, yet the Admissions Office and administration seek to fix it. Why? Because it’s easy. It’s easy to sweep something under the rug instead of dealing with it honestly and forthrightly. It’s easy to avoid difficult subjects. But it’s not the right move, it’s just easy. 

--Jake Rascoff

[Print] Social Life Far Worse Elsewhere

Dartmouth’s fraternity system hasn’t gotten good publicity lately. Ever since “Confessions of an Ivy League Frat Boy” was published in Rolling Stone last March, fraternities here have drawn nothing but ire from all quarters.

I wholly understand the anxiousness that such reports may have on your state of mind. I am a freshman here at the College, and, a year ago this weekend, I was here for Dimensions, with offers of admission from Dartmouth and a few other schools in hand. And, perhaps like you, my parents and I alike were thoroughly scared by Andrew Lohse’s tale and all of the other rumors we had encountered. While the reports of extreme hazing were naturally startling, what really worried me was the picture of Dartmouth as an exclusive, cliquey, petty, good-old-boytype place. Such ideas almost kept me from coming here.

I am impossibly thankful that those thoughts did not end up dictating my decision: I’ve loved my time at Dartmouth. And while I could easily speak to my (albeit limited) experience here, the other articles in this issue do a great job of showing how untrue the popular portrait of Greek life here is. I will say this: though you may find some personal reasons not to choose Dartmouth, fear of Greek life should not be one of them. This is not just because Dartmouth’s Greek system is not as bad as advertised, but also because social scenes at comparable schools have their own negative, comparatively unpublicized quirks.

Take Harvard, for instance. I visited a friend there in October, and encountered a particularly bizarre social scene. Instead of fraternities, Harvard has “final clubs” – famously exclusive, all-male societies. Every fall, when “punch season” comes around, the campus alights with controversy over the clubs’ mere presence.

Final clubs have a real impact on the lives of freshmen there. At Dartmouth, students often “pre-game,” and then head out to Webster Ave. Fraternities generally blitz out news of a party to the entire campus, and anyone is welcome to come. At Harvard (as was my experience), the pre-game is the game, as the final clubs are usually closed to freshmen (especially males). The situation there is unfortunately conducive to dangerous levels of drinking, as students congregate around multiple bottles of hard liquor in some bedroom instead of Keystone Light in a fraternity basement. Additionally, freshmen who wish to eventually join a club must assiduously cultivate contacts throughout their first year, desperately trying to secure themselves a spot. The process can induce an awful lot of stress.

I do not mean to insinuate that Dartmouth’s Greek system does not have problems of its own. I do believe, however, that they have been publicized far beyond those of comparable schools. Look at Cornell. Although Dartmouth has become the Ivy League school synonymous with hazing, in Ithaca two fraternities were just suspended for “serious physical hazing.” Two years ago, a student died there after participating in a fraternity drinking ritual.

Even the University of Chicago’s fraternity system has its problems with heavy drinking. I went to the accepted students’ weekend there a week before Dimensions last year, and I remember that one of the frats there was hosting a “Margarita Night.” At Chicago, a “margarita” is a red Solo cup filled about halfway with tequila, with a bit of cheap margarita mix and water added; needless to say, drunk prospies were stumbling all over campus that night. 

And as the examples of Harvard and others show, similar social problems are often extant absent a strong Greek Life. After Princeton banned fraternities and other societies in the 19th century (they still exist there, just in a very limited state), a system of “eating clubs” sprang up. Much like Harvard, the system at Princeton encourages a desperate scrum for spots in the more prestigious clubs. Eating clubs, though, have a much more creative way of cordoning access. Some clubs issue “passes” to nonmembers for parties, which people present at the door; certain parties require multiple passes. There is a thriving pass trade at Princeton: when Friday and Saturday come around, the not so well-connected scramble to find some way of getting into an eating club. Often they are unsuccessful, as I was during my visit to the school in December. 

As countless other schools demonstrate, the lack of Greek life does not necessarily portend a healthier social life. Georgetown, Williams, and Amherst, which all lack a strong fraternity presence, and have systems where sports teams have individual houses that usually host the most popular parties. There, if you’re not lucky enough to know how to put a ball in a hoop or the back of the net, you’re more likely to find yourself locked out of the fun on a Friday night.

Much of what I say above is based on my personal experience and what I’ve heard from friends that attend all of the above schools, so, please, take what I say with a grain of salt. And seeing as how I’m a freshman, I have no experience whatsoever with pledging or life in a brotherhood. I do, however, know very well what it’s like to be in the position of a prospective student.

And as subjective as my experience has been, it really has made me believe that we have an excellent social setup here in Hanover. Whereas at another school I would not get into a party without a few girls at my side, here I can wander up to a fraternity with a nerdy-looking schmob and still get into pretty much anywhere I like. Whereas at another school I couldn’t even approach a house on a weekday, here fraternities open their doors to freshmen on Monday and Wednesday. Friends from other schools that have visited have marveled at how inclusive the social life is here, how we don’t need to “know a guy” to open the door for us.

--Nick Duva

[Print] Dartmouth Baseball Excelling in 2013

The Dartmouth Review: Obviously you’ve been having a very successful season thus far; how does it feel compared to where you were at this point in the last couple of years?

Ryan Toimil: I think we have a really good chance this year to win the Ivy Championship. We returned most of our starting position players, which helps because we are experienced, and also have a really solid pitching staff that always keeps us in the game. Everyone on the team is very excited and working hard to keep improving as well. Overall we’re feeling great about our chances this year.

TDR: What were your expectations for this team at the beginning of the season and how has the team’s performance compared to them?

Toimil: We knew we would have a good team in all aspects of the game. Our strong start to the season boosted everyone’s confidence, especially as we beat Minnesota, a team that started an incredibly strong pitcher against us. I had high expectations for the team and we have lived up to them so far. We’ve hit a bit of a rough patch in the past couple weeks but we are recovering from it and still have a lot of confidence moving forward in our season. Our 19-4 win over Holy Cross on April 10^th was a big confidence booster because we had been struggling with hitting a little bit until then.

 TDR: What is the team doing psychologically to get over the “hump” of losing in the finals last year and move forward?

 Toimil: If anything, the loss last year has motivated the team to play harder and better this year. We’ve learned not to underestimate any opposing teams and to give 100 percent in every game, but overall last year’s loss has only served as motivation for us this season. A key thing about this team is the chemistry between us; we’ve become as much a family as a team. This togetherness keeps everyone focused and on the same page as we work to reach our common goal of getting to and winning the championship. Everyone has put in the work and we have gotten really close over the course of the year in preparation for the season.

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