Senior members of the Co-ed Fraternity Sorority Council and presidents of some Greek houses are questioning the future of the council because of a growing concern that the council does not benefit its members.
Several house presidents said there is a growing sentiment that the CFSC serves only fraternities. Sororities, co-ed houses and traditionally black Greek organizations are feeling increasingly marginalized within the council, the Greek leaders said.
At a meeting Monday afternoon, Assistant Dean of Residential Life Deb Reinders asked the Greek presidents for their thoughts on the council. The CFSC governs the College's 27 Greek houses.
The Co-ed Council, which represents Dartmouth's three coeducational fraternities, decided last week to raise the question of seceding from the council at individual house meetings last night, according to Co-ed Council President Mark Griffin '96.
Griffin said the Co-ed Council will decide at a meeting today whether to withdraw from the CFSC.
Rachel Perri '94, the president of the Panhellenic Council which represents sororities, said she felt the CFSC does nothing for the women's houses and should be abandoned in favor of subcommittees. "I don't know what its purpose is," she said. "It's obsolete."
Perri said the topic was briefly discussed at a Panhell meeting last night, but no decisions were made.
Mark Daly '94, president of the CFSC, said he does not want to comment until he talks to members who feel the council is obsolete.
"It is necessary to have a coordinating body for communications," Daly said. "Perhaps the structure has to be changed, but I can't react until I speak with them."
The CFSC serves as an umbrella organization for all Dartmouth Greek houses, while the Panhell, the Co-ed Council, the Interfraternity Council and the Pan-Hellenic Council, represent the different parts of the system -- sororities, fraternities, co-eds and historically black houses.
The doubts about the future of the CFSC come at a time when many of its members feel it is disorganized. Griffin said the first CFSC meeting was canceled when some organizations and Daly did not attend.
Michael Stodghill '94, the president of Alpha Theta co-ed fraternity, said the council does "not serve the interests of the co-eds" and that it has not done much for the entire Greek system in the past year.
"They haven't done a good job," he said. "It really isn't representative of all the parts of the Greek system."
Dean of Residential Life Mary Turco said last night that the current situation did not surprise her and that the administration would review any potential motion to dissolve the council.
She said if the various sub-councils came to her she would work to reassign the CFSC's responsibilities, such as peer judicial review.
"If the separate groups feel that they would prefer to stand alone, then some of the more important functions of the CFSC would have to be discussed," Turco said. "It doesn't surprise me that these organizations have evolved to a point where they'd like to be more autonomous."
Perri said that at the Panhell meeting last night some members discussed ways of severing its involvement in the council without "cutting themselves off from the entire Greek system."
Richard Breaux '94, president of Alpha Phi Alpha, one of the College's historically black fraternities, said the council does not help his house and that he would consider its dissolution.
He said he felt that many of the Pan-Hellenic houses -- which are traditionally black fraternities and sororities -- were forced into the CFSC because they are part of the Greek system.
"The CFSC just doesn't serve the purpose for the Pan Hellenic Council," he said. "We're more community service and less socially oriented. The CFSC just doesn't recognize the difference."
Several CFSC members felt the membership dues of $3 per term per member were being wasted and were not benefiting the entire system.
Todd Brackett '94, president of Gamma Delta Chi fraternity, said he does not even know what the CFSC does. He said a majority of the Greek presidents at Monday's meeting did not know either.
"There was a lot of confusion as to what it does," he said. "A broad-sweeping organization does not seem to be that integral to the success of the Greek system."
He added that he would have to look into the consequences of the dissolution of the council before he commented on whether he would support its dissolution.
Last April, a proposal which gave sorority more equal voting powers barely passed. The motion based representation on members and not one vote for each house -- the College's six sororities have approximately two times as many members as the thirteen fraternities.
Sorority members previously complained about the representation imbalance which gave fraternities effective control over the council and its decisions.
Perri said last April when the bill passed that she was "disappointed" that it did so by such a narrow margin.
Turco said the CFSC was created in the 1980s because members of the Greek system felt they could better express their feelings and positions to the administration through one organization.
"If the students feel that the time has come to review the usefulness of the particular body ... then it should be reorganized, reconstituted or dissolved," she said.
