We sure like to make a lot of noise. Between movements like Reform SA! and Vote YES! we are virtually deafening ourselves with exclamations. The social politics of Dartmouth must be emitting a din which resounds throughout the Upper Valley communities. Unfortunately, there are few people to hear it.
If we would momentarily turn down the volume, we would hear the school administrators deciding how to shape the social dimension of Dartmouth. Perhaps they have an attentive ear turned toward the students, but the decision is really out of our hands. On Thursday most will walk into Thayer to get a cheese steak or maybe a turkey sandwich and realize that referendum votes are being cast in the TV room. The choices are "Yes," "No" and "What's the point?"
The Board of Trustees will receive a sampling of student opinion, consider it as a curiosity, and then make a decision based on what they believe matters in the long run. A coeducational Greek system is just a late-coming phase of the decision to turn to coeducational academics, so the question we are voting on today was really deter- mined 21 years ago.
From an administrative perspective, it seems foolish to continue scholastic integration while continuing social segregation. The present Greek system may be endearing to the students of today but, if the switch is made, students four years from now will have no such sentiments to defer to.
Having known no other alternative, they will have become used to coeducational Greek houses and there will be no controversy. The Board of Trustees will make a decision, wait out the storm and suffer only a decrease in donations from alumni searching for dear old Dartmouth.
This institution may have been estab- lished for the students, but our tenure here is short indeed. The debate appears to be an intracampus affair, although what we are witnessing is a manifestation of the wave of gender equality walloping the shores of higher education. All the students who will cast their ballots Thursday do not amount to a very substantial levee.
Expanding social options would be the ideal outcome, but the decision we are making involves a choice between little and nothing. The natural cost of Dartmouth's idyllic location is a level of social dynamics which rivals that of a convalescent home, so any prospective student would be a fool to expect thriving entertainment opportunities. If you are in the market for social options, push to relocate Dartmouth to Boston or Montreal.
Whether or not we like it, the tap into single-sex Greek life is eventually going to stop flowing. The Assembly is powerless to do anything about it. By conducting this referendum we are fighting a battle in which we are more spectators than anything else.
When students go to vote in Thayer on Thursday, the most important decision they will make is what to eat. The forces acting on the fate of Dartmouth's social alternatives are too formidable to be derailed by a day's worth of democracy.
