Forty students sent out a revised "Open Letter to the Administration about the [Coed Fraternity Sorority] System" yesterday to various students, with stronger demands than the rough draft which circulated prematurely last Saturday.
The revised letter calls on several key administrators "to issue an order abolishing the CFS system effective in the Fall of 1994."
The original letter asked for the banning of all-male Greek houses and an investigation of coed fraternities and sororities.
David Cohen '94, Sari Cohen '94, Sean Donahue '96 and Lynn Webster '94 - all members of the Panarchy undergraduate society - signed the letter and said they represent the group called the Dartmouth Alliance for Social Change.
The letter asks students who receive it to add their signatures to the harsh indictment of key administrators' failure to deal with the CFS system.
"The CFS system represents the institutionalization of degradation in the forms of the objectification of women, the subordination of pledges, and the subjection of the individual to a constructed 'group ideal'," the letter said.
The letter's main target are all-male fraternities, but it also attacks co-ed fraternities and sororities for remaining within the CFS system.
"Sororities and coeds are guilty as well because of their structural similarities to fraternities," the letter said.
"However, we acknowledge the need for all-female and coed spaces (including those houses that already exist), but believe that such spaces can and must exist outside the CFS system," it said.
Early next week, the group said it will go public with the letter and submit it to College President James Freedman, Dean of the College Lee Pelton, Dean of Residential Life Dean Mary Turco and Assistant Dean of Residential Life Deborah Reinders.
"We want to see the entire CFS system eliminated," Donahue said yesterday, speaking on behalf of the group.
"We want to see the entire CFS system eliminated," Donahue said yesterday, speaking on behalf of the group.
But Sunday, Donahue said the group did not expect the letter to bring about the end of the CFS system. "We're hoping this will cause people to think about the system," he said.
Panhellenic Council President Melissa Trumbull '95 agreed. She said she sees the letter as an opportunity for discussion of the CFS system among students.
"The main, and most important, effect the letter will have is to further the dialogue about the Greek system, its positive aspects, its negative aspects, and how to address and solve the problems that do exist," Trumbull said.
The Panhellenic Council is the self-governing umbrella organization of the College's fraternities.
Interfraternity Council President Scott Swenson '95 said the council does not plan to respond to the letter.
