Sean Donahue doesn't really consider himself a leader.
"I never wanted to be political," the soft-spoken 20-year old said. "It's always been an obligation with me."
But during his two years at Dartmouth, Donahue has been very political. He has placed himself in the center of debate on a number of controversial campus issues, ranging from divestment from Hydro-Quebec to the Reserve Officers Training Corps to questioning the existence of the Greek system at Dartmouth.
"Really everybody has the responsibility to speak up when they see something they disagree with," Donahue said.
"The individual conscience has to be the highest authority. It often gets to the point where you don't have a choice to be silent anymore. You have to take responsibility for our community," he said.
Although he did not set out to be a leader at Dartmouth and still doesn't consider himself one, Donahue has placed himself squarely in the middle of the campus debate about social life.
"The mainstream social setting is based on a situation of people having a lack of respect for each other," Donahue said. "There is too much hurting without thinking. People don't take care of each other."
"When people are together in groups, they do things I can't imagine they would do otherwise," Donahue explained.
Donahue said he thinks Dartmouth's social life is diseased, but he does not see himself as holding the cure.
"I'm offering another perspective," Donahue said. "I'm trying to address the problems. I want to speak to a deeper level with people. But in the end, people have to make their own decisions."
"My role is to ask the difficult questions," Donahue said simply.
Donahue's main problem with the campus social arena is the Greek system. He said he thinks it is the wrong way to live and should be abolished.
"I see a lot of situations where groups of people dominate each other, whereas when they are one-on-one, they are not power-hungry," he said. "The Greek system makes people step outside themselves and give up love."
Donahue is currently vice-president of Panarchy, the College's first undergraduate society. Panarchy was a member of the College's Coed, Fraternity and Sorority system before leaving the CFS system in the spring of 1993.
As an undergraduate society, Panarchy does not have rush, which Donahue said is one of his main problems with the Greek system.
Donahue said if he were given a magic wand, he would make a number of sweeping changes to the Dartmouth social scene.
"First, the Greek system would go," Donahue said. "People use it to fit in and subject themselves to an unfair initiation process."
"Second, I would change campus attitudes toward alcohol," he continued. "I'm not anti-drinking by any stretch of the imagination. But there is a real difference between using a drug to enhance the experience and using the drug to replace an experience. I hear people talk about their weekends and they talk about how much they drank, not what they experienced."
Last fall, during Greek rush period, Donahue and other anti-Greek students staged a guerrilla theater presentation in Thayer Dining Hall. The protesters stood on chairs and denounced the Greek system through a skit during the dinner hour.
But Donahue said he does not consider this act, or any of his other protests, to be sensationalistic.
"The goal of guerrilla theater is to take people by surprise," Donahue said. "We tried to shock them into thinking."
Last winter, Donahue was a member of the controversial Dartmouth Alliance for Social Change (DASC) which sent a letter to administrators urging them to ban the Greek system.
Before the letter was made public, someone sent a copy of the letter to the entire campus on BlitzMail under a phony name with the title, "Fuck the Frats!"
"Someone else added that title to the letter," Donahue said Tuesday. "It didn't reflect what we were trying to say. It was an angry but reasoned argument against fraternities."
Donahue said the DASC never heard back from the administration.
"I'm not surprised the administration didn't respond publicly," Donahue said. "I don't think a public response was necessarily what we were looking for. We were trying to state our position to them clearly and forcefully, and to let them know that our movement was holding them responsible for the present state of affairs."
"We wanted real change," Donahue said. "We weren't going to be satisfied with 'someday' solutions. And I think they got that message."
On a campus with more than 50 percent of the students in a co-ed house, fraternity or sorority, it is not hard to find a student who disagrees with Donahue's strong anti-Greek feeling.
"Sean is very much entitled to his feelings," CFS Summer President Matt McGill '96 said. "They add to the debate which in the end can only strengthen the campus and the CFS system. But it is important to recognize that he represents a very small minority here."
Even acknowledging that he is in the minority on campus, Donahue said he will continue to fight for what he thinks is morally correct.
"When I see something that bothers me, I try to find out why," Donahue said. "It gets to the point eventually where the issue won't go away. Then I try to figure out how to take effective action to improve the situation."
Andrew Pollak '94 is the president of Panarchy and works with Donahue to run house meetings.
"I think Sean's speaking out is fabulous," Pollak said. "I really admire him. It's something I have never done."
Pollak said he thinks Donahue's efforts have had a positive effect on the campus.
"It's had an effect on me, so why not other people?" Pollak said. "Sean is standing up and letting himself be counted."
Donahue said he considers Panarchy a large part of his life.
"It's one of the few places on campus where people live their lives by respect for each other. It's a very supportive community."
This past spring, Donahue became very active in the ROTC debate on the Dartmouth campus. The Board of Trustees had voted to keep ROTC on campus, even though the military's gays in the military policy was in conflict with the College's Equal Opportunity Statement.
"I protested ROTC because of my pacifist beliefs," Donahue said. "Dartmouth should not be promoting an institution dedicated to taking other human lives."
"The gays in the military was an extension of the military policy. It was important for me to speak out on," he continued.
At the same time, Donahue said he had a hard time identifying with the protesters.
"It was strange being a white, heterosexual male from a relatively comfortable background, speaking for these people who have gone through so much more than I have," he said. "I lent my voice as a voice of support."
This summer, Donahue said he is trying to take a term off from politics.
"I want to sit back and work on my poetry," he said.
Donahue said he writes frequently.
"I write free verse poetry dealing a lot with issue of trying to achieve unity with the world and inner peace. It's very nature oriented poetry," Donahue said. "I consider poetry more of my nature than my hobby."
But even though Donahue is heavily involved in political activism at Dartmouth, he does not see himself continuing these activities forever.
"Ten years from now, I see myself living on a communal farm," he said. "I want to do the least harm and the most good for the people around me. I'll be living a quiet existence and be happy with it."
