The former presidents of five of the College's six largest sororities yesterday issued a public statement calling for the College to establish gender equity in the social system by creating parity among the number of single-sex fraternities, sororities and coeducational houses.
The two-page statement, titled "Statement on Sex Equity in the Coed Fraternity Sorority System at Dartmouth," went to many top administrators, including Acting College President James Wright and Dean of the College Lee Pelton.
In the statement, the sorority leaders call for the College to find "ways to encourage the formation of more women's and coeducational organizations so that the size of organizations within the sorority system will decrease."
There are six sororities, three coed fraternities, two coed undergraduate societies and one historically black sorority, compared with 15 fraternities and two historically black fraternities. Each mainstream sorority averages about more than 100 members while each mainstream fraternity averages about 60 members.
Emily Jones '95, the former president of Delta Delta Delta sorority, said the group wants the College to support the formation of a seventh sorority, and said the statement "is going to be a seed that starts a conversation that goes way beyond us."
Jones said in an ideal world, there would be an equal number of fraternities, sororities and coed houses.
"The qualifying statement is in the long run, assuming equal student interest, assuming physical plants are available," she said. "I think in the short run we think there should be additional sororities."
Former Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority President Julia Bowen '95, former Delta Gamma sorority President Corey Fleming '95, former Epsilon Kappa Theta President Cheryl Flick '95 and former Sigma Delta sorority President Adriana McGrath '95 also signed the statement.
The women said no member of Kappa Delta Epsilon sorority signed the statement because no member of the Class of 1995 was ever house president of KDE. But they said current KDE President Jessica Adelman '96 supports their message.
The former presidents said the College has made great strides in recent years toward sex equity but said the social atmosphere is still inequitable.
"While everything from classrooms to sports teams gives equal opportunities to the women on this campus, the same cannot be said of the social system," the letter states. "Until equal space and funds are allotted in this arena as well, women on this campus will remain a step behind."
"It is our hope that both the administration and the Trustees of Dartmouth College will make sex equity in the Greek system a priority, invest their time, money and energy toward reaching the goal," it states.
Pelton, who met with the five women yesterday, said, "I welcome their suggestions and I thought it was pretty thoughtful but they understand the College is not in a position right now to commit resources that it doesn't currently have."
The former presidents will lead a community discussion about their statement tonight in 105 Dartmouth Hall.
Adding a sorority
The former presidents said there are two major impediments to the addition of another sorority: the lack of an available physical plant on campus and the current size of DG.
Bowen said when Amarna undergraduate society formed last year as an undergraduate society, the College quickly found it a physical plant.
"Our idea is that when Amarna formed, [the administration] found a house really quickly for Amarna," Bowen said. "If this is a priority for them and we show them that it needs to be a priority, they should be able to find a house for us."
Panhellenic Council President Dani Brune '96 said she supports the formation of a seventh sorority. The Panhellenic Council is the governing body of the College's six mainstream sororities.
"I think if they acknowledge this asa need -- and as a legitimate need that will benefit the student body -- they can work a little harder to find a physical plant," Brune said.
Brune said she thinks now might be the right time to add another sorority because "I think a lot of women would like to see more sororities on campus ... I think the push is there."
DG is holding "alternative rush" to try to boost its membership by having up to 30 freshmen commit to join the house this spring. DG currently has about 90 members, which makes the house significantly smaller than the other sororities.
Fleming said DG's size is "definitely a concern." She said she hopes DG gets more women "so that all the houses are strong, so we go into this with a group of six strong houses where we can add a seventh strong house."
But Brune said it is "ridiculous" to expect all of the houses to have 120 members. "It really is creating a double standard," she said.
Fleming said ideally, the College would commit to creating a new sorority sometime next year.
"I'm not going to unequivocally say we want them to do this next year, because it will depend on physical plants, on the way rush goes in the fall -- if for some reason only 50 women rush in the fall, you wouldn't want to do this at all," she said.
In recent years, several administrators, including Pelton and College President James Freedman, have said they support the creation of coed organizations like undergraduate societies. But some former presidents said they think administrators will support adding a sorority when they realize how much student demand there is for it.
"One reason why there hasn't been a lot of talk within the administration about more sororities is because until now, the sororities haven't really stepped up and Panhell hasn't been able to say this is what we need," she said.
The letter states that fixing the imbalance between the number of fraternities and the number of sororities would have numerous positive effects. In the letter, the presidents argue that gender equity would give women more opportunity to hold leadership positions, would improve relations between men and women on campus and would lead to better programming in the Greek system.
Coed Fraternity Sorority Council President Matt Raben '96 said he agrees that the College should add another sorority.
"I think the evidence is pretty straight-forward," Raben said. "It's hard to deny that when you have 120 members in a couple of these sororities that there isn't the interest in the system -- they are just too big."
Raben said he was not sure what public reaction would be to a proposal to have some of the smaller fraternities combine or cease to exist in order to free up physical plants for sororities.
