Five former sorority presidents who released a statement on Monday calling for sex equity within the College's social system led a discussion last night in 105 Dartmouth Hall to get feedback on their proposal for a seventh sorority.
About 45 students participated in the discussion, along with Panhellenic Council President Dani Brune '96, Dean of Residential Life Mary Turco and John Embelmen, co-chair of the Coed, Fraternity and Sorority system advisers group and adviser to Alpha Delta fraternity.
The five senior women kicked off the discussion by stating their goal of sex equity and explaining why they are bringing up the proposal now, less then three weeks before they graduate.
"We want our feelings and hopes documented so that next year they can say that this issue has already been brought up," said Julia Bowen '95, former president of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority. "The more you pound on administrators' doors the more they will see what students want."
Adriana McGrath '95, former president of Sigma Delta sorority, said their statement, which was given to many top administrators, focused on two issues: "To bring to parity the number of sororities, fraternities and coed houses at Dartmouth" and "to prioritize efforts which would achieve this goal."
Cheryl Flick '95, former president of Epsilon Kappa Theta sorority, said there are significantly more fraternities than sororities, even though there are not significantly more men in the Greek system.
"They have 42 percent more members and 150 percent more physical plants," she said.
Many students in the audience said a problem to creating a new sorority is the fact that there are no physical plants available on campus. Because many of the existing sororities are located in buildings that were once fraternities, some students were concerned that smaller fraternities might feel endangered by the proposal.
One audience member said Kappa Chi Kappa fraternity could be threatened by the proposal because it does not have many members.
"We are primarily concerned with sororities. We're not saying [fraternities] shouldn't exist and we should," said Emily Jones '95, former president of Delta Delta Delta sorority.
"We're not saying these are the details -- we're leaving that up to the College to work out," Jones said.
Although Turco said it is a "very painful process" when organizations can not keep membership up, she said it is "inevitable that some will fail."
One audience member suggested that the new sorority could occupy a floor in a residence hall or an old affinity house.
"They did find a place for Amarna and we don't necessarily need a fraternity house," Jones said. Amarna, the College's second undergraduate society, received a house about three months after it was recognized as a College organization.
But Turco said "the Amarna situation was a very unique period in time." She said the house was available to the College because other property in town was changing hands. She said there currently is no property available.
Another audience member asked if it is practical to make a seventh sorority a priority when the College is having trouble providing students with beds on campus because of recent housing crunches.
"It is hard for us to rank the priorities of the College, but in terms of the social scene this should be a main priority," Jones said.
"We are not saying they should do this next year," she said. "We want to work with the administration in accordance with student interest and the availability of physical plants."
Brune said it is unlikely a new sorority would come into existence next year.
"It's a long process. It's not something you rush into," she said.She said Panhel will "feel out" the situation after rush next fall and possibly establish the new house before rush the following fall.
McGrath said the recommendation for a new sorority assumes student interest in the Greek system remains the same.
The former presidents requested a gradual evolution of the system to include more sororities with the proper timing "so existing social systems will not be jeopardized," McGrath said.
The five members of the panel also made it clear that, although their primary focus is sororities, their recommendation for sex equity applies to all organizations which make up the social system.
"Philosophically we accept the idea of coeds but we know more about sororities because we have all been sorority presidents," Bowen said.
The discussion ended with students citing the positive aspects that another sorority would bring to campus social life such as increased awareness about alcoholism and sexual assault. Former Delta Gamma sorority President Corey Fleming '95 was also on the panel.
