To the Editor:
Once again Sean Donahue '96 ["Greeks Program Should Be Ineligible for Bildner Funds," Feb. 16] reminds us how often the "C" in CFS is conveniently forgotten. While he carefully phrases his sentences in order to avoid implicating the coed houses in inherent sexism, he never specifically excludes the coed houses from the rest of his arguments. In fact, he makes no mention of them at all, except inclusively in the terms "Coed Fraternity and Sorority," and CFS. This is a classic example of how coed houses are thought of on this campus: Either ignored completely or lumped in with the fraternities and sororities.
Three Greek houses on this campus, Alpha Theta, Phi Tau and the Tabard, went coed in 1972, the same year as Dartmouth College. However, whenever someone wants to attack the fraternities and/or sororities, the coed houses are attacked as well under the label "Greek."
Donahue later goes on to accuse the CFS in general of encouraging homophobia and racism by citing the Committee on Diversity's reports in 1989 and 1993. While we cannot speak for the fraternities and sororities, let's examine the coeds.
The coed fraternities here at Dartmouth College have shown an outstanding commitment to diversity in their membership. A look at their histories will confirm this. Alpha Theta broke from its national (Theta Chi) in 1953 because of a racist and anti-semetic clause in the national constitution, making national headlines as one of the first fraternities ever to do so. The Tau Chapter of Phi Sigma Kappa broke from their national in 1956 to form Phi Tau because of a disagreement with the national over issues of religion and race. Tabard broke with the Sigma Chi national fraternity in 1960 for the same reason, adopting a non-exclusion policy.
In the 1980s, many of the gay men who depledged fraternities joined coeds. Even today, a significant number of gays, lesbians and bisexuals choose to join coed houses because they are seen as more accepting.
I ask Donahue, should the coeds be denied Bildner funds because they are already diverse?
Mr. Donahue's arguments refuted, let us return to the true subject at hand: The campus' tendency to ignore the coed houses.
As David Walthall '98 has pointed out in a previous letter ["Greeks Have Options," Jan. 28] everyone has the opportunity to rush single-sex as well as coed houses. However, very few of those who go through the rush process actually explore both options. Why is this? Is it because many people simply don't know that the coed houses exist, or is it because of a social stigma on joining these organizations? If the former, then perhaps the coed houses must work harder to publicize themselves and their events. If the latter, then this stigma and the stereotypes associated with it must be eliminated.
Coed houses are pigeonholed by the Greek system as well. An example: SAGE's (Sexual Awareness Through Greek Education) Freshman Outreach program, held at Beta Theta Pi fraternity last Tuesday, had three panelists, one fraternity man and two sorority women. The point of this panel was supposedly to discuss sexual awareness and gender issues in the Greek system. However, no coed members were invited to sit on the panel to give their perspective on these issues. Is this a fair representation of gender relations in the Greek system? Hardly.
Even though the three coed houses are outnumbered by fifteen fraternities and six oversized sororities, we comprise an important component of the Greek system. We are tired of being ignored, marginalized, stigmatized as non-mainstream, and attacked for our relationship with the single-sex Greek organizations.
