Members of Delta Delta Delta sorority were frightened and angered by an anonymous letter sent to Safety and Security last week, claiming the sorority had planned a suspicious event prior to their formal on Saturday, May 3.
Tri-Delta President Jessica Ellsworth '98 said the letter falsely stated that a sorority-sponsored event would occur at the Tri-Delta house at 7 p.m. that evening.
She said all members and their dates had planned to be at Killington Ski Resort at that time. "The person who wrote this letter was obviously misinformed because our busses were going to leave the house at 6:30 p.m." to go to the formal, Ellsworth said.
Paul Costello '99, who attended the formal, said his date told him the day of the formal that a cocktail party planned for the Tri-Delta house had to be moved to an off-campus location.
"My date said for reasons that she would discuss later, it was being moved," Costello said. "She had told me before that there would probably be 'tails before the formal at the house," Costello said, though he did not specify at what time the cocktails were supposed to begin.
Tri-Delta national sorority regulations prohibit alcohol in the sorority house, Tri-Delta advisor Carla Manley said. "There should be no alcohol on the premises nor should anyone be served alcohol on the premises," Manley said.
The letter -- which was sent to Safety and Security through Hinman mail -- said The Dartmouth was investigating the event in question, Ellsworth said.
The Dartmouth only began an investigation after receiving a letter to the editor authored by Ellsworth and Simone Swink '98, one of Tri-Delta's vice-presidents. The letter, published last Wednesday, asked the author of the anonymous letter to come forward.
Karen Yen '99, a member of Tri-Delta, said members "sort of took [the anonymous letter] personally."
"The way they wrote us was just 'Ha, ha. We've got you and now you are all going to get in trouble,'" Yen said. "It made me really angry the way in which they were out to get us."
Because the letter was anonymous, Safety and Security gave the letter to a dean, and Ellsworth was contacted Wednesday to meet with Assistant Dean of Residential Life Deb Reinders, Ellsworth said.
Ellsworth said that in the wake of the vandalism at Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority's house last summer, many of the sisters feared damage to the house, since no one planned to be in the house between 6 p.m. and 2 a.m.
The KKG vandalism incident occurred in the early morning hours of July 13 when most of KKG's members were off campus at a "sister overnight." Members of KKG returned home at approximately 10 a.m. to find the house "absolutely trashed," KKG summer President Kate Armstrong '98 wrote in an electronic-mail message at the time.
Last Saturday night, Safety and Security checked on the Tri-Delta house frequently, and officers kept watch from the parking lot at Aquinas House, Ellsworth said.
Lopa Patel '98, also a vice president of Tri-Delta, said some sisters were afraid whoever wrote the letter might use violence against members of the house.
"Some of the women were afraid to walk home at night," Patel said. "If someone really hates our house, some women were afraid of what they might do."
Patel said the letter was "typed on the back of some random person's Collis [Center] printout," making it impossible for the sisters to determine the author. "It was so anonymous and so completely untraceable that it is pretty much wide open," Patel said.
Swink said the sisters were "mystified" and had no idea why anyone would be angry with the sorority. She said the sisters do not know whether the threat was aimed solely at Tri-Delta or at the fraternity and sorority system as a whole.
"We stay pretty much out of the aspects of the Greek system that seem to offend people," Swink said.
Ellsworth said the sisters were upset because the letter writer chose to send it anonymously. She said the author's actions violate the rules of living in a community like Dartmouth.
"The only way to resolve conflict is through communication," Ellsworth said. "This is unacceptable behavior from one member of the community to another."
