It was maybe the biggest congregation of bright plastic backpacks, red hats, lunch boxes, laminated ID tags and a big yellow pencil the College has seen this year.
The Inter-Fraternity Council's Tom Adair '99, Acting Assistant Dean of Residential Life Chris Chambers and Susan Marine, coordinator of the Sexual Abuse Program, organized an all male crowd of about 80 in 105 Dartmouth Hall last night to raise awareness about such issues as self-respect, community responsibility and respecting the fraternity system.
The organizers said they hoped to make pledges think about the implications of their actions and who holds final responsibility before they are faced with similar real-life situations.
Legally, all members of the house are insured by their fraternity for related lawsuits except for the president who is not covered, Ted Shen '99 told his small discussion group.
Traditionally, the annual meeting involves speeches, but this year Adair formed smaller discussion groups lead by members of the fraternity system, including seniors Frode Eilertsen, David Hawkins, John Muckle and Shen to create a more interactive environment.
Group leaders asked pledges their reasons for joining a fraternity and who they believed held final responsibility for their actions. They also questioned pledges' expectations.
Participants expressed varying opinions on how brothers should support one of their own when he commits an unwise act and how much responsibility each brother should carry when representing not only his individual house but the entire Greek system.
One pledge said, "a lot of administrators just don't want us [to exist] at all," and claimed that authorities often use a few bad examples to generalize and blame the entire fraternity system.
Another pledge defended the houses, saying "people don't understand that once in a while you're going to do something stupid ... I'm 20 years old ... I'm probably going to do something stupid."
The groups also discussed inter-house conflicts, rape and stereotypes of the different organizations.
Pledges received blitzes from their fraternities informing them about the meeting but most were not told its topic. Many expressed dissatisfaction with the timing of the event, mentioning they had one or even two mid-terms the next day.
The organizers did not invite sororities and co-ed houses to attend. Adair said there was an event held in October dealing with gender relations which brought together both sororities and fraternities.
