Despite the national media attention devoted to the College's announced changes to the Greek system, the approximately 100 prospective students who toured Dartmouth this weekend have expressed little interest in the issue, according to College tour guides.
The tour guides interviewed by The Dartmouth yesterday said the Admissions Office did not tell them specific information to relay to the tours regarding the issue. They said they were instructed to give basic information on the controversy and to present it in as objective a manner as possible.
Tour guide Stacey Morris '99 said no member of her tour specifically asked her about the controversy, although many seemed to have heard about the recent events at the College.
Morris said she discussed the news about the Greek system briefly when her tour of about 30 people passed by Webster Ave.
"I basically just wanted to give them the very, very basic premise of what it was about ... and try to be as neutral as possible," Morris said. "It's a very personal issue, and a very personalized debate, and I didn't feel that my own opinions really had any place in that kind of forum as a representative of the Admissions Office."
Morris told the tour "a little about the controversy" -- the announcement by College President James Wright and the Board of Trustees to end the single-sex Greek system "as we know it" and the five-point plan to improve the overall residential and social life at the College. She explained that the media focus has been on the changes to the Greek system and the call for a "substantially coeducational" social atmosphere at the College.
Morris also told the tour that many of the plans for the College's social atmosphere are vague, and the campus will "hopefully be involved in the coming months" to determine what the plans mean.
One parent inquired about the use of alcohol at the College -- a question that is asked on almost every tour, Morris said.
"I think I probably gave them the impression that I wasn't going to be talking to much about it," Morris said, and the tour members "didn't really push it."
Lori McMullen '00, who also led an admissions tour of about 30 people yesterday, said one person requested that she explain the general facts of the controversy.
McMullen said she told the group about the Trustees' five-point plan -- a "very vague and unclear initiative, but part of it would be getting rid of the Greek system as we know it" -- and that a lot of students were upset about it.
"I definitely have an opinion, but I tried to be unbiased," McMullen said.
She also told the tour that the College plans to spend a lot of money to change the social atmosphere at Dartmouth, which, "no matter what happens, will somehow benefit the student body."
Erin Mackanin '00 was leading a tour of three families on Saturday during the pro-Greek rally at Psi Upsilon fraternity.
"We saw it, and I mentioned that there was a rally going on concerning the Greek system at Dartmouth, and no one asked any questions about it at that time," Mackanin said.
But Mackanin said she immediately begin talking about the dining facilities at the College, since the tour was passing Thayer Dining Hall, "so I really didn't give them much of a chance to ask questions."
Mackanin said as her tour passed Webster Ave., she explained that Wright is implementing a new policy to end single-sex Greek life and that he had mentioned there would be "no discussion on the matter."
She then told the tour she didn't know much else, but she would discuss the Greek system as it exists today, and the tour should "keep in mind that it will possibly change within the next few years."
"It's not that important to me, so I didn't choose to really go into it," Mackanin said.
Assistant Director of Admission Elise Ahyi, who held an information session yesterday, said she was not surprised to have been asked only one question about the Greek system. She said most of the students who attended the information session were juniors in high school and were more interested in the application process than anything else.
