To the Editor:
This letter is in response to the letter of Dana Brenner '95 which appeared in The D last Friday. Contrary to what Mr./Ms. Brenner suggests, the frat flap is hardly analogous to the decision to make Dartmouth coed. I was a freshman when that decision was made, and rather than the decision in favor of coeducation being sprung unexpectedly on the student body against the students' wishes, that decision was reached after years of study and after several polls were done of the student body. Mr./Ms. Brenner is absolutely incorrect in stating that "I hardly think that if male students of the 1960s were consulted about going coed, they would have favored the idea." The facts are that the male students of Dartmouth: (1) Were consulted in advance on more than one occasion, including in the fall of my freshman year in 1971, and (2) Those male students overwhelming supported coeducation. I was not a member of a fraternity at Dartmouth and I do not consider myself either an advocate or an opponent of the Greek system. On several occasions in recent years, certain behavior at a few frats has brought bad publicity to Dartmouth. However, I do not think that one should necessarily destroy this imperfect system because he or she dislikes living in this imperfect world.
In the last few years, I have been amazed at how happy the vast majority of the students at Dartmouth seem to be with the College and how much love they have for the institution. It has made me prouder than ever to be a graduate. The love and enthusiasm with which present Dartmouth students speak of Dartmouth is the best marketing tool the College could ever have, and vastly overpowers the occasional bad publicity that a few frat houses have brought to the College.
Given the overall happiness of present Dartmouth students with the College, I believe that the Trustees' decision to destroy a social system which appears to have the overwhelming support of the vast majority of the student body is both rash and ill-advised, especially when those Trustees do not appear to have anything other than "tens of millions of dollars" to put in place of that system.
