I used to cry to my boyfriend that I didn't know any girls on campus. The only females I knew were my roommates, and although they were great people, they were very different than me and went their own ways. After weeks of only males approaching me (let's just face it, girls weren't going to ask me out to dinner or for a cup of coffee). I officially made a conscious effort to befriend other females. I made one good friend, but once her sport was in-season I lost her time and camaraderie to her new teammates. I'm not a shy person, in fact, I'm downright outgoing. The problem was, there was just no real means for me to meet women. I was excluded from all sports teams because my athletic skills weren't at the collegiate level and I was excluded from glee clubs because I can't sing. I'm not a minority so I never belonged on a special blitzed list nor had I an affinity house to visit.
It wasn't until my sophomore year at Dartmouth, when I fall rushed with over 200 of my fellow female classmates, that Dartmouth came together as a comprehensible community to me. I first met my "rho-chi" group, then the members of every sorority, and finally the group of girls I would soon call my own sisters. It was only then that I would walk from point A to point B and have to stop to say, "Hi." to ten people. It was only then that I could walk into any dining facility and find a friendly face to have lunch with. It didn't matter my race, my ethnicity, my religion, my financial status, my singing, dancing or athletic ability, or my sexual orientation, the sorority system was (and IS) an all-inclusive system which took great pains to guarantee that every female who desired so, got into a house.
I applaud your efforts to improve social and living conditions at Dartmouth, but like many others, I feel this improvement should not come at the cost of the Greek system. From my experience in a sorority, I can't imagine why you would ever want to take it away from us. Do you even know what a sorority really is and what it means to so many of us who have found a family in these houses? Do you know that we gather once a week and play silly games like Family Feud to get to know each other better? Do you know that once a week "Smart Cookies" (Lou's chocolate chip) are awarded to those sisters who did well in school that week? Do you know that a "Friendship Book" is passed down from sister to sister each week and tears are shed as the sisters read their most memorable moments? Do you know that every Wednesday a rose is given to a nominated "Sister of the Week"? Do you know that when the Tucker Foundation asks us to help them with their Big/Brother Big/Sister luncheon at least
fifteen girls jump at the idea of baking cookies and brownies for them? Do you know that those of us who have become officers have found a leader within ourselves that we never even knew existed before? Do you know that when our closest friends have different D-Plans and we feel maladjusted and lonely, the only thing that remains stable for us is our houses? Do you know that there's a kitchen in our house where we can spill our life stories and our fellow sisters will sit there and listen? Do you know that we play IM sports with other organizations on campus ... regardless of our abilities? Do you know that I can Blitz any sister in my house and ask if a certain Prof. is any good or if I can borrow a pair of shoes for a semiformal?
Do you know any of this? Or do you simply see the word "sorority" and associate it with notoriously exclusive societies often found in other schools? If that's all you see, then you are blind to a large part of our Dartmouth community, because our sorority system is unlike any other, in fact, it is a rare gem. If we did not use the word "sorority" would that change things for you ... or us? If we called them "Friendship Houses" or "Loving Support Houses" would you be so willing to take them away from us?
I've tried to "re-imagine" new viable social options for the future ... and no matter what and how many alternatives I come up with, nothing can offer the camaraderie and sense of belonging that many of us have found in our houses. Now it's true that not every female on this campus is in a sorority, but every female at least has (or had) the choice to be so. My very best friend is unaffiliated, but she has undeniably benefited from my Greek affiliation. I cannot imagine my Dartmouth experience without this wonderful and all-inclusive system. Without my house and sisters, I'd still feel like a fish lost in a sea of thousands of students with no place to really call home.
