Last week's announcement by the College's Board of Trustees that they would seek changes to the Greek system prompted swift responses at the headquarters of the national fraternities and sororities on campus, where leaders resolved to work together in an effort to maintain their local chapters at the College.
Representatives of the 10 national fraternities and sororities conducted a conference telephone call last Thursday to discuss actions they would take. They will hold another conference call next Tuesday to update their plans.
"We would like to work in conjunction with the university," said Jonathan Brant, executive vice president of the National Interfraternity Conference, a federation of 67 men's national and international fraternities.
Brant said the NIC, National Panhellenic Conference and National Pan-Hellenic Council, which serves historically African-American fraternities and sororities, are attempting to arrange a joint meeting with College President James Wright to discuss exactly what the College hopes to change, and to present their own stances on the issue.
He said working in a cooperative rather than adversarial manner with the College "best serves the needs of the students."
Brant said he did not know if Wright has been contacted yet, but no meeting has been officially scheduled thus far.
"I think all of us would agree that we really are like-minded with the leadership of the institution on the five points that they have passed, including alcohol, where they would like to eliminate high-risk drinking on the campus scene," Brant said.
But Brant said the Greek executives disagree with the College on how to reach the five goals, and requiring the 10 groups to become coed "will really only ultimately drive away the resources and support that the national groups can provide."
Reaching the College's goals
Brant said the fraternities and sororities would be more than willing to work with the College and its surrounding community to reduce the instances of high-risk drinking, but going coed is "just not going to be something that our member fraternities change for one campus."
However, there is one Greek house on campus that could potentially become coed.
Mark Williams, executive director of Psi Upsilon fraternity, said the organization did allow its local chapters to become coed at both Amherst and Bowdoin colleges at the administrations' requests.
"Psi Upsilon is in a unique position because our constitution requires simply that you be a student in good standing where we have the chapter," Williams said.
But Williams said he would like to know exactly what the Trustees and Wright want to accomplish, because both Amherst and Bowdoin eliminated all types of fraternities a few years after they had become coed.
"From our standpoint, we can deal with [becoming coed] -- if that's what this is all about," he said.
While the national executives said they agree that high-risk drinking is a problem among students -- both inside and outside of Greek houses -- they said their organizations are only one part of the problem and have also played roles that they did not necessarily request.
Brad Beacham, chief operating officer for Sigma Nu fraternity, said around the 1960s, most fraternities did not intend to provide social outlets for entire campuses. However, college officials encouraged them to "open their doors wide" to all students.
The increasing awareness of alcohol abuse during the past 10 to 15 years has placed fraternities on "the firing line," and they "have realized this and have been addressing it" with more stringent risk-management policies and the elimination of open parties.
According to Beacham, certain schools, including Dartmouth, still wanted to maintain an "old-style" Greek system that was inclusive of the entire campus. The College provides insurance policies for nationals which hold open parties, Beacham said.
"We're well on the way to trying to bring the ... Greek system out of this period of time where we provided a haven for the illegal use of alcohol and the abuse of alcohol, and we would welcome Dartmouth coming to us and saying, 'Let's doing something about this problem,'" he added.
Legal options
While the national organizations are hoping to work with the College to reach its goals while maintaining single-sex organizations, some said they could potentially take legal action if agreement becomes impossible.
"We're going to try to work with the College to come to some kind of an agreement without taking legal action," said Jacques Vauclain, executive director of Sigma Phi Epsilon national fraternity. "If we do take legal action, it will be as a group ... probably in conjunction with the National Interfraternity Conference."
Last fall, Congress passed a resolution protecting the rights to free speech and free association at public and private schools that receive federal money. The resolution became an amendment to the 1965 Higher Education Act.
The organizations could sue the College, based upon that resolution, but they could be on shaky ground -- the resolution does not make any statements as to how it should be enforced, and it is considered by some critics to have "no teeth," Beacham said.
The executives also said they are hesitant to sue because legal action is very expensive.
"I think any discussion of litigation is very premature at this point," Beacham said. "We are certainly not focusing on that possibility right now."
Brant said the NIC has faced the elimination of Greek chapters at five other colleges -- Amherst, Bowdoin, Middlebury, Colby and Williams.
"It's amazing that we've lasted [at Dartmouth] through wars and other situations, so I hope we can last through this," Brant said.
