To the Editor:
The announcement of the coeducationalization of all Greek houses came as a shock and as a surprise to most of us. We received a couple days back a letter which most of us did not understand the full implications of. Within this letter came the signal that the experience of the Greek system would be forever changed.
As I read through the papers today, I experienced what many of you did this morning upon finding out the news. I was flabbergasted. The manner in which the administration has chosen to implement their plan came as a downright offense. Perhaps in an attempt to reduce alumni outrage at this move, they chose to conceal their true intentions. In none of the official statements on the web, or on the letters, did they mention the coeducationalization of the Greek system. And yet Wright has gone on the record that the system will no longer be "built on single sex houses".
More offensive than the manner in which the administration went about their plans is their very message. We are not capable of selecting our own social system. Despite the fact that almost half of the educated, adult Dartmouth population will decide to join a single sex house, the administration believes that we do not know what's best for us. If we knew better, we would be joining coed houses.
There is a reason why single sex houses outnumber coed houses by a large margin. This is the same reason why I joined a fraternity. Single sex houses offer experiences that CANNOT be found in the rest of the coeducational Dartmouth experience. This experience is by the inherent nature of the fact that they are a single sex house.
There is no need to hold facades at a fraternity or sorority. The usual pretenses that we all put up are gone. Friendships in a single sex house are based purely upon friendship alone. In a fraternity, you don't have to avoid old girlfriends or act up to future ones. You can be yourself, and value others for what they truly are. Yes, some of the things that fraternities and sororities do are juvenile and crude. But they are a welcome, and at some times necessary, break from the pomp that surrounds being at a college filled with the elite.
The reason I chose to come to Dartmouth was the wealth of experiences that it offered. There is no "right" way to spend your four years here. Just as some choose to major in Studio Art over Economics, some people have chosen to spend a portion of their social life in a single sex environment over a coed one. I, for one, have valued my time at my fraternity highly. While I have done a lot of different things at Dartmouth, some coed and some single sex, the time I will remember most is the time I spent with my brothers, hanging out, and enjoying life.