I write as a distant outsider, from the dank realms of Northwestern Iniquity, that ever-rainy haven of liberalism, Seattle. I have not been privileged with the good fortune to attend your institution; neither have I been privileged to attend other facilities where the fraternity/sorority system bloomed in full flower.
Further, as an out gay man, I hold no special love for campus fraternal organizations given my limited experience of their less than ideally socialized members. However, I write to share my revulsion at the proposed actions of the Dartmouth Board of Trustees in their attempt to eliminate single-sex campus fraternal organizations at Dartmouth.
Frankly, my opposition to their actions is based on two rather simple principles. "Freedom of Association," enshrined in that unfashionable document, the Constitution of the United States does not just exist for Trustees or groups that we like or whose principles we might wish to see enshrined.
Unfortunate as it is, history has shown us repeatedly that when we begin deciding what group is to enjoy a particular right, soon enough no group at all enjoys that right. So it is with Dartmouth's fraternities ... once the College is granted the right to determine their membership, one is forced to wonder both what other groups membership the Board might wish to regulate ... and how that precedent might be applied at other institutions across the nation. Commonplace as Dartmouth may seem to those attending it, it is a leader among educational institutions and its actions are noted nationwide ... as are its successes and failures.
Fortunately, there is a flip side to this action, as there is to all ill-advised attempts at micro-managing the lives of others (usually for their "own good"). Looked at properly, if the fraternities and sororities are forced to purchase housing off-campus and advertise "rush" in public media, as associations of lawful adults they cease to be under the control of the institution at all. Once again they are free to refuse admission to those who would inspect private homes (i.e., fraternity houses) without either warrant or probable cause; once again they exist as associations of adult persons over whom the College has no "in loco parentis" authority.
While costly, and without alumni support, likely ruinous ... this episode could be wonderfully freeing for the various fraternities and sororities ... assuming their national headquarters will permit them to follow this path.
Bosworth, representing the Board, says "I think the vision is to work towards a system where the abuse and excessive use of alcohol is less likely to occur ..." fails to realize a simple truth. These children he would regulate are young adults, in control of their own lives and destinies -- and boxing them up in some hyper-regulated idealized social environment where "evil influences" are excluded only slows their learning to deal with said influences, and with the "real world" they exist in.
This brings us to the second principle forcing me to write, the resumption of the paternalistic philosophy by college administrations nationwide of "In Loco Parentis;" that policy that ebbed in the late '60s and early '70s claiming that legally adult students between 18-22 (or in attendance at an institution of higher learning) somehow surrendered their civil rights on the doorstep of the ivory towers of academia. That somehow, said students became incapable of making their own decisions about what groups to join, what beverages to imbibe and in what quantity, and what thoughts to think.
I beg to differ.
The real world, outside of Dartmouth, is not an excessively nice place. It contains drugs, sex, alcohol, and a wide variety of misbehavior surrounding them. If Dartmouth truly wishes to prepare its students to lead our nation and our society, the kindest gift they can give them is not paternalistic shelter from such dreaded things as same-sex affiliation (which, in reality, is simply none of the College's business) and the re-institution of velvet-covered Prohibition (with all its notable successes) ... and look to implementing further alcohol/drug abuse and treatment/intervention programs, towards educating all students (male & female) about conducting themselves safely in an occasionally brutal and unscrupulous world, and towards educating students to make intelligent choices.
If fraternities and sororities nationwide whither on the vine through attrition and simple lack of new members at rush, I shall be first among those cheering their demise. But until that happy day, I must vigorously defend their right to exist, and to exist in the manner that their members best see fit ... regardless of how much distaste I may hold them in.
After all ... I'd much rather be defending them, than having to defend something nearer my heart, such as the Gay Student Organizations right to exist.
