To the Editor:
I normally like to keep my views out of the public forum, but in light of David Cohen's inane Vox Clamantis on Friday, I feel obliged to comment. Cohen, undoubtedly one of the five percent of students who annually graduate from the College unhappy, is the typical squeaky wheel the Trustees were hoping to grease with last week's decision (see also: Sean Donohue '96's recent letter). I am not an advocate of "love Dartmouth or leave it," but the administration must realize the interests of the vast majority of campus are being subordinated to appease a tiny yet vocal minority. This unhappy band of brothers (and sisters), the strident "anti-fraternity" coalition, bases their happiness not on the construction of new College-sponsored social outlets, which both Greek and non-Greek students support, but on the destruction of the few campus institutions that A) Dartmouth does not (completely) control and B) 83 percent of the students think are worth keeping.
Cohen writes with unrestrained glee that the Dartmouth social scene, in its new, "improved" fashion, will be based on non-exclusive friendships and bonding. Excuse me, but aren't friendship and bonding somewhat "exclusive" by definition? You can't be friends with everyone, unless you are campaigning for Student Assembly and permanently skip classes. Mandating non-exclusive relationships at Dartmouth would essentially mean befriending everyone, and allotting each person the same amount of time for school-sponsored, sanitized "fun," lest you offend one of your 4,200 other "friends." Fraternities and sororities, far from being faceless institutions of evil, are groups made up of anywhere from 5 to 105 people who happen to enjoy each other's company, sometimes in a single sex environment, and sometimes outside it.
I wonder if Mr. Cohen thinks that the polls which The Dartmouth released are an aberration. Otherwise, how could he say that Dartmouth will (depending on the eradication of the hapless dozen or so ROTC students first, of course) "be the place we all want it to be" after Greek houses are gone? Keep speaking out, disaffected alumni and students of Dartmouth. Hiding your problems by scapegoating the Greek system only exposes the ridiculous nature of your argument.
