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The Dartmouth
July 19, 2025 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

The Day the Greek System Died

Picture this: Four or five guys are living on the same floor in a dorm their freshman year. Some play the same sports, some are interested in the same activities: pretty much, they all get along really well and become close friends. After their freshman year, they decide to all live together in an off-campus house. They take up a couple of apartments in an off-campus house, and spend much of their time there. All of them are still involved in their sports, activities, and classes, but, as we all do, they spend much of their time with the people with whom they have the most in common. Also, other kids from their teams and organizations start hanging out there, including freshman, and they throw some parties and do activities together. Most of those who live there enjoys doing so and choose to live there again the next year. Likewise, some of the other students who have been close with them throughout the year decide they would like to live there as well, and these students rent out the rest of the apartments in the house.

As time goes on and years pass, younger classes continue the trend of hanging out there as they enjoy the company of those who live there. As the older students graduate, younger classes move into the house as they like its atmosphere, attitude, and its general environment. Time continues and the residents continue to change, but the house is an element they all share together: it has been a place where they have built a brotherhood together, a "fraternity." In this environment, the persons who choose to live there feel completely comfortable there, and would feel that if this house was not part of their college experience, then they had missed something that was vital to their Dartmouth experience.

Obviously, this scenario of which I wrote about replicates the natural creation of a fraternity or a sorority, a place where people with common interests come together to become better friends, more in touch with their fellow brothers or sisters. Being a freshman, I have not been a part of the Greek system at all, but I truly believe that it is an important element to college life, a place where people can spend time together and create bonds that out last our years here. I am not suggesting that this is the only way to accomplish this, but for many students, the Greek system is the preferred means by which to attain this.

By no means should this be any student's only outlet, but to remove this element would take away one of the strongest pieces of Dartmouth, its tradition and its social life. I have friends who have no interests in fraternities at all, but that does not mean that the fraternities have an ill effect on their four years here. President Wright is correct in hoping to gain more activities that integrate the entire Dartmouth community, but this does not mean that the fraternity system needs to be removed to reach this end. I applaud the President's effort to increase social options; however, to eradicate the social element of fraternities and sororities is very off-base. To gain the social environment that Wright desires is poorly achieved by eliminating the scenario we do have; instead, we should integrate additional social options in the current scene. Dartmouth as a college should be evolving, taking the elements of its past and adding to them, not destroying its history for the s

ake of an agenda.

In conclusion, I truly believe that Dartmouth will suffer with the destruction of its Greek system: a less enjoyable time for a majority of the students of the present coupled with the decrease of interest in this school by prospectives of the future. Dartmouth is something special because of its history, tradition, and the students who make this college great. To destroy our fragile social scene would cause more harm than benefit, and would depreciate the college experience of many students here. The creation of an evolved social scene is most definitely desired, but the eradication of the old for the sake of an undefined new is foolish. The fraternities and sororities must act together to save what they hold so dear, to preserve for themselves and the future of Dartmouth a key element of their college experience.

I am just a freshman, I have three more years here. Hopefully, the administration will listen to the will of the students on something much more important than door locks: the preservation of our current social life. I would hate to be forever linked as being a student here the "day the Greek system died." Together, as a united student body, we must make our opinion heard loud and clear: Our Greek system, for so many an integral part of the college experience, must be preserved.