To the Editor:
When I arrived on campus two weeks ago I learned the salty dog, the alma mater and many other Dartmouth traditions. I learned nothing, however, about the initiative for residential and social life.
While most freshman are aware that something dramatic is about to happen to life at Dartmouth, and more specifically to the Greek system here, none of us know how this will effect our next four years on campus. After attending a forum on residential and social life a few nights ago, I see that the freshman should by no means feel alone -- it seems that no student has any real notion of what has been decided for them.
Perhaps I have not been exposed to enough Dartmouth students and experiences to know that many aspects of my new home are in need of an overhaul. I have heard upperclassman give the freshman eloquent speeches and priceless advice on how we should spend our time here. I have benefited from the hours of time the upperclassmen have spent to steep us in Dartmouth tradition through the DOC trips and other events. In all my classes I have witnessed the upperclassman actively engaged in the learning experiences which should be central to this institution. And, yes, on my walk to Saturday's football game I did see a group of fraternity brothers, some of whom had given speeches to the freshman and led DOC trips, actively engaged in a game of pong on a fraternity lawn. But what makes these students so rash in their decision making that they must have their decisions dramatically "structured" for them?
At the forum on Residential and Social life Susan Dentzer explained that the inability of hungover fraternity members to attend Thursday morning classes was reason enough to have every Dartmouth student's choices "structured." I do not believe that all fraternity brothers are drunken goons who don't go to class on Thursday mornings just as I don't believe that all of those not involved in the Greek system at Dartmouth do not partake in binge drinking. To make generalizations such as these is to harbor the same elitism and prejudice that eliminating the Greek system is supposed to prevent. Perhaps social life at Dartmouth is in need of serious reforms; I have not been here long enough to know fully. I do know, however, that to stereotype and marginalize any member of the Dartmouth community whether they be Greek or non-Greek, is to be inconsistent with the mission of this school and the Trustee's Five Principles.
At one point in last week's forum a faculty member suggested that Dartmouth look to schools like Yale for a social model. I did not enroll at Yale. I did not apply to Yale because I knew I wanted to be a part of a distinctly Dartmouth experience. Encouragingly, Trustee Peter Fahey responded to the faculty member that Dartmouth is a different place than Yale, with different students and traditions. I do not believe that the Trustees are out to spoil anyone's fun or to make Dartmouth what it is not. Certainly they have an understanding of Dartmouth which vastly exceeds my own. Yet, the freshman class comes to Dartmouth with new and diverse perspectives, free from the histories which may actually impede the trustees and students from seeing eye to eye. The '03s, of any class here at Dartmouth, will be effected most dramatically by this initiative. It is imperative that we have a voice in any conversation which considers the future of Dartmouth.
Patrick Granfield '03
