Talk of the need to change and improve Dartmouth social and residential life dominated a freshmen information session on the Social and Residential Life Initiative last night in Cook Auditorium.
Organized by the 2003 Class Council and attended by approximately 300 members of the Class of 2003, the panel featured both affiliated and nonaffiliated students who stressed that change for the Greek system -- and the College as a whole -- will be coming as a result of last Winter term's announcement of the Five Principles by the Board of Trustees.
Coed Fraternity and Sorority Council President Jaimie Paul '00 said that the Initiative has forced students, faculty, alumni and administrators to ask "what being affiliated means."
She said she has been defending the Greek system while trying to figure out "where between Animal House and philosophical gatherings" the system's identity lies.
Paul, a member of Sigma Delta sorority, called the Initiative an "exciting" opportunity to get involved in shaping the College's future, but said there have clearly been "faults in the process."
She criticized the fact that some students' opinions have not been heard, proposals been hard to write, and that the campus members have not been completely honest with each other in discussion.
Paul Holzer '00, a member of Alpha Delta fraternity, said "things need to change on this campus in a big way," and that the need for change applies to social life and campus attitudes.
He promised that his house "is going to clean itself up big" as a result of the Initiative and urged freshmen to start thinking about what the Greek system means to them.
He urged them to not "rush to the Greek system" as the only social option in Hanover.
"At Dartmouth, people have false assumptions about things and then they act toward those assumptions," he said.
Holzer criticized the Greek system for not being open to changes, especially in regards to the Student Assembly discussion of the Five Working Groups proposals, which Holzer was instrumental in formulating.
However, Holzer did mention some positive aspects of the system, saying he feels his fraternity is a place where he can go that people will look out for him.
Unaffiliated senior Noah Phillips '00 said he was embarrassed by the protests that arose to save the Greek system after the announcement of the Initiative, saying that in previous decades Dartmouth students had rallied because of major national social issues, such as the Vietnam War.
Phillips said that last Winter, in front of national media, the Dartmouth community was essentially rallying to protect their right to free beer.
Phillips said he cheered when the Initiative was announced and thinks that the Greek system should go.
He dislikes the Greek system "not because of its effect on the campus, but the effect it has on Dartmouth admissions."
He encouraged freshmen to "think about Dartmouth first as an intellectual institution. How we act affects our public image."
Teresa Knoedler '00 said she is not proud of the fact that while she is unaffiliated, she goes to Greek system parties.
She said she views her attendance at them as indicative of the fact there are not enough other social options.
"Just because I've done it doesn't mean I'll let my daughter do it," she said, referring to the idea of settling for simply a Greek system on campus.
Knoedler said she thinks the Greek system "constructs, repeats and institutionalizes absolutely abhorrent gender roles," and that the fraternities and sororities share the blame.
Knoedler used an expletive more than once to describe the system as a whole.
The panel also featured members of the Committee for the Student Life Initiative Kyle Roderick '99 and Meg Smoot '01 explaining its purpose and progress so far.
Roderick said the committee has met for 12 hours at a time several days in a row, and probably 150 hours in total, so far. He stressed that the process is not concluded and that they want to hear student opinion and input, especially at tonight's town hall with the student representatives to the steering committee.
"We need to hear why you feel the way you do," he said.
Smoot stressed that freshmen offer a new perspective on Dartmouth that the committee will value highly and wants to hear.
Former Student Assembly President Josh Green '00 discussed the Assembly's response to the Initiative in the form of Spring term's working groups that submitted a proposal to the task force set up by former Acting Dean of the College Dan Nelson.
While he said everyone has a different story about what happened last year, he personally thought the ideas in the Initiative sounded good when they were first announced.
Green said he held off giving a public announcement of his own views on the Greek system until a Spring term column where he said the system should be ended.
Green criticized the task force set up by Nelson -- of which Green was a member -- and said he thinks the Greek system should be eliminated.
President of The Dartmouth Jake Elberg '00 opened the presentation by first explaining what the Initiative is.
Elberg did not offer his personal opinions on the Initiative, focusing instead on the events following the announcement, including the protests during the Winter Carnival. He mentioned a poll taken by The Dartmouth the week of the announcement that said 82 percent of College students favored the continuation of the single-sex Greek system.
Bill Shields '03, one of the panel's organizers, thought the panel had a "good range of speakers."
He said he thought that before the panel, most freshmen were only getting the heavily pro-Greek side from upperclassmen they meet on campus. Shields thought "people were happy to hear" the differing viewpoints on the issue of the Initiative and specifically the Greek system.
He recognized the complication of the issues by saying that in a panel, "there's no way to encompass all viewpoints."
