President of the College James Wright announced an end to the Greek system "as we know it" one year ago today in what he said was to be "the most significant change at Dartmouth College since coeducation."
The surprising announcement spurred protests and rallies on campus one year ago this week leading into 1999's Winter Carnival, and ultimately the Coed Fraternity Sorority Council decided to cancel all parties scheduled for the annual weekend.
"People were extremely worked up," former CFSC President Jaimie Paul '00 said, adding that the council made its decision in an attempt to productively channel the anger on campus immediately following the release of the Trustees' plans.
"Not a referendum"
The day the Trustees' Five Principles were released on Feb. 9, Wright made several comments in an interview with The Dartmouth that set off community-wide protest.
"This is not a referendum on these things," he said, "we are committed to doing this."
Wright also described the magnitude of planned future changes to the College by saying "[Coeducation] would be the only thing that's happened here that probably would exceed this in terms of affecting the quality of the student experience at Dartmouth."
Former Chairman of the Board of Trustees Stephen Bosworth '61 also made strong statements about the Trustee's position on change, telling The Dartmouth last February that the Trustees expected significant opposition from students and alumni, but that they believed that the strong alumni network would survive the dramatic changes to the College's social structure.
Bosworth predicted rapid and "radical" changes to social life at the College, saying that a final decision would be made during last fall or this winter and that last fall term's rush process would be affected by the initiative.
"It will become clear to everyone that the system is changing and that what you call 'traditional rush' is no longer relevant," he said. "I think students should realize that now."
Many students have commented over the past year that the initial anger surrounding the Initiative stemmed in part from the strong remarks by Wright and Bosworth, coupled with an inaccurate portrayal of the situation by the national media and a lack of communication between students and administrators.
No kegs, no jump
In response to Wright's Tuesday comments, the CFSC held an emergency meeting on Wednesday, culminating in the cancellation of all Greek parties scheduled for the big weekend.
Paul remembered the meeting as "less crazy than you would think it was," but added that there was a great deal of debate about canceling the parties.
During the debate Vice President of Psi Upsilon fraternity Mike Rand '00 announced that his house would cancel their annual keg jump if the council voted to call off the parties.
"It would have been impossible to have the keg jump and not have the parties," Rand said. "We decided that we couldn't do one and not the other."
Psi U later decided to hold a rally in support of the Greek system in place of the jump.
While Paul said many CFSC members expressed concerns about the reactions of their house members, the council voted 23-12 to cancel all of the Greek events.
Paul said her house applauded the decision when she returned from the meeting and announced that the parties had been cancelled, adding that other houses may have been upset.
Rand described telling his house about the decision as "difficult," saying that it was especially hard to have to tell seniors that the keg jump and all Greek parties had been cancelled for their final Winter Carnival as undergraduates.
Meeting the opposition
As the campus reeled with the news of the CFSC cancellations, the events sponsored by the College continued, beginning with the traditional Opening Ceremonies.
"The ceremonies were really meaningful in a very strange way," Paul recalled. "It was awkward -- there was no applause when the President spoke ... I think it was a reflection of the mood on campus -- it was us versus them."
Perhaps the part of the evening that received the most attention was a comment by Wright regarding the cancellation of Greek parties.
"I haven't been invited to any fraternity parties this year but I'm still intending to have a good time this weekend," he said. The comment elicited an outburst of negative response from the audience including booing and shouts of disapproval, leaving many wondering why Wright would choose to make that comment to such an obviously unfriendly crowd.
Following the president's speech, former men's ski team captain Andrew Pennock '99 took the stage, grabbing a Chi Heorot fraternity hat from a member of the audience and putting it on to show his support for the Greek system before saying "I hope these traditions as we have known them will never end."
While Wright and his wife Susan applauded the statement, Pennock's further comments left them silent.
Pennock proceeded to compare the Trustees' decision to the State of New Hampshire's attempts to take over the College in the early 1800's, using modified versions of well-known quotations from College alumnus Daniel Webster to support his opinions.
"It is, as I have said sir, a small college containing smaller institutions within it, and yet there are those who love them," he said.
Dirty politics
"After we made the decision to cancel the keg jump we knew we were going to do something," former President of Psi U Teddy Rice '00 said, "but at first we didn't know what it was going to be."
Rice remembered that following a meeting with the brothers of his house, it was decided that a rally would be held in place of the jump.
He said that on Thursday and Friday he, along with Rand, Paul, and others, worked to find Greek leaders to speak at the rally and to notify the media of the event.
Nearly 800 students, mainly Greek house members, stood for hours on the ice-covered lawn of Psi U listening to speeches from various Greek leaders speaking in support of continuing single-sex fraternities and Sororities at the College.
President of Kappa Delta Epsilon sorority Anne Mullins '00 told the crowd that "we will fight tooth and nail to maintain" the current system.
Other students expressed their anger with the Trustees for failing to see the diversity of the current system.
Delta Delta Delta sorority member Sarah Burgamy '00 told the crowd that although she was openly gay in high school she still looked for a college with a strong Greek system.
"I don't know if [the administration] is blind or what," said Burgamy. "We're not all the same but we're all family."
Rice said he thought the rally was an important first step towards student involvement in the Initiative process.
" I think the rally set the tone for the debate that was going to follow," Rice said. "The administration made very poor political judgements [with the way the Initiative announcement was handled] and we called them out on it -- I think it put the ball back in our court."
He added that it convinced him that "if students were going to preserve the Greek system and effectively argue our case it was going to have to come from intelligent arguments and using the trustees political weaknesses."
The aftermath
After the weekend, the process of deciding the details of enacting the Initiative became clearer, when then Acting Dean of the College Dan Nelson formed a Task Force to collect student opinion and proposals.
A question and answer session with Wright, Nelson, and Trustees William King '63 and Kate Stith-Cabranes '73 was held on Monday night after the Carnival weekend to discuss the implications of the Initiative on social and residential life at the College, though many described the statements of the administrators and Trustees as vague and somewhat contradictory.
Then-Student Assembly President Josh Green '00 said "it seemed like more happened in that first 24 hours than my previous three years at Dartmouth."
While Green has since come out in favor of eliminating the Greek system, he said he was not sure how he felt about the issue during that week.
"It was a personal challenge for me ... I remember being filled with self doubt. I ran against a Greek guy [for the presidency] who warned the Greek system could be tinkered with ... and I began thinking I was the wrong guy to be president."
Despite the level of anger and protest across the campus over the weekend, the end of Carnival weekend and the resumption of classes on Monday marked the beginning of a return to normalcy for the campus as many adopted a "wait and see" approach toward the Initiative and others prepared to channel their feelings about the decision into proposals to be submitted to the Task Force.