With three days until its appeal deadline, Phi Delta Alpha fraternity, which was derecognized by the College Thursday, has decided to contest the decision on the basis of "a couple of procedural errors," according to former chapter President Matt K. Nelson '00.
He declined to comment on the specifics of the appeal, saying he would make them public later in the week.
Dean of Residential Life Martin Redman said as the appeals process is currently set up, Redman himself would be assigned the job of hearing any appeals, even though he made the initial case decision.
In an interview Thursday, Redman said, "Given the amount of time I spent thinking about this and agonizing over the decision, I can't imagine that in good conscience, I would change my decision."
Redman said he met with Dean of the College James Larimore to ask whether someone else could hear the appeal to increase the fairness of the case.
"Technically, the dean of the college could appoint anyone within his staff to substitute for me," Redman said yesterday.
He explained that there were three possible types of appeals -- one based on new information that was not available in the original trial, one based on procedural problems in the hearing itself and one based on a plead for clemency. He said he was not sure whether or not he would be the person to hear an appeal based on alleged procedural errors.
Redman predicted that a hearing to reconsider the case, in the case of an appeal, would not happen until early Spring term.
Nelson reported on Thursday that he was surprised by the verdict, saying the derecognition was not warranted "in the least." At the time, he said his house was "given the fair chance to be a part of the process."
But when asked yesterday about the letter Adam Dansiger '00 wrote to the College, which caused the initial Phi Delt investigation, he said, "I was surprised that the College believed the allegations set forth by Adam's letter."
He declined to comment on which of the allegations in the letter he found to be spurious.
Dansiger was an active brother at Phi Delt until his sophomore fall when he had a serious car accident while travelling southbound on Interstate 89 in October 1997 in the early morning hours, returning from Burlington to Hanover.
During the accident, he was thrown from his Mazda Navajo during three rollovers.
At the time, doctors at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, predicted Dansiger would not live for more than 24 hours. But after coming out of a coma and undergoing months of rehabilitation, Dansiger returned to his home in Staten Island.
As the Dansiger story progressed, he seemed to become less praising of his Phi Delt brothers.
A July 1998 article in The Dartmouth says, "He sent his regards to the brothers of Phi Delta Alpha fraternity, who he said have been supportive during his recovery."
However, an August article that same year reports, "Dansiger said his parents, his friends at Cornell and the University of Virginia and his sister, Ruth, have been supportive during his recovery, but his brothers in Phi Delta Alpha fraternity have not called him ... 'I'm sincerely disappointed,' he said."
Nelson said he did not know of anything that would have made Dansiger turn on his fraternity, and he would not comment on any relation between Dansiger's letter to the College and the car accident he was in over two years ago.
Dansiger was present at the Feb. 21 hearing, and Redman said he "was treated like any other witness."
Redman said the College did not take everything in Dansiger's letter to be the truth, rather the Judicial Committee constantly asked itself, "Is what he is saying believable?"
Nelson declined to say whether or not the College had, in his opinion, given more weight to the Dansiger story than to the collective voice of Phi Delt as an organization.
"I'm not going to speak against the College right now," he said.
Redman said the evidence provided by Dansiger was "borne out by the other people also," meaning that much of the evidence that Dansiger brought to the College's attention was supported by the testimony of active brothers.
As of Thursday, Phi Delt lost its College recognition until at least the fall of 2002, when all current members will have graduated.
For the brothers, that means they are no longer able to serve on the Coed Fraternity Sorority Council or the Interfraternity Council. Also, they are not allowed to hold meetings or other house functions.
Former members are, however, permitted to continue living in their house at 5 Webster Avenue until June 12. At that time, according to Redman, "that facility is no longer approved for College students."
Although the College no longer has ties to the undergraduate brothers of Phi Delt, it still has a working relationship with the house corporation, which owns the house.
"What's difficult here is that in essence, because of the sanctions, we've severed our relationship with the current active members," Redman said. He noted that the College has certain rights to inspect the Phi Delt facility.
Among other things, Redman said the College has the right to make sure the house is fulfilling the agreed-upon minimum standards. Also, he said his staff does fire inspections and arranges garbage pick-up.
Redman noted that the current situation of the Phi Delt house, assuming that the appeal process does not alter the verdict, is much like the one faced by the Beta Theta Pi corporation when Dartmouth's Beta chapter was derecognized in 1996.
He said the Beta corporation opted to rent the house to Alpha Xi Delta sorority, but when asked, he said it would be possible for the corporation to sell the facility to an outside body, such as a family, although he suggested that the family would have to be very wealthy, want to live on frat row and have close to 13 children.
When asked what he saw as the best option for the corporation moving forward, he said "I might suggest that it house undergraduate women. Generally speaking, as individuals, women tend to less damage to facilities than men." But he noted, "Those are their decisions, certainly not ours."
Nelson said the top Phi Delt adviser is arriving in Hanover Wednesday from his home in Singapore to meet and discuss the future, but he said the corporation has not defined its plans for the house.
When asked about the corporation's reaction to the derecognition, Nelson said, "They're as surprised as we are at the decision."
