Normally, the races for positions on the executive board of the Coed Fraternity Sorority Council attract a number of affiliated juniors eager to lead an organization representing more than half of the student body.
Last January, there were four candidates for president and five for vice president. This year, however, only one student, Shihwan Chung '02, ran to become CFSC president. There were no candidates interested in becoming vice president of the council for 2001.
Perhaps most telling of all, the council managed to select its new executive board in just half-an-hour on Sunday, as compared to the two to three hour marathon meetings during which CFSC leaders have been chosen in the past.
Greek leaders and students say a number of factors may be responsible for diminished interest in Greek leadership on campus, ranging from simple bad publicity for the event to a sentiment that student organizations are unable to significantly influence College policy and actions.
Quieting down
After two years of serving as the voice of a Greek system struggling to portray itself in a positive light under scrutiny by both administrators and students, the CFSC may simply be enjoying a period of relative normality.
The release of the Student Life Initiative two years ago incited a burst of activity within Dartmouth's CFS community that gradually tapered off to the tepid student reaction that greeted the Trustees' letter last spring.
"While a lot of people aren't happy about the changes so far," Chung said, "they're not galvanized by them."
Furthermore, with a majority of Initiative-related work being done behind closed doors by College committees like the Greek Life Steering Committee, many students do not see much to talk about right now.
Ever since it nominated nine of the 13 students on the Greek Life Steering Committee, the CFSC has had to sit back and wait for the Steering Committee's report -- which will play a major role in shaping the Greek system of the future -- to come out in March.
Short term goals of the group will therefore focus less on representing the CFS system to the administrators and the College community as a whole than on less general tasks like improving inter-house relations, several Greek leaders said.
And with the CFSC working on such managerial tasks, students may not feel their input is necessary.
"Right now, the heated debate has dissipated a little bit," Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity member Paul Biggs '01 said. "Most issues have been hashed out to the point where we have to sit and wait."
When that waiting is over and the Steering Committee does release it's report, though, Chung -- who is also a member of the committee -- believes that the CFSC will have lots to do presenting a unified reaction.
Looking Inward
Another reason the CFSC may not be as much a focal point of Greek interest as it has been recently is that CFS members are focusing their attention closer to home as per a request they made during the Initiative debate.
In the CFSC's response to the Initiative Steering Committee's report last spring, one of the major recommendations was that the various Greek houses be regarded less as a system and "more as 28 independent organizations with vastly different memberships and purposes."
Outgoing CFSC president Eric Etu '01 was in charge of formulating the groups response and said that the recommendation had been set for inclusion from the very beginning because houses did not want to get dragged down by the Greek system's "weak links."
The request for individual consideration was accepted by the Board of Trustees in April, and Etu said organizations are focusing on "house-specific" issues in the wake of mandated audits of the various their physical plants.
However, Melissa Heaton '02, the newly-elected vice president of the Panhellenic Council, said the future of the system of the whole is important for the survival of the individual houses.
Regardless of a house's ability to meet whatever "standards of excellence" the Greek Life Steering Committee comes up with, College administrators are not going to do away with the entire Greek system but save one organization on its merits, Heaton said.
Is anyone listening?
One problem that may confront the CFSC and other student organizations -- not just those related to the Greek system -- is an underlying sentiment that the College administration listens to students and student groups ... but that their input does not carry much weight when the final decisions are made.
"Frustration" was a word that several Greek leaders used to describe the sentiments of the students they were elected to represent.
"There has been some frustration ... that a lot of decisions have just come from the top down," Chung said.
Michael Johnson '01, president of the Inter-Fraternity Council last year and this winter, expressed a similar opinion.
"Fraternity members in general have to a certain extent become apathetic. A lot of the students are tired of fighting these battles. Even if we win some of these, they've come at a great cost," he said.
One frequently mentioned "lost battle" was the Trustees' decision to move sophomore rush to Winter term -- a move the CFSC, Panhell and the IFC all opposed at the time and a notion still widely disliked by Greek students.
Several Greek leaders acknowledged, though, that the College administration does make an effort to listen to and act upon student opinion, even if it does not always seem that way.
"It's very, very important to note that the administration has learned to give students a bigger voice," Chung said. "From what I can tell ... the student voice is honored and their opinions are considered."
Likewise, the 2001 Panhell president Tasha Francis '02 said, "I feel the administrators are very receptive. They're definitely on our side."
Is there apathy?
Not everyone would agree that Greek governing organizations are facing apathy among their constituents.
"I don't necessarily think it's a lack of interest," Francis said. "I think everyone is a little bit cautious about what's going to happen with the Greek system right now."
Chung was likewise careful to qualify his statements. "Some may view [the lack of CFSC candidates] as apathy, but from how I see it, it doesn't seem that way at all," noting especially insufficient publication of the election.
Regardless, Chung had a positive attitude about where the CFSC will be going over the next year.
"If the CFSC leads by example and basically starts making visible positive changes," Chung said, "people will recognize that the CFSC is an important organization."
Cassie Barnhardt, the assistant dean of residential life with responsibility for the CFS system, said a Greek governing council will be a necessary part of the implementation of the Greek Life Steering Committee recommendations.
