"The Trustees are giving students the opportunity to reimagine social life and residential life at the College"
-- College President James Wright, Feb. 1999
The Trustees told the Dartmouth community to expect major changes when they released the "five principles" two years ago.
They promised enhanced choices and continuity in residential life. They talked of creating a "substantially coeducational" environment. They pushed for an end to the abuse and unsafe use of alcohol.
Whether or not you agree with the Initiative's aims, the fact of the matter is that now, two years down the road, the alterations in Dartmouth's social and residential systems do not reflect the scope of the Trustees' original claims.
The Board of Trustees aimed to eliminate the hazing problem at Dartmouth, and many Greek leaders eventually adopted this goal. This recent hazing policy proposal is, however, a step backwards from the battle cry of reform that the Board originally sounded.
The new policy -- the product of months of meetings and consultations with experts -- fails to mention specific criteria. Under the new proposals, each case will be judged individually, but concrete rules of what is unacceptable have not been laid out.
While this new policy proposal might hide hazing by removing the obvious lunch boxes and outfits of pledge period, it will not attack what the College has deemed the more serious issues.
In fact, most Greek leaders who spoke with The Dartmouth were not yet even aware of the new policy -- indicative of its superficiality and its lack of potential for substantive change.
The Dartmouth community was told to expect significant reform regardless of whether or not it wanted that reform. However, over the past two years, the initially bold goals of the Trustees have only resulted in watered-down proposals and cosmetic changes. Yes, the College forced Greek houses to eliminate their bars. But in many cases, they were replaced by near equivalents -- far from the promise of curbing alcohol abuse on campus. Yes, the College has agreed to build new beds, but that will not necessarily revamp residential life at Dartmouth.
Wright told the Dartmouth community two years ago that coeducation "will be the only thing that's happened here that probably would exceed [the Initiative] in terms of affecting the quality of student experience at Dartmouth."
So far, this simply is not the case.
