Studying off-campus this term, it is via the D's web page that I first read about the verbal harassment that occurred at Psi Upsilon fraternity. Distance from Hanover has given me a chance to look at the events on-campus from a slightly different perspective than if it were going on right next door, but as usual, the same shameless pattern has emerged. The steps: 1) A hateful attack by members of a Greek house that hurts, offends, or degrades another Dartmouth community member. 2) Apologies. 3) Accusations and defenses fly. Commonly heard: it's about the individuals. They will be punished. Don't blame the whole house. Why are you offended? Why are you so fascist/un-American? And on and on and on and on. 4) The op-ed page turns into a bastion for sarcasm and snottiness ("Ms. Miller contends that sarcasm and snottiness...") 5) The fervor dies down until the next one.
Same old formula. And within it, every time, the essential question is lost: Why did this happen? Why does something like this happen? Why does it happen repeatedly?
Our formula for dealing with these incidents obscures what is really going on, and how seriously it should be taken. The discussion becomes so vague and general that sense stops being made.
But leaving campus provides me with a reprieve from the obscurity, as I receive two bits of clarity: I both miss Dartmouth and also realize how fundamentally it is warped. Just as during most terms in my Dartmouth career, what occurred the other night at Psi U was absolutely enraging, and the question that is always asked is: how can we who feel strongly about this mobilize against it, rather than, why should we have to do it at all? Why is it not assumed?
To suggest that a group of Psi U brothers screaming "wah-hoo-wah, scalp those bitches" from their home is actually an expression of views makes me wonder about why it is that we've all decided to pay $30,000 to be a part of a residential, educational community with each other. And the fact that we would not all stand uniformly and say that something must be done, rather than becoming defensive and sarcastic, makes me never want to return. Standing up in favor of mutual respect for all students, where all students enjoy a level of comfort and safety has nothing to do with being a mechanical droid following a Fascist regime. It is the opposite --- and imagine the community that it would create. Unfortunately, we can't. We're too wrapped up in our own, old vision of the Dartmouth community to care.
If we're going to hide behind the argument that a whole house shouldn't be blamed for this type of incident, than we shouldn't construct our "houses" to be places where this could ever go on. Then we wouldn't need to use that argument time and time again.
And if we want to argue that we shouldn't put locks on the doors, then we also shouldn't order jackets with the old mascot on it and then a week later scream "wah-hoo-wah" on the lawn of the oldest fraternity at Dartmouth, and then pretend one has nothing to do with the other. And that the nature of this sexist attack and all of the other hateful attacks that have occurred have nothing to do with co-ed houses contemplating a break from the Greek System. And that the vision from the winter of the Initiative of fraternity brothers on the balcony of Psi U screaming of the "Fascist SLI" and "Wright is Wrong" don't resonate when you fast-forward a few months and see them howling "wah-hoo-wah."
And so Dartmouth will never change, and the Initiative seems to have turned out to be a breath of polluted air. We're having the same argument now that we had before, in the same language and with the same battle lines drawn. At a Dartmouth Club London event a few weeks ago, I met a '95 who had tried speaking out against these types of issues when she was on campus. To speak with this woman about how many hopes she had for Dartmouth's community and how they've not yet materialized made me wonder: will they ever? Will Dartmouth ever be a place where this is literally unthinkable? Is that too much to ask? Do we as an Ivy League community really need to be convinced that the students who did this should be punished and that it was an expression of hate? We're now entering a time in Dartmouth's history when alums like the '95 that I spoke to exist, and the change she hoped for is not being carried out. Not surprisingly, some of the older alums who have fought tooth and nail to try to prevent some of these changes are winning out.
I know that we as proud Big Green-ers live in constant fear of being compared to other educational institutions, but let's not fool ourselves: if we want to compete with other high-ranked colleges, we need to admit the differences between us, and it's not about whether we have locks on our doors or not. It's about this kind of incident, and the same 10 people (Kathryn Oliviero '01, Ali Rashid '01, etc.) who have to shoulder the brunt of responsibility for writing angry op-ed articles to the D every six months.
I ask the Dartmouth community to face the ripple affects of this kind of incident: who can blame any prospective '06 or '07 browsing the web for information on Dartmouth, and, after a few quick mouse clicks, choosing to put their college application elsewhere? At home they have the admission office's shiny pamphlets and on the screen they have a cross-fire of articles debating the particulars around a community member's harassment. Most likely the time, money, and college experience of the very students who would work to get past this type of environment would go to a liberal arts campus that does more than just profess to be a mutually respectful and safe community that stresses awareness and common sense. When yet another incident like this one happens in six months, we'll lose even more students who could provoke real change and a possible solution to this continuing problem. It makes me sick that the future of Dartmouth looks like a place that will be incapable of fostering real change, since those potentially responsible for it are probably already too disgusted to attend.
