Women's organizations on campus reacted swiftly and strongly to the public release of Zeta Psi fraternity's "sex papers" yesterday, imploring women not to visit fraternities last night and to rally on Webster Avenue against the house.
While divisions among women clearly emerged as conversations shifted to the value of continuing a single-sex Greek system, nearly all women on campus voiced some level of outrage that a College-sanctioned fraternity tolerated misogynistic behavior.
For the Panhellinic Council the revelations about the fraternity's newsletter marked both a disappointment and an important opportunity for the all-female council.
It was a disappointment, Greek women said, because of the blatantly sexist and threatening nature of Zeta Psi's publications. But it was also an opportunity because it allowed the council -- which represents Dartmouth's six sororities -- to stand up to what many fear may be a widespread pattern and to reach out to nonaffiliated women.
"Panhell no longer exists as a response to fraternities," said Panhell president Tasha Francis '02. "We're taking a strong stance."
What began as a fraternity-specific allegation quickly expanded beyond the Greek community as unaffiliated women took action yesterday. After hearing rumors about the Zeta Psi 'sex papers' earlier this week, some of the organizers of the protest on the Trustee weekend planned a boycott against fraternities Tuesday night and, later, the rally.
That those plans were quickly embraced by Panhell, and that those individuals as well as all Dartmouth women, were invited to the council's emergency meeting last night could represent the formation of a new women's alliance on campus -- at least when it comes to combating gender relation problems in the Greek system.
The cochairs of the Women's Council also sent out e-mails in support of the one-night fraternity boycott.
"A lot of the divides among women are going down," said Panhell vice-president Melissa Heaton '02, who first discovered one of the "sex papers" last summer and recently turned it in to the Office of Residential Life for investigation. "I'm very impressed with the speed with which women on campus mobilized."
The revelations about Zeta Psi took on an acute irony, as they coincided with Sexual Assault Awareness Week and came less than two weeks after the Parkhurst protest highlighted several women's issues, like a revamped Women's Resource Center and an official statement declaring Dartmouth an anti-sexist institution.
"We see this as a push for action," said Allyson Terpsma '02, cochair of the Women's Council. "Hopefully this will send the message that sexist behavior won't be tolerated and that this will be seen as a pro-female, rather than anti-male action."
Terpsma explained the rationale behind the one-night boycott of fraternities: "We as women need to spend time away from men's social spaces and take into account what the Zete incident means."
Careful to head off criticism that last night's action unfairly targeted fraternities, the e-mail alerting students about the boycott said: "Making this decision does not entail being against any organization or social institution. It simply means that we choose to take a stand for each other."
But some students, included those who attended a rally last night as well as the Panhell president, expressed precisely that concern.
The e-mail was sent to nearly all female Dartmouth students and was signed by a small group of women, some of whom belong to Greek houses but most of whom are unaffiliated.
Kelly Burns '02 spoke for many women when she said she was outraged by Zeta Psi's newsletter. "I was surprised, and not surprised. I was surprised by the amount of time and effort that went into the publications," she said. "But I wasn't surprised in that there's knowledge that things like that do happen, not just at Zete. Just from stories that you hear. It upsets me that as a community we know about this, but nothing is done to stop it."
At the emergency Panhell meeting last night, the discussion shifted from one about the merits of the Greek system, to the value of single-sex organizations, to the prevalence of sexual assault on campus, to how attendees should respond to Zeta Psi's publication. Three men attended the meeting, which was held at Delta Delta Delta sorority.
During that meeting, rumors also circulated about a video depicting sexually inappropriate behavior that is passed down by members of a fraternity. Both Acting Assistant Dean of Residential Life Cassie Barnhardt and Dean of Residential Life Martin Redman said last night that they would look into the case, but that they had never heard about such a video before.
