Last Friday, we walked by the "protest" and saw the colored flags hanging over all the unhappy students. Ironically, that which the students were crying for is exactly what the stern administration and the Board of Trustees are advocating. But I urge you to not be any of their pawns and to recognize the virtues of this great school.
For the first part of my life, I had to live in an overpopulated, socialist Third World country. I still feel a bond to the place (India) because of my blood -- it is my birth-land, and my strong extended family resides there. When my nuclear family first immigrated to the States, we began our American life in the rough inner-city of West Philadelphia, a place where, even as a child, I learned to normalize true danger and the daily news of crime. Fortunately, my parents managed to escape the inner-city and move me and my sister to a humble suburban town in New Jersey. Now I sometimes find it difficult to believe that I am setting up shop at the crystal clean and gorgeous Dartmouth College of the Ivy League. I chose Dartmouth for its country life, deciding that I would have enough time later for the mechanical, crowded, polluted city life. That is, I opted for the spacious beauty of nature that was, among my options, unique to Dartmouth College.
With good luck comes a responsibility to help others. I, for one, hope to help people through pediatrics. History has proven that it is far more effective to fight for change from within the system than it is simply to criticize and attack it from the outside. Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy were far more effective in changing humanitarian than Timothy Leary. In the end, Leary believed he would be rescued by aliens from space via a private escort service.
I find it rather pitiful that students can be unhappy even at Dartmouth. I wonder how they would fare in India or West Philadelphia! I see their unhappiness in their dress, in their generic protests and in their refusal to find the good things that surround them. Are these Dartmouth students deranged?
One of the most enjoyable experiences of my life was my involvement in a Dartmouth College fraternity. Though it's true we partied like hell, the sincere brotherhood exhibited toward me at the fraternity was awesome. Hard to believe? We functioned under a democracy and each of us would have taken a bullet for the other. Though not all fraternities may be the same, the entire Greek system does have overlooked merits. To generalize all Greek society and to color it as purely negative without actually spending much time in houses or getting to know the members seems to me to be some kind of "ism." Greekism?
Last year the president of my fraternity was African-American. I feel disgusted having even to mention that. We never thought about it that way; he's our brother and my friend. We didn't elect him as president because he's black; and we wouldn't have kept him out because he's black either. I doubt if College President James Wright actually has had any real minority friends in his natural life. Has Wright ever dated a woman of non-European descent? Again, it is rather crude to mention these things, but this is exactly how the administration and the Trustees treat the Greeks. It is paradoxical, but sometimes you breed hatred by talking about it.
The Greeks have never bothered the president who lives with them on their street. However, the president does not seem to enjoy the company of his neighbors! And I do not doubt that he will win. I am sure that he is a well-meaning man who has never spent any time inside a fraternity. When he succeeds, will Dartmouth become a politically correct, misanthropic school of doilies?
There is always room for improvement, but some students believe that change is an absolute good, even if just for the sake of change itself. However, change is not necessarily directly equivalent to "positive progress." If you do not believe me, take a course in economics, mathematics or evolutionary biology. And doing away with something from the past is not automatically good. Would you do away with comedy? Would you do away with integrity? In college we may find our passions growing and we need something to believe in, something worthy to fight for. To that end, there are indeed several issues that deserve our attention. Within a country of endured oppression, Dartmouth College honors Native-Americans from over 100 tribal nations with Ivy League degrees. Support and defend the Native American Program and urge the administration to continue and revamp its honorable commitment to it. In addition, there is an all-male African-American brotherhood, an all-male Latin-American brotherhood and an all-female African-American sisterhood that need more resources and space on campus to better flourish. On a side note, Christianity is indeed chauvinistic and patriarchal, but for women with anger, must you turn to witchcraft in reaction? Choose your battles with the right kind of courage.
If you are truly and irreconcilably unhappy at Dartmouth College, then devote this time in your life solely to the pursuit of knowledge and learning. Is that such a terrible thing? You may find that Aristotle and Homer are more comforting in moments of solitude/angst than picketing against the Greeks. Take a class on jazz. Take a class on Japanese film. Take a class on astronomy and obtain summer access to the observatory. Take a class on the ancient Eastern and Western classics. Join the Dartmouth Outing Club. Finally, graduate and fight to change things from within the system, now that you are armed with your Dartmouth degree (on a point of agreement with the generic protest, the Education Department does indeed deserve to be celebrated).
This is the voice of only one content student. For whatever it's worth, please keep things in perspective. You are lucky and Dartmouth College is gorgeous. Recognize the moment, and enjoy yourselves! And to the Greeks, rage on.
