The Greek system is classist, homophobic, misogynist and racist; it must be abolished.
It is a decadent institution that exists only at the painful expense of others ("Others"). It can never provide adequate reparations for the psychic damage inflicted on those upset by the Saigon party, the Greek Week '98 and other t-shirts, the ghetto party, the luau, the "wah hoo wah" incident and, most recently, the Zeta Psi salacious papers affair.
It originated in 1841 and was created primarily by white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant men for the benefit of white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant men. It has not changed. The addition of sororities and minority fraternities has been merely a palliative, pacifying afterthought.
The administration, Student Assembly, and The Dartmouth Editorial Board are all beholden to the Greek system. The administration, in its protracted pussy-footing, and the Student Assembly, in its passing of resolutions in favor of lenient punishments, have shown themselves to be unwilling to make Dartmouth a more perfect place for all students. The Dartmouth Editorial Board has misused its authority as an eminent campus voice to both skew and misrepresent popular opinion, both within the College and at large. It has shown itself -- by way of specious and myopic rhetoric -- unready, unwilling and unable to confront the monumental structural problems of the aged Greek system. The Dartmouth faculty has been and continues to be the only contiguous body that objectively views the fraternity system as structurally and fundamentally incommensurate with the demography and the advertised principles of the College.
Its defenders have been guilty of vilifying its detractors as hateful or close-minded. Defenders of the Greek system have failed to recognize that free speech is only truly free when it is both democratic and inoffensive, that is to say when it is available to everyone and free of disparaging epithets and other degrading remarks. Satire, for example, is inherently ironic and in this way strenuously questions the status quo. Anything claiming to be satire but is not blatantly ironic is not satire but a blind reinforcement of regnant, outmoded and superstitious ways of thinking.
Its detractors have failed to remember that members of the fraternity system -- primarily (ostensibly) heterosexual white men -- are not impervious to slurs. Additionally, critics of the Greek system have neglected to form combative coalitions that cut across sexual orientation, gender, race and class.
We as a campus have refused to see that the Greek system is wholly a social construction, not a spontaneous consequence of nature. It is something that can be torn down. A more perfect social system can be created in its stead. This social system must be fully inclusive and its creation must be attended by men, women and otherwise who represent all aspects of the student body as a whole. A new system must allow for the consumption of alcohol in pre-designated social spaces or college-sanctioned societies that cater to differing tastes and dispositions. In no way will these new societies and social spaces be founded on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, race or class.
A select group, comprised of faculty, administrators and students, must revisit the system exactly one year following its creation. Its integrity -- in terms of inclusiveness and commitment to the disapprobation of alcohol abuse -- must be fully evaluated in conjunction with student opinion. Constant re-evaluation and modification of the system will most assuredly ensure its longevity and popularity.
The Spirit of Dartmouth is dead. It is buried beneath 160 years of a socially constructed institution. The Greek system -- the patriarchal "fraternity system" -- is incapable of change and is decadent. It exists painfully. Its perpetuation will result not only in the psychic destruction of its victims but also its defenders. It must end.
