The Dartmouth faculty once again voted to urge the College to withdraw its support from single-sex Greek organizations by a margin of 92-0 at a faculty meeting yesterday afternoon.
The approved resolution, which was introduced by Associate Professor of Religion Amy Hollywood, reads, "Any single-sex or otherwise exclusionary organization [is] antithetical to the educational purpose of the College and its mission to foster a diverse, egalitarian, co-educational student culture. The faculty of Dartmouth College reaffirms its previous votes that the College neither recognize nor materially support such organizations."
The debate over the controversial resolution attracted a crowd of approximately 80 students, community members and emeritus faculty to Alumni Hall, in addition to administrators and faculty members.
Both pro and anti-Greek students distributed letters to the faculty during the meeting.
The letter handed out by Greek supporters cited the sense of community within in the system and the manner in which the Greek houses provide social space to both affiliated and unaffiliated students alike. The letter pointed out that the system promotes community service and described ways in which Greek houses do not fit exclusive stereotypes.
The letter handed out by students encouraging the abolition of the Greek system followed almost exactly the pro-Greek students' letter, and explained, point by point, why they disagreed with each claim.
Associate Professors Agnes Lugo-Ortiz of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Susan Ackerman of Religion, Thomas Luxon of English and Professor of English Jonathan Crewe spoke in favor of the faculty.
During her remarks, Lugo-Ortiz said that the Greek system is directly antithetical to the College's mission of creating a tolerant, open environment.
She cited "the elaborate profiling that is called rush" as an example of the negative effects the Greek system has on the Dartmouth campus.
This "culture of the basement" produces an atmosphere that "stifles the imagination of students", she said.
According to Lugo-Ortiz, Dartmouth must "dispel its image as an "Animal House" if it wishes to continue to attract strong students.
Ackerman, who spoke next, described the lack of diversity within the Greek houses themselves.
Statistics show that a disproportionate number of affiliated students are white and come from affluent backgrounds, she said.
The Greek organizations are also privileged in that they are allowed to use the College billing system to collect dues, a privilege which no other undergraduate student organization has, according to Ackerman.
Dues, which can run as high as $300 a month, also exclude many students from the Greek system, according to Ackerman.
Furthermore, Ackerman found it "demeaning and humiliating" that "one Dartmouth student would say to another, 'You can't be a member of my club,'" during the rush process.
This "tendency to create an other" persists after rush, she said.
Luxon said that, while many other colleges similar in reputation to Dartmouth do permit Greek houses, it concerns him that Greek life has become such a central part of the Dartmouth experience, in a way that it is not at schools like Cornell or Brown.
According to Luxon, Dartmouth must move "further towards co-education," not backwards towards its days as a single-sex institution.
While Crewe has never before spoken publicly against the Greek system, he said that he wished to do so at this meeting so that people do not regard Dartmouth as a "failed experiment in co-education."
He spoke about two young women he knew who, while both legacies at Dartmouth and therefore predisposed to attend, chose not to attend Dartmouth because of concerns about the Greek system and the prejudices it fosters.
"No administrator or trustee thinks that any real benefits flow from the Greek system," he said. "Therefore, it must go."
Several other professors also spoke before the resolution was passed.
Professor James Tatum of Classics read aloud excerpts of College President James Wright's letters to the faculty and then contrasted those selections with excerpts from a New York Post article on the "Ivy League sex scandal" about the Zeta Psi newsletters.
While he respected Wright's letter, he said that Dartmouth ought to be ashamed that its president should be forced to spend time essentially "cleaning up dirty potty talk."
The resolution was also revised to read "Any single-sex or otherwise exclusionary social organization ... " after several faculty members objected that the wording of the original, which read "Single-sex, exclusionary social organization ... " was unclear.
