Dear President Wright and Members of the Board of Trustees:
In January 1999 the Board of Trustees issued a promising document announcing a program of substantive changes in student life, including substantive changes to the Co-Ed, Fraternity, and Sorority (CFS) system. This document came as a result of decades-long discussions among members of this community on the nature of student social life on campus, and on the need for it to be consistent with the educational mission of the College. At that time, the majority of Dartmouth faculty welcomed this document with enthusiasm and hope. It was our expectation that finally, after 25 years of co-education, Dartmouth was ready to take action against the institutionalized forms of discrimination and segregation that still dominated student social life, and which we deem so antithetical to the fostering of a truly coeducational academic and residential culture.
Even though the Student Life Initiative adopted in 2000 scaled back the goals of the 1999 document, it contained a clearly stated resolve to derecognize all Greek houses that did not fully comply with the principles of community by which this campus ought to abide. This entailed the strict enforcement of minimum standards of behavior and decisive action when those standards were not met. Although many of us on the faculty were skeptical about the effects of the 2000 document, we nevertheless decided to wait and see its concrete results. Now two years later, these results are unequivocal: The Saigon Party, recurrent unruly behavior that has endangered human lives, t-shirts and jackets derogatory to Native Americans and women, racist and sexist slurs shouted at a female student, "The Sigma Report", and now "The Zetemouth"--which, among other things, announced, in the middle of Sexual Assault Awareness Week, future tips for date rape. This is not to mention, of course, the many incidents that go unreported in the "D" and other media.
Two years later we on the faculty still are teaching female students and students of color who suffer from institutionalized practices of sexist and racist humiliation that fester largely unabated within secret fraternity culture. Clearly, single-sex Greek organizations are far from complying with the College's non-discrimination policy. We ourselves have never felt more disappointed by the administration's failure to address the systemic and incalculable harm that both our students and our own pedagogical work suffer by Dartmouth's acceptance and support of structures that promote such attitudes of entitlement and disrespect. It is inaccurate to regard these dreadful events as the incidental deeds of a few "misguided individuals," and irresponsible to sidestep the harder questions concerning the institutionally sanctioned structures that foster and even encourage them.
Because of our utter frustration with current events, we want to invite the members of the Board of Trustees to attend our next general faculty meeting on May 14 to revisit the question concerning the future of the Greek system at Dartmouth College. By making this invitation public, we express our solidarity with the many students who are now suffering from the effects of acts of verbal and sexual violence, and who for so long have desired and struggled to imagine different forms of social life on campus. The undersigned faculty restate our commitment to work together with students and administrators to create alternatives to the current social system, ones not based on exclusion, self-indulgence and an arrogant sense of entitlement, but on the mutual respect necessary for enriching the personal and intellectual experiences of us all.
Signatures:
Agnes Lugo-Ortiz, Spanish and Portuguese
Marianne Hirsch, French and Italian
Susan Ackerman, Religion
Amy Hollywood, Religion
Susan Brison, Philosophy
Ivy Schweitzer, English
Tom Luxon, English
Melissa Zeiger, English
Matthew C. Rowlinson, English
Leo Spitzer, History
Mary Kelley, History
Annelise Orleck, History
Andrew Friedland, Environmental Studies
Kathleen Corrigan, Art History
Joy Kenseth, Art History
Jim Jordan, Art History
Marlene Heck, Art History
Allen Hockley, Art History
Ada Cohen, Art History
Mary Turco, Women's Studies
Giavanna Munafo, Women's Studies
Andrew Garrod, Education
Mona Domosh, Geography
Francis Magilligan, Geography
Laura Conkey, Geography
Amy Lawrence, Film Studies
Mark Williams, Film Studies
Marcelo Gleiser, Physics and Astronomy
Miles Blencowe, Physics and Astronomy
Robert Caldwell, Physics and Astronomy
Brian Chaboyer, Physics and Astronomy
Mary K. Hudson, Physics and Astronomy
Walter E. Lawrence, Physics and Astronomy
Delo E. Mook, Physics and Astronomy
Mary-Ann Mycek, Physics and Astronomy
Kevin Reinhart, Religion
Nancy Frankenberry, Religion
Amy Allen, Philosophy
Robert Henricks, Religion
Reiko Ohnuma, Religion
Sally Sedgwick, Philosophy
James Moor, Philosophy
Susannah Heschel, Religion
Ann Bumpus, Philosophy
Christina Gmez, Sociology
Deborah King, Sociology
Misagh Parsa, Sociology
Eva Fodor, Sociology
Denise Anthony, Sociology
Francine A'Ness, Spanish and Portuguese
Paula Sprague, Spanish and Portuguese
Beatriz Pastor, Spanish and Portuguese
Silvia Spitta, Spanish and Portuguese
Elizabeth Chamberlain, Spanish and Portuguese
Marsha Swislocki, Spanish and Portuguese
Rodolfo Franconi, Spanish and Portuguese
Lawrence Davies, English and Comp. Lit.
Ulrike Rainer, German
James Tatum, Classics
Irene Kacandes, German
Steven Scher, German
Phyllis Katz, Classics
John Kopper, Russian
Faith Beasley, French and Italian
Stefano Cracolici, French and Italian
Katherine Conley, French and Italian
Nancy Canepa, French and Italian
Virginia Swain, French and Italian
Lynn Higgins, French and Italian
Roberta Stewart, Classics
Richard Kremer, History
Bruce Nelson, History
Roger Ulrich, Classics
Margaret Graver, Classics
Jessamyn Lewis, Classics
Arna A. Bontemps, History
Mary Desjardins, Film Studies
Mary Jean Green, French and Italian
Gerd Gemunden, German
Israel Reyes, Spanish and Portuguese
Vernon Takeshita, History
Judith Byfield, History
Walter Simons, History
Steven Ericson, History
G.K. Garthwaite, History
Marysa Navarro, History
Michael Ermarth, History
Brenda Silver, English
Monika Otter, English
Peter Travis, English
Alexandra Halasz, English
Josna Rege, English
Tom Sleigh, English
Jonathan Crewe, English
Barbara Will, English
Margaret Williamson, Classics
Linda Boose, English
Terry Osborne, English
Shelby Grantham, English
Alan Gaylord, English
Peter Saccio, English
