I had the privilege of being interviewed by someone from "Good Morning, America" this weekend, and although they apparently cancelled their Dartmouth segment from Monday's show, I'm glad I got the opportunity to think about how to answer questions about the Greek system to the outside world. Until now, my writings in "The Dartmouth" have been very much intended for Dartmouth readers, and it has been easy to forget that people in the outside (real) world are interested in what goes on here too. So I and a number of other students were forced to think about how to address these issues for the world at large, and as a result, I have written this column to tackle some misconceptions both at Dartmouth and in the outside "real" world.
The question that stopped me up went something like this: "Do you think there is anything like "Animal House" on campus today?" I must say that as much as I value intelligent expression in painstakingly writing these columns (to procrastinate from homework, of course), somewhere, in some vault owned by ABC studios, there is footage about two minutes long of yours truly saying "Uhh, umm," in front of a camera. What could I say? The idea sounded so foreign to me since I had severed that stereotype from my mind so long ago. So I've been kicking myself ever since (even though the rest of the interview went far better), and I've turned the question over quite a few times in my head. Now I'm ready to give my answer it, both to Dartmouth and to the outside world. Is there "Animal House" here? No, and I can explain both why not and what really is wrong about the Greek system.
Would it be easy to picture fraternity brothers as something like the characters in Animal House? Of course. But beside their Greek letters, how do they differ from the rest of us? We all came here as people interested in academics, and some also for athletics, but I will not say that another member of this community is here as anything other than that. When "The Zetemouth" scandal broke, many of us shared the same reaction: "Well, the Zete brothers I know are really just nice, normal people." Or to paraphrase: well, they're just like anyone else when they're in classes and around campus. And this can probably be said for all of the Coed Fraternity Sorority organizations on campus. I won't claim to be an expert on the subject, but I'm willing to exchange my fellow Dartmouth students the benefit of the doubt.
I believe that we are all intelligent people capable of making responsible decisions. I also don't think anyone, Greek or anti-Greek, would disagree with me here. Some people are asking who's being generalized harshly on campus today, and I must answer: not the Greeks. There are a lot of misunderstandings going on, and I'd like to clear this one up: people who oppose the Greek system do not do so because of stereotypes that frat brothers are like, for example, "Animal House." We do not believe that we are any different from or better than members of the Greek system.
And this is what scares me about the Greek system: an intelligent, responsible student who's not unlike myself when he's outside his fraternity walls can take part in something like "The Zetemouth." The power of group mentality within these houses is frightening. And worse, when the group in question is homogenous in gender, and almost totally homogenous in terms of race, class, and sexuality, as the majority of fraternities and sororities are, the potential for hostility, or at the very least, extreme insensitivity, toward any group classified as "other" is nearly inevitable. We've seen it time and time again that a fraternity does something offensive that they honestly had no idea would bother people. Why are these communities within Dartmouth so shielded from difference that they can't tell what would be offensive to other groups?
It cannot be denied that there is a very strong correlation between offensive events on this campus and Greek houses. And it must not be ignored that there is far more going on wrong than gains public attention. The Greek houses in general create environments hostile to diversity by their privilege of turning away anyone different from them, a privilege which they exercise constantly. This is not to say that the membership of these houses comprises jerks, but instead that the structure of this system produces a lack of social responsibility. And why? I turn to "The Zetemouth" again: the sex papers were for private use because they wouldn't offend anyone in the house (which doesn't make them right, since they're still libelous). This is because there were no women in Zeta Psi. If one makes a public statement that's accessible by the entire Dartmouth community, one must keep on one's toes and be careful not to offend people. But somehow, the brothers of Zeta Psi had the privilege of not having to keep on their toes, not having to worry about offending people.
Some people may hark back to the good old days before political correctness, when it was okay to say something without worrying about offending people. How easily it is forgotten that such privilege, like the privilege enjoyed by the Greek system, is held only at the expense of any group that deviates from the norm. But the world of today is different. We live in a nation rich in diversity (and we are starting to celebrate it). Yet Dartmouth, which goes to great lengths to recruit diversity, has a social system still divided along sexual and racial lines. I ask you, is that any way to learn about living in the real world? Are we not here to learn from the diversity around us?
I see the Greek system as a failure in the Dartmouth education, and I think more and more potential applicants hold this view as well, and thus decide not to apply to Dartmouth. We are a liberal arts institution that is holding back true diversity from our students. We are trying to teach values of community, diversity and openness to new opinions while we ourselves do not practice them. This must change. What is needed is not bringing the Greek system to their knees, but instead a simple end to the privilege of not having to put one's identity into question, not having to be on one's toes like the rest of us always are. We must remove the structures that encourage and allow otherwise responsible, intelligent students to exhibit behavior befitting of only the movie, "Animal House."
