Faculty members and administrators recommended that the Greek system combat what they perceived as a negative campus image by promoting its involvement in community service last night at a panel discussion entitled "Take Action."
The event, which brought together five faculty and administrators and approximately thirty affiliated and unaffiliated students in Silsby Hall, aimed to discuss and improve the currently-strained relationship between Greek houses and Dartmouth faculty and administration.
In a question and answer format, students and faculty alike discussed the reasons for the Greek system's negative image on campus.
The faculty both cited excessive alcohol use and ignorance of the positive things done by the Greek houses as contributing to that image. While none of the panelists advocated the abolition of the Greek system, they did offer advice on how that image might be improved.
Carla Goodnoh, a faculty advisor to three Greek houses, said she would like to see the Greek system publish a weekly newsletter that kept the entire campus updated on the positive things with which the houses are involved.
"Maybe you feel you [members of the Greek system] don't have to justify your existence, but you do ... there is nothing wrong with tooting your own horn," Goodnoch explained.
At one point Dean of Upperclass Students Sylvia Langford asked the audience whether or not Greek houses ever discuss exclusivity, gender relations or class and race relations amongst themselves.
One sorority member of pointed out that these issues are indeed discusses at Greek 101, a new weekly forum which aims to improve leadership within the Greek system, and that each meeting has attracted over fifty people.
Langford and others mentioned that positive events such as Greek 101 should be better advertised in order to improve the faculty's opinion of the Greek houses. Several students in the audience expressed concern regarding the sincerity of advertising purely for the sake of self-promotion.
"Why do we have to brag about what we do in order to fight a negative image? The people who receive the benefit of our community service appreciate us, why should we care about anything else?" asked one sorority member.
At one point Goodnoh noted that the need for publicity is due to the fact that, "you [members of the Greek system] really have to overcome two-hundred years of bad behavior."
Faculty members cited alcohol use as one such "bad behavior."
The members of the panel generally agreed that alcohol consumption among college students was inevitable, but noted that the current emphasis on alcohol in Greek social life creates an unsafe and negative atmosphere.
"The fact that the alcohol is free and unlimited makes drinking at Greek houses different," Langford said.
"Greek houses have become a symbol of excessive alcohol use, but I won't claim that this is reality," Rabbi of the Roth Center for Jewish life Edward Boraz commented. As the chair of the Committee on Alcohol and Other Drugs, Boraz received several questions from members of the Greek community about the College's alcohol policy.
Several students said they felt that the College was suddenly cracking down on the alcohol policies with the newly-enstated Safety and Security walk-throughs, but didn't understand why this was happening.
"I don't think we had the correct process in implementing [the Safety and Security walk-throughs] but it wasn't a bad decision considering that three-quarters of our students are under 21," Langford said.
Another student commented that fraternities "provide a relatively safe area for drinking, where people protect each other." He asked the question, "Why force drinking into unsafe off-campus environments?"
"We are always on the defensive about this issue that we don't even see as an issue. Let's focus on other problems," another member of the Greek system commented.
In response, Boraz, Langford and Leigh Remy, Assistant Dean of First Year Students, said that excessive drinking hurts all members of the community and thus should not be ignored.
"I'm not trying to take away your parties, but I just don't want to hear about them so much, especially not in the dean's office," Langford added.
The discussion ended on a positive note, with the panel urging the Greek system to seek a more personal relationship with the faculty and administration
"Faculty who support the Greek houses don't speak out because of peer pressure from other professors, but you [members of the Greek system] have a lot more friends on the faculty than you realize," Goodnoh concluded.
