Michael Guzman '06, Ricky Cole '06 and Pam Misener, an adviser to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students, facilitated the day of discussions, movie clips and role playing that lasted from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Guzman, who attended a Lambda 10 training session at the University of Virginia two years ago, trained Misener and Cole to function as co-facilitators. Saturday's event was the test run of what Guzman hopes will take place once a term from now on.
Guzman and his co-facilitators invited members of six Greek organizations -- two fraternities, two sororities, and two coed fraternities -- to attend Saturday's event. According to Guzmam, they invited those houses that either have an open LGBT population or have been known to take an active stance against homophobia.
"Eventually, in time, we will approach every Greek house, even those with longstanding histories of homophobia," he said.
The organizations represented at the session were Epsilon Kappa Theta and Kappa Kappa Gamma sororities, Alpha Delta fraternity, and Alpha Theta and The Tabard coed fraternities.
One house that was invited, Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, did not participate because an informal discussion among brothers via BlitzMail did not generate enthusiasm for the program, Sig Ep president Jeff Wagner '06 said. Before making a formal decision about whether or not to participate, Wagner received word that the program, which was originally scheduled for Fall term, was canceled and postponed until this winter. According to Wagner, Sig Ep was not contacted a second time when the program was rescheduled.
Wagner added that some members questioned why the Greek community should focus on the issue of homophobia.
"[There was] a question of 'Why single out one group? Why not work on racism or things like that?'" Wagner said.
In the future, Guzman hopes that all Greek houses will approach the leaders of Lambda 10, asking them to lead a session for their members.
"We don't want to impose but we hope every house sees the benefit of the program," he said.
Taica Hsu '06, the only non-Greek participant in Saturday's discussions, thought that the pilot was well-received but that future sessions may face more opposition from Greek organizations that may feel they are being attacked for not being open to LGBT students. He said that Saturday was an example of "preaching to the choir" because a lot of participants had "the same points of view."
"I think next time we kind of need to stir up the pot a little bit and we need to have a diverse range of viewpoints and perspectives to really enact change," he said.
Nichola Tucker '08, the only member of KKG to attend Saturday's event, called the issue of gay tolerance in Greek houses "nonnegotiable," but thought the facilitators could have made the event's content more pertinent to the College social scene.
"The program could have been more specific to Dartmouth culture in order to draw in those students who think that homophobia doesn't exist in Greek houses or at Dartmouth," Tucker said. She suggested using testimonials from Dartmouth students to make Lambda 10 more "Dartmouth-centric."
Participants in the Lambda 10 left Rockefeller Center with a 50-page manual aimed to combat homophobia.
Guzman said that Dartmouth was in need of the Lambda 10 project because although the College has an "accepting" student body, the homophobia of the past is still partially preserved by the Greek system.
"Dartmouth has done a great job of bringing diversity to this campus but it lacks in giving these diverse groups a sense of space that is comfortable," Guzman said.
Lambda 10 was founded at Indiana University in 1995 by Shane Windmeyer and Pamela Freeman.