While students head en masse to Webster Avenue this Winter Carnival weekend to attend fraternity parties, seven years ago frat row was silent. That Carnival weekend in 1999 saw cancelled parties, massive rallies and much speculation that the days of Greek life were coming to an end after the College administration unveiled its controversial Student Life Initiative on the celebration's eve.
On the Tuesday preceding the big weekend, the Board of Trustees and College President James Wright announced the Social and Residential Life Initiative, known as the SLI.
"People were angry, but most of all, I think the students felt completely blind-sided," said Cabray Haines '00, a member of Delta Delta Delta sorority.
"President Wright told the Boston Globe before he told us, basically, and I remember no hint beforehand that such an initiative would be on the horizon," she said. "It struck people as extreme and unnecessarily antagonistic, not to mention just plain odd for a school ranked among the highest in the country in student happiness."
The SLI called for sweeping reforms that would change the Greek culture, and although there was never a specific documented intention to undo the system, many students and alumni reading between the lines saw it as a plot to topple the College's Greek system.
In a statement announcing the plan, the Board of Trustees set out principles on which the social system was to be based.
"The achievement of these principles will necessitate changes in the current residential and social system, including the fraternity and sorority system, dining arrangements, and other aspects of student life," the Trustees wrote.
The next morning, a four-column headline in The Dartmouth blared, "Trustees to end Greek system as we know it." That evening, the Coed Fraternity Sorority Council voted to cancel all CFSC-sponsored Winter Carnival parties and events.
"Everyone thought a party violation would be a great excuse for the administration to kick a house off campus, and no one wanted to be that house," remembered Christopher Carney '00, interim president of Alpha Delta fraternity during the winter of 1999. "We all laid low. I think our house had a pong tournament."
Dean of the College James Larimore, who began work at Dartmouth several months after the 1999 Winter Carnival, said he thought the parties were canceled because of "communication issues" regarding the SLI.
"Some interpreted the announcement of a process as something more than that, but the Dartmouth community then spent more than a year in intense discussion about ways that the out of the classroom experience for all students might be improved," Larimore said.
The Thursday night Winter Carnival opening ceremony quickly turned into a display of opposition to the administration's plan. Many members of the Cords a cappella group donned sweatshirts with the Greek letters of their respective houses, and students punctuated their yelling of "lest the old traditions fail" while singing the alma mater by punching their fists in the air. Audience members even booed Wright when he made a comment about fraternity parties during his address. During the ceremonies, one student speaker modified the famous Daniel Webster quote regarding Dartmouth, saying, "It is, as I have said sir, a small college containing smaller institutions within it, and yet there are those who love them."
That weekend, students gathered on the porch and lawn in front of Psi Upsilon fraternity to oppose the administration's announcement.
"House officers and members gave speeches about their wonderful Greek experiences. Some were funny, some serious," Carney recalled. "One student spoke about how she would not have felt comfortable 'coming out' to the public if it had not been for the support of her sorority sisters."
Stephen Kim '99, a member of Alpha Chi Alpha fraternity, praised the event in retrospect but questioned its effectiveness.
"While it was nice to see such a large portion of the school gathered at Psi U to make their voices heard, I'm not sure how much resulted from it. I didn't see any administrators or even professors at the event," Kim said. "The great thing about it was seeing how many non-Greek people were in such strong support of the system."
Haines said the vibe was positive "despite the sadness of the Psi Us, who had to destroy their carefully-tended ice rink to accommodate all the people. Lots of different students spoke, and "Unaffiliated But I Support the Greeks' T-shirts abounded."
Looking back on the SLI, the alumni The Dartmouth spoke with acknowledged that there were serious problems with the Greek system but said that these issues did not justify scrapping the system.
Kim questioned the results of the SLI and the College administration's "distorted perspective of what a fraternity is" -- something he said was reflected in the recent remodel of Alpha Chi's house.
"They obliterated all casual hang-out rooms where I forged many a lifelong friendship with both brothers and non-brothers, replacing them with giant and redundant party spaces. Every room which had forged best friends out of accidental roommates was transformed into a single for the 'intellectual loner.' Every historical feature of the interior of the house was eliminated for sterile walls."
While the aspect of the SLI that dealt with Greek life attracted the most attention, however, Larimore pointed out that the process dealt with much more.
"This year we are able to see some of the physical progress that has been made -- construction of new residence halls [and] the renovation of Alumni Gym including a new fitness center that will be almost four times as large as the Kresge Fitness Center," he said. "Students have also benefited from improvements to the residential system, creation of the Student Initiated Programs fund in Residential Life, and efforts like the Take a Professor to Lunch program and Faculty Book & Author Luncheons."
Additionally, the SLI, far from threatening the continuation of the Greek system at Dartmouth, may have strengthened its hold on campus. Larimore attributed progress in the Greek system to the plan.
"We've also seen significant improvements in the campus Greek system due to the steady work of students, alumni, administrators and some faculty," he said.
Still, mistrust and some sense of antagonism lingers between some students and the administration.
"I felt that the SLI distracted resources and attention from arguably more urgent weaknesses that Dartmouth should have addressed, such as the shockingly large class sizes and the almost total lack of academic advising," Haines said.
Carney remains opposed to the SLI and criticizes the unilateral way in which it was introduced.
"I feel the administration had an agenda that they wanted to execute on without clearly defining and communicating to the students and alums the problems they were trying to solve," he said.
Yet the Greeks remain. While originally feared to be "the end of the Greek system as we know it," seven years later, coed, fraternity and sorority membership remains high, Greek houses are still standing and basement parties dominate the social scene.
Correction Appended
For the record: Due to an error in the editing process, an article on Friday ("Greek alums recall 1999 tensions with College admin.," Feb. 10), two quotes were attributed incorrectly. The first quote, which dealt with improvements to the fitness center, should have been attributed to Dean of the College James Larimore. The second quote, about the administration having an "agenda," should have been attributed to Christopher Carney '00, not Cabray Haines '00.
