"A GROUP OF SENIOR MEN"
According to an undated letter from the Phrygian Society to select male alumni, the organization "plans to call attention to the unfortunately diminished Dartmouth spirit by authoring articles in local papers, actively researching the College's past and personally passing down Dartmouth traditions through the years..."
The letter continues to explain a second, co-existing purpose. It asks alumni to donate to the organization in order "to preserve the Dartmouth that you love, a Dartmouth that is being obliterated by over-zealous administrators in the name of political correctness."
The writers, who identify themselves as "a group of senior men," said they "have recently decided to take matters into [their] own hands and actively preserve the Dartmouth way of life ..."
The letter continues, "We are comprised of fraternity presidents, varsity captains and editors of The Dartmouth Review and we are equally passionate about our College and troubled by its direction."
A November 2005 photograph reveals that members include several students who have written in print publications -- including The Dartmouth -- or on the internet to criticize policies and positions of the current College administration. Outspoken members include Andrew Eastman '07, Michael Ellis '06, Nicholas Stork '06 and Scott Glabe '06. Sources close to the society also say that Brandon Fenn '07 is a member.
This year, Phrygian, formed more than two years ago, bucked the traditional process through which College-recognized secret societies choose their members by notifying the students it selected two weeks before the other groups. As a result, some students may have joined who would have preferred to join other societies.
TRUSTEE CONNECTIONS
Members of Phrygian have met with multiple sitting members of the Board of Trustees, according to the society's letter to potential alumni donors.
"We have already met with several Trustees in the fall and our presence on campus as an acting force and a critical eye will be in the common purpose of the 'Lone Pine Revolution,'" the letter says.
Trustee Todd Zywicki '88, who gained his seat as a petition candidate, told The Dartmouth that he had met with Phrygian multiple times.
"I'm happy to meet with any Dartmouth students or student groups," Zywicki said, when asked about meeting with the Phyrgians. He added, "I am not going to talk about the substance of the meeting."
Several members of the organization have used various media outlets to support the positions of petition trustees presently sitting on the Board as well as Stephen Smith '88, a candidate in the upcoming trustee election.
Joe Malchow '08, for example, placed an advertisement in The Dartmouth in support of Smith and is an administrator of the Facebook.com group "Stephen Smith Supporters," a group to which Eastman and Ellis also belong.
Fenn has also expressed support for Smith; Smith's website cites three quotations from him.
"It is worth noting that Smith has been the only candidate to take the hard positions on free speech -- and he stuck his neck out, doing it first, before he knew where the other candidates stand," the website says, quoting a letter written by Fenn of The Dartmouth published in February of this year. "[I]t is clear that he's deeply in touch with student sentiment in Hanover."
"THE GRAVEST THREAT I SEE IS THE KING"
Eastman and Stork created the website voxclamantisindeserto.org in April 2006. The website alleges that Dartmouth's administration has misled alumni about the level of student satisfaction at the College. Eastman also frequently contributes guest opinion pieces to this newspaper about significant campus issues.
Ellis is a former editor-in-chief of The Dartmouth Review and Glabe is a former executive editor of the same publication. Ellis declined to comment on his personal involvement and duties as a member of the society.
Matthew Abbott '06, a former member of The Dartmouth Staff and of Phrygian, wrote an article on the formation of voxclamantisindeserto.org in April 2006.
Attempts to reach Eastman, Fenn, Glabe, Smith and Stork by telephone and e-mail were not successful. Abbott did not return requests for comment by press time.
Evidence suggests that blogger Malchow, who runs the widely read website Joe's Dartblog, is a member of the society, but he declined to confirm or deny his membership.
Malchow e-mailed a set of four documents in the form of a treatise to at least one member of the Phrygian Society. The text of the documents, in sweeping cursive font, expresses a message similar to the anti-administration stance presented in the letter to alumni and includes verses of "Battle Hymn of the Republic."
One document simply says "Let us Die to make men free" in large lettering, while another ends with a warning:
"A threat gathers, you see, by the Old Pine down yon, Abusing this plain with a poisonous yarn, About conspiracies and folklore and threats to this school. But the gravest threat I see is the King and his rule," the document says.
When The Dartmouth approached Malchow with the documents and asked for comment, Malchow replied: "I have no response."
Later the same day, Malchow came to the offices of The Dartmouth and refused to comment about the organization, the documents or his involvement with either, but vowed that he would work to ensure that The Dartmouth, its editor-in-chief and this reporter are punished if "one word" in this article is incorrect.
In his blog, Malchow devotes some entries to questioning College policy.
Responding to the recent controversy regarding treatment of Native Americans on campus, for example, Malchow wrote of Wright's response to the situation:
"So, then, what is the president of Dartmouth College saying? Is he coming to the aid of a uniquely, routinely, and deeply violated sect of students?," Malchow wrote. "Or is he defending freedom of speech? Or -- here's the third option -- is he making a weak-kneed concession to a political interest group while trying to insulate his office from criticisms from everyone else?"
A SHADOWY CORPORATION
The society established the corporation Deserto Capital Partners L.L.C. to hold contributions, according to the letter to male alumni. The corporation was registered with the New Hampshire Secretary of State's office in March 2006 and dissolved in October.
According to state records, the corporation was registered under the name Ravi Sutaria. His address, also listed with the state, corresponds to a unit in a residential condominium community in Grantham, N.H., a half-hour drive from campus. Calls to the unit were not returned and no one answered the door when a reporter visited. The voicemail recording of the address's telephone line indicated that it was the "Sutaria residence."
When The Dartmouth reached Sutaria '06 in the Caribbean for comment on his involvement in the Phrygian Society, he said he had "nothing to say on that."
NOTES ON THE NAME
Phrygian most literally is a title for any person from the ancient kingdom of Phrygia, which lasted from about the eighth to the seventh century B.C. It is conceivable, however, that "Phrygian" is more directly a reference to the Phrygian cap that was worn by the Phrygian people and has featured prominently in world culture ever since. Emancipated Roman slaves wore the Phrygian cap as an indication of their liberty. For a time, the cap was also worn in theater by any character who served as a "man of the people." According to the Revolutions de Paris, a chronicle printed during the French Revolution, the cap was "the symbol of the liberation from all servitudes, the sign for unification of all the enemies of despotism."
