It has been more than a week since the late-night altercation between the members of Theta Delta Chi fraternity and Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority ("Kappas accuse Theta Delt of harassment," Aug. 3), and conversations centered on the event can still be heard in most corners of campus. Behind the discussion of inadequate female-controlled social spaces on campus ("Women Against the Greeks," Aug. 7), the misogyny of the Greek system ("Questions for Theta Delt," Aug. 7) and even the oppressing nature of the "Dartmouth Man" ideal ("Man Versus Beast," Aug. 7), there is a paramount opportunity to discuss individual responsibility at Dartmouth.
Now is the time for every member of Theta Delt to reflect on how he as an individual could have helped to stop last week's events; now is the time for every fraternity member to challenge himself by asking what he would have done in the same situation; and now is the time for our campus to lay claim to the tradition of individual responsibility that has been charged to every single one of us.
At times like this, it is especially evident that Dartmouth's students have resigned themselves to a level of acceptance surrounding certain behaviors -- no matter how harmful they are. Our student body writes off late nights of binge drinking and decade-old gender roles as socially accepted and even expected. Students allow themselves to participate in destructive behavior so long as the consequences only periodically erupt in their faces as they recently have. In hindsight, maybe the worst part of the last week's incident is that it was not inconceivable.
Now that leaders from both houses, Amanda Young and Ben Beisswenger, have been able to voice their opinions ("Clearing the Air," Aug. 10), frustration over earlier underwhelming apologies or explanations needs to dissipate for the student body to proceed to more constructive courses of action. Any incitement of action that these events inspired must not go to waste.
While our entire campus is ashamed of the events of last week, they were especially frightening for the women of Dartmouth. Now is the time for every Dartmouth student to examine the power they have as individuals to arouse change on a greater level (just look at the damage a few individual fraternity members were able to inflict).
It is now the time for the women of Dartmouth to lead the campus in implementing change by discouraging these actions in practice as well as with words. They must command respect from the men around them, and they cannot continue to associate with men who do not treat them respectfully. If men of Dartmouth can act as they did last week and still maintain female friends, history will repeat itself all too soon.
