Wednesday night around 9:30 p.m., a group of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority members going to Theta Delta Chi fraternity were met at the back door of the fraternity by its members shouting slurs and throwing items in their direction from the windows above them. The Kappa members were on their way to a prearranged, private function they were to hold in Theta Delt's basement.
The incident was later chronicled in a BlitzMail message Kappa President Amanda Young '09 sent to the presidents of five of the six other sororities on campus, vowing to boycott the fraternity's physical plant and igniting a firestorm of angry discussions across campus about male-female relations at Dartmouth.
The e-mail, which was sent at 2:19 a.m. Thursday, said, "I hope that you, and your houses, understand where Kappa Kappa Gamma is coming from and will support us on our decision to stand up for what we believe in as women."
By Thursday afternoon, many Greek-affiliated students on campus had seen Young's e-mail, which was forwarded to the members of most houses.
The message proclaimed that "we are not going to step foot in Theta Delt for the rest of the term (if not longer)."
The e-mail, which stated that Theta Delt members "had agreed to let us use their basement" while they attended another event, described the encounter in the following way: "We arrived at [Theta Delt] tonight at 9:30, the time we had agreed upon to arrive, and were treated worse than I could have ever imagined. We all walked up and boys came pouring out of the windows, the doors, the woods, yelling obscenities at us. We are women. We deserve to be treated with more respect. The words, 'bitch' and 'whore' were yelled in every sentence. These are guys who we thought were friends of ours. We were proven wrong. Following the screaming, they proceeded on to trash their basement and tip over all pong tables. The state that the basement was in when we entered was atrocious."
"A lot of the girls in this house have never felt more uncomfortable at Dartmouth," Young said in an interview with The Dartmouth. "We were met with offensive and derogatory language and multiple objects were thrown out of the back windows of [Theta Delt] while we were standing below."
Student Body President Travis Green '08 weighed in on the issue, commending Kappa's alleged decision not to attend Theta Delt as he denounced Theta Delt's alleged behavior.
"Their actions were inexcusable," he said. "No woman should be made to feel that way on the Dartmouth campus, and I fully support Kappa's decision."
Theta Delt President Ben Beisswenger '09, who noted that he was in his room and did not personally witness the events in question, attributed the behavior in part to residual atmosphere from the fraternity's recently ended meetings.
"The guys were all hyped-up and very testosterone-filled," he said. "It was an atmosphere before any of this happened and a lot of guys didn't even know [the girls] were there."
Beisswenger said that his house would never consciously encourage derogatory behavior toward women.
"[Theta Delt] as a whole does not condone any of it," he said. "I understand that [Theta Delt] has a horrible history of these kinds of problems but we hope that everyone understands that we are trying to fix that."
Theta Delt's history includes a hazing incident in the fall of 2004, when Theta Delt members allegedly coerced members of the Delta Delta Delta sorority pledge class to dance provocatively for them during a "pledge mission."
Despite framing the issue as one concerning gender relations in the e-mail, Young and Kappa Vice President of Operations Denise Hasson '09 alternated between declaring the incident one between individuals and friends and one between entire houses, although Young note that "there were enough [Theta Delt members] involved that it seemed like the house."
Beisswenger said that many men arrive at college unsure of how to act or speak to women, and are thus susceptible to conforming to the reigning culture of what he termed "The Dartmouth Man."
"There's a lot of people who are just bombarded with the whole 'Dartmouth Man' mentality," he said. "If you are told to act a certain way all the time, you eventually do."
Beisswenger acknowledged the College's efforts already in place to address gender roles at the school but expressed frustration with their formats.
"It's always packaged as this school discussion, 'have a cupcake' thing," he said. "The people who are the 'perps' are the ones who would never go to those things. They would be like, 'that's stupid.'"
Hasson more directly linked Wednesday's specific occurrence to the Greek system.
"It was the mob mentality," she said. "They lost all respect for women because they think it's okay and the Greek system allows that and is conducive to it."
Young, who was quick to stress that "the incident is over [and] it has been handled," said she was pleased with Theta Delt's behavior the next day, but Hasson identified a disjunct between those apologizing and the offenders themselves.
"The right things are being done by the wrong people," she said.
When asked about the future relationship between Kappa and Theta Delt, Young responded, "I'm really unsure of how to answer that question. That depends on the continued response."
