Guys wearing laminated placards are stealing bright red sirens, while fellows with bad haircuts are walking past mustachioed lunchbox wielders. Yes, it's that time again, folks. The signs and symbols of pledge term are all over campus, heralding the initiation of yet another class into the ranks of the Dartmouth Greek system. Recent articles published in these very pages reveal that the number of both male and female pledges this year has gone up. Without question, Dartmouth Greek life is stronger than ever. But what might explain the compelling force that drives new rushes to pledge each year? When asked, students often offer the same hackneyed responses we've all heard before: because all your friends did it, to increase your social capital, to meet new people, etc.
But this rationale doesn't seem to convey the whole story. Perhaps our willingness to pledge -- and indeed, the zeal with which we engage in Greek life generally -- really betrays, deep down, a fundamental insecurity about who we are, not to mention a pathological, albeit totally human, need for acceptance. College is, after all, the place where we're supposed to start thinking about the "Big Questions," questions like, "Who am I?" and "How do I fit into the world?" In this quest for identity, fraternities and sororities may offer a partial first step, disguised as an endless string of parties and pong games, at finding an answer.
We join organizations that we love and that we are passionate about. But every time we do so, we are also making a statement about who we are as people. Greek houses are a part of that phenomenon. They speak to our inner desire to stand out -- our desire for self-affirmation. When we're out there in the real world, we say that we're "Dartmouth students." That alone is usually sufficient to separate us from the hordes of other college-age young adults with whom we compete for attention and recognition. But here in Hanover, where everyone is a Dartmouth student, we need something more to make ourselves stand out. We need sports teams, clubs, musical groups and cool op-ed page bylines. But perhaps most importantly -- especially here in our neck of the woods -- we need Greek life. Of all the College institutions that we employ to construct our identities, Greek houses may provide the best opportunity to actually "be somebody." And that is precisely why it can sting so much when rejections are doled out or anticipated callbacks never materialize, even from houses that you had no desire to join. The agony of rejection -- of feeling unwanted -- is simply a reflection of how much it hurts to have your identity unsubstantiated.
Of course, it's ultimately a matter of personal choice how much you want your fraternity or sorority to dictate who you are and how others perceive you. That said, the power that Dartmouth Greek houses have in shaping personal identity is undeniable. Just think about how many times we've all referred to a stranger or passing acquaintance as an "'08 [insert name of frat here]" or an "'09 [insert name of sorority here]," and you'll realize the degree of influence the Greek system has, for better or worse, in constructing the identity of each individual. If we don't know a Dartmouth student on a personal level, the Greek house that he or she belongs to will be one of the first things we will reference in order to get a better sense of who the person is.
This is, to a degree, both unavoidable and unfortunate. As Tom Mandel '11 pointed out in a recent article in "The Mirror," house stereotypes can mask or oversimplify one's true personality ("The Pledge Psyche: How hazing gets in your head," Oct. 12). But without those very stereotypes, Greek houses would lose their much-vaunted "character." As much as we may lament their ubiquity, the reputations and stereotypes associated with particular houses and their members have been ingrained into our collective consciousness and ultimately help us to better categorize and understand our fellow students.
Therein lies the dilemma: no one wants to be solely defined or judged based on the house they belong in, for it could not possibly encapsulate the individuality of each person. On the other hand, without those stereotypes, Greek houses would become vague and indefinable -- they would lose all sense of group identity. Greek life would cease to be as vibrant as it is because it would no longer offer what I believe many pledges, in their eternal search for self, are chasing: a concrete "house identity" to incorporate into their own.