Before answering questions, Redman said he wanted to clarify the terms of last Wednesday's announcement.
"There's a lot of misconceptions that exist with what we have done and what we haven't done," he said.
Redman explained that the College has not yet re-recognized Beta, but has given its alumni permission to form an interest group that will be involved in the official fraternity recruitment process next fall. The interest group aims to recruit members for a colony organization that must meet all existing Coed, Fraternity, Sorority administration standards, including affiliation with a national organization, before applying for rerecognition.
Currently, the Beta alumni organization is primarily interested in re-affiliating with the national Beta organization, Redman said. The group has also expressed interest in affiliating with Delta Upsilon fraternity, he added.
Many students questioned the College's decision to permit the group to be involved in recruitment on campus, given the fraternity's history at Dartmouth.
"Beta's history is not the most stellar," Tyler Frisbee '08 said. "I think there's a lot of concern about addressing past racist, homophobic and sexist behavior."
Beta was permanently derecognized by the College in 1996 after violating the terms of its probation. The probation was placed upon the organization as the result of a series of incidents that took place over the previous five years.
Students also noted that the terms of Beta's derecognition by the College stipulated that it was to be a permanent decision.
"Permanent is permanent, just like if a student is expelled from the institution," Redman said. "However, exceptions are made, just like with students. We are making an informed exception."
Redman explained that the exceptions were made because Zeta Psi fraternity -- permanently derecognized in 2001 -- and Beta's alumni corporations still own their fraternity houses, permitting the organizations to operate independently if they choose to do so. Zete actively operated without College recognition until last spring. Though no permanently derecognized Greek organizations have ever been rerecognized by the College, both Zete and Beta have permission to be involved in future recruitment processes.
Organizations that function without College recognition are not subject to established safety procedures and monitoring. Redman said that his office felt the risk of students living and socializing in an unmonitored environment was too great to ignore, and allowed the organizations to apply for rerecognition to eliminate that risk.
"Our primary goal is to ensure the safety of all students," he said.
Several students raised concerns that the College was setting a precedent by caving into "scare tactics" from Greek alumni organizations. Redman responded by reiterating that his primary motivation was to maintain safety.
According to Redman, many groups apply to create a colony in order to participate in fraternity recruitment each year. Other than Beta and Zete, no other fraternity interest groups have been approved since the moratorium on the creation of new Greek organizations was lifted in 2005.
Another major discussion point was the establishment of new sororities or other forms of female-dominated social space on campus. Students in attendance defined a female-dominated space as a building primarily inhabited by females, such as a local sorority.
There is currently a College moratorium on the creation of any new local Greek organizations.
Many students remarked on the disparity between the number of male Greek houses and the number of female Greek houses that can open their buildings to events for the whole campus. Four of the College's six sororities with a physical plant are prohibited from hosting open events because of restrictions imposed by their national affiliates. None of Dartmouth's fraternities are under similar restrictions.
Though students raised many possibilities for establishing new social spaces -- including knocking down the Choates residence cluster in order to build more Greek houses -- Redman cited cost and the limited space in Hanover as obstacles to building new houses.
Crady said that the administration is currently investigating other options for establishing female-dominated social space and indicated that after reviewing buildings, he was "optimistic" about the variety of spaces available.
