According to Crady, strict alcohol policies mask a school's drinking problems. Crady served as vice president of student affairs at Iowa's Grinnell College for nine years prior to beginning work at Dartmouth this month.
"I think if you become very heavy handed all the time with alcohol, you'll drive it underground," Crady said during Tuesday's panel discussion. "The policies at Grinell were fairly liberal -- the last thing I did before I left was help to open up a pub that opens this weekend."
Crady said he believes the legal drinking age should be lowered to 18 and that the College's alcohol policy should focus on self-governance by the student population.
"[At Grinell] we didn't have a very complex set of procedures you had to go through to have a party on campus," Crady said. "Our focus was to make sure that students would be safe."
Dean of Residential Life Martin Redman said he is chairing a committee that will recommend new social event management procedures policies. Crady said that when these policies are brought forth, they should be made available so that students can offer individual recommendations.
"I may equate myself to being a first-year student at Dartmouth, but I have 25 years of experience in the field and have worked with alcohol issues," Crady said.
At the meeting, Greeks Speak, the four-person committee that organized the event, released the results of a survey filled out by leaders of Dartmouth's Greek organizations. The survey indicated that the leaders find SEMP procedures confusing and feel the policies should be clarified and revised. The results of the survey were shared with Crady, Redman and other College officials before Tuesday's event.
"Students want something realistic and simple that is also pro-keg," Conor Frantzen '08, a member of the Greeks Speak committee, said. "We should also try to make sure that everyone understands how SEMP works and what the consequences are if you break it."
The survey also revealed that a majority of Greek leaders believe that gender inequality is the worst aspect of the College's Greek system.
Crady said he hoped his experience in higher education would also allow him to address the perceived gender inequality on campus and the need for more space for Greek organizations.
"I'm relatively optimistic that we can do something quickly for the current situation with the two [sororities]," Crady said. "We need to see if there are some other, better places available than the ones on South Park Street."
The Greeks Speak committee said some of these issues may be addressed through more interaction among the Greek houses on campus and with freshmen and other students that are not affiliated with the Greek system.
In order to further interaction, the committee said it plans to hold an event in the spring where Greek organizations can speak with current freshmen in preparation for next year's recruitment process. This will allow underrepresented minority Greek organizations to publicize themselves, according to the Greeks Speak committee.
Greeks Speak focuses on increasing space for Greek organizations, revising the current SEMP policy and increasing the accountability of the Office of Undergraduate Judicial Affairs and the Organizational Adjudication Committee, Frantzen said. In addition to Frantzen, the other members of the group are Lauren Bennett '08, Molly Bode '09, and Frances Vernon '10.
Tuesday's panel discussion follows a meeting organized by Greeks Speak that included all of the Greek organizations on campus, which took place on Jan. 20. The students discussed issues ranging from SEMP procedures to the need for more events targeting freshmen and Dartmouth students that are not affiliated with Greek organizations.
