Pledging to continue to work with its national organization to seek re-recognition at the College, members of the Dartmouth Beta Theta Pi Board of Trustees met with a group of predominantly male students in the Rockefeller Center Sunday evening. The event, billed as an informational session, also appeared to recruit new students as Board members, collecting contact and biographical information ahead of the Fall term rush process.
Beta will enter fall fraternity recruitment as an "interest group," according to Board co-chairman Scott Sipple '84. It then hopes to gain "colony" status following approval from the Coed, Fraternity and Sorority System.
The colonization process should not last more than two years, although this period can be extended, Associate Director of Coeds, Fraternities and Sororities Fouad Saleet, who was present at the informational session, said.
In order to be recognized as a member of the Greek system, Dartmouth requires that the Beta group gain affiliation with a national organization. Dartmouth Beta alumni have approached the Beta national organization to seek affiliation, although Beta national officials have told The Dartmouth that the chances of a reconciliation are "slim to none," with a "95 percent chance" that this view would not change.
Sipple, in an interview with The Dartmouth, said that Dartmouth Beta would continue to try to achieve a reconciliation with its national chapter and would only approach a different national organization as a last resort.
"The deal with the College was D.O.A., but we got that done," Sipple said. "Ninety-five percent really means nothing."
Sipple, in a response to a question from Tyler Frisbee '08, one of three women in the audience, said that the Beta organization has decided that it would seek re-recognition as a fraternal organization, despite some exploration of the possibility that it would return as coed.
"We determined the threshold interest really was not there," Sipple said.
All of the alumni at the event emphasized that a re-recognized Beta would promote a non-alcoholic culture.
"We're not at all interested in the type of fraternity that has a focus on drinking," Dimitri Gerakaris '69 said. "We intend to have no hazing, no demeaning periods " if there are periods where the group bonds together, it will be through community service projects. Anyone who wants a place to do a lot of raging should probably look someplace else."
Several alumni said they hoped the organization would become somewhat self-sustaining and student-run by next year. Frisbee, though, implored the alumni to continue to direct the organization and "micro-manage" to ensure the alumni's ideals are realized.
"I think we are kind of realizing that we are going to have to be quite involved for a while," Star Johnson '70, a member of the Beta Board, said in agreement. "Students have to be responsible. That's where the process broke down in the '90s [when Beta was de-recognized] -- kids weren't self-policing."
