In an admirable coordinated effort last week, most of Fraternity Row banded together to welcome College President Jim Yong Kim to his lovely new home in Hanover with the gift of silence. Rumor has it that the Interfraternity Council decided to close most houses' doors for the start of Fall term in order to prove what good neighbors Dartmouth's Greeks can be, and to ensure that the much-lauded members of the Class of 2013 achieve the highest first-quarter grades of any freshman class in Big Green history.
At least it was something like that.
Either way, more than a few of Dartmouth's fraternities have found themselves on social probation effective the first day of classes. Now seems like a decent time for some introspection I took a meetings-less Wednesday night to do a bit of fratty ethnography.
President Kim has made it clear that he wants to open up honest and fair relationships with fraternities and sororities at Dartmouth, acknowledging the uniquely open character of the school's Greek system as well as the important role it can play in the development of lifelong friendships. As self-proclaimed "chief advocacy officer," Kim says he will work to redress the glaring "public relations problem" caused by the disparity between prospective and current students' perceptions of the Greek system. This long overdue undertaking offers Greek houses the opportunity to put their best foot forward and to start a clean slate with the new administration.
But such a reset can only occur on a two-way street Dartmouth's fraternities and sororities will need to uphold and expand upon the foundation that has so excited our new president.
During my first two years at the College, I've witnessed the great things that a committed group of good friends can accomplish when they work together. I have seen the men and women on Webster Ave. and Wheelock St. organize trick-or-treat nights for underprivileged children, hold fundraisers for student mentoring programs and send hundreds of volunteers to a community bike race for cancer. But I've also seen a vast, untapped potential to truly engage in long-term service outside the Dartmouth community. Each house was founded for reasons much greater than establishing the sweetest pong scene, hosting the loudest dance party or winning the Chariot Race.
This is, after all, the same community that saw many of its member houses cut ties with their national organizations in the 1960s to protest the disgraceful policies that legitimized racial discrimination. But the accomplishments of our organizations do not give us leave to just sit contentedly on our porches there is so much more ground to cover.
Just as I believe that Dartmouth is poised to redefine the value of an undergraduate education and remind the nation of how powerful the voice of the student can be, I believe that our Greek system has the potential to upend stereotypes about the blase indifference of self-concerned frat boys and sorority girls. If the administration is willing to open channels of honest communication about important but controversial issues and offering to partner with us on meaningful service undertakings, we must embrace the opportunity.
My own fraternity's long-time advisors, a member of Psi Upsilon fraternity from the Class of 1939 and his wife, tell us stories about a time when Dartmouth professors and fraternity members would regularly take turns buying each other dinner in town. The administration and community had an extremely friendly relationship with the Greeks, looking to the houses for support in a number of areas. As a result, the dialogue over areas of tension was less threatening and defensive, and better resembled a mature conversation between a father and son.
Such a relationship is not irretrievable, and I know that it could benefit both sides in ways beyond service and security. For example, I doubt that there is one person on campus who doesn't wish that the Greek organizations were more representative of the student body (read: more diverse) than has typically been the case, but no one seems to know just how to go about making this a reality without patronizing the rich history of the minority organizations on campus.
Similar to the discourse over health care reform, we should engage both the public and private sectors, as it were, to create the best possible results. Call me nave, but I can envision a term when we might even hold a cooperative fundraising event such as, say, a tournament between houses to crown the finest (of age) pong players in all the land with entry fees donated to a Dartmouth cause like Partners In Health.
