Dartmouth without the Greek system it's like imagining peanut butter without jelly, Hanover winter without snow, booting without rallying. For more than 60 percent of eligible Dartmouth students who are currently affiliated with a Greek organization, it would mean a completely different college experience.
This became a very real possibility in 1999, when former College President James Wright and the Board of Trustees proposed the Student Life Initiative, which Wright predicted would end the Greek system "as we know it."
The SLI, announced Feb. 16, 1999, was drafted to expand Dartmouth's social options and make the College's social scene more inclusive, according to Wright. Wright once posed the question "Can't we do better?" to the existing Greek system. However, many understood the initiative to be an attack on the much-loved fraternities and sororities.
The SLI was intended to transform Dartmouth's fraternities and sororities into co-ed organizations in hopes of promoting respect between male and female students as if guys and girls eating vomlettes together during pledge term would fix everything.
Wright and the Board of Trustees proposed five objectives in the SLI, including reducing the number of students living off campus, creating additional and improved student social spaces, offering a greater choice in residential living, increasing interaction among all students and eliminating alcohol abuse. The College's faculty voted 82-0 in support of the initiative.
Though Wright claimed he had "no intention of proposing a dry campus," outraged students complained that co-ed organizations would destroy the existence of brotherhoods and sisterhoods, and students questioned how instituting co-ed groups would affect alcohol abuse. Students feared the SLI was intended to create a more intellectual student body and transform Dear Old Dartmouth into a "Harvard of the wilderness." Many expressed that they did not want to see their main social option taken away without knowing what would replace it.A The tension between students and administrators culminated in a protest during the 1999 Winter Carnival, when hundreds of Greek members and students wearing shirts that said "Unaffiliated" marched together on Wright's lawn in support of the existing system. Students retaliated against Wright's banning of the Psi U keg jump with the coordinated cancellation of 21 parties hosted by Greek organizations.
Most relevent to those eager '14s ready to rush @now, the SLI also stated, "Rush would be moved to the beginning of Winter term of the sophomore year in order to reduce somewhat the Fall housing crunch and allow more time for students to experience the new enhanced cluster system." Amid great student outcry, the College thus delayed Greek recruitment from sophomore Fall until sophomore Winter beginning in the Fall of 2001.
Three years' of winter rush had a lasting impact on the rush process and not just because sophomores had to choose between winter rush and eating tapas in Barcelona. Because so many sophomores were off campus during rush, many rushed in the spring, causing disunity between pledge classes. Additionally, many sophomores lost a term of experience prior to assuming a role of leadership during sophomore Summer. Then-Assistant Dean of Residential Life Deb Carney said at the time that assuming Greek leadership positions "caught students off guard" during the summer of 2002, and that many had a number of "basic questions" about their job descriptions and subjects like College billing deadlines and structuring action plans.
Many students argued that traditionally there were 25 percent fewer juniors on campus during Winter term than in the Fall, and that new member education suffered as a result. Additionally, all houses suffered financially from the lack of sophomore members paying dues during the Fall, and as a result the financial burden fell entirely on the juniors and seniors.
Missing funds for Keystone and formals, Greek houses desperately pushed to reinstate fall rush. Greek Leadership Council officials and corporate advisers to fraternities drafted letters proposing rush alterations to then-Dean of the College James Larimore, the administrator who directly determined the dates of rush. GLC members cited a number of benefits to an earlier rush, including a longer undergraduate period as a member of a Greek house, and improved the financial position of Greek organizations.
In April 2004, sororities rejected a proposal by the administration to move rush to the fifth week of sophomore Fall. Later that year, rush was reinstated at its usual time: the beginning of the Fall term. Though both rushees and Greeks complained about the lack of pre-rush events and the large size of pledge classes (by large, I'm talking 50 to 60 pledges per house), students happily drove the final nail into the SLI's coffin.
During what proved to be three very confusing and frustrating years, the SLI attempted to completely change a key aspect of Dartmouth's largest social system. While rush is effectively back to normal these days, with most sophomores rushing in the Fall and smaller groups rushing in the Winter, it's definitely weird to imagine how the often misunderstood SLI would have completely changed the nature of these crazy next few weeks.
