By now, most Dartmouth students presumably know that freshmen will not be allowed inside Greek houses until after Homecoming weekend. While there are many obvious reasons for and concerns surrounding this new policy, one of the more subtle ramifications is the impact that the regulation will have on the relationship between DOC First-Year Trip leaders and their trippees.
In the past, while primarily serving as upperclassmen mentors and friends, many trip leaders have also been the means through which freshmen are introduced to pong and the Greek system. Indeed, immediately knowing an upperclassman who is in a fraternity or sorority can provide a low-key welcome to houses on campus. Learning to play pong with a trip leader on a Tuesday evening is arguably a much less stressful way to learn than in a crowded basement on a Saturday night.
"Trippees can learn how to play it in a safe environment where there's no one judging them," Natalie Salmanowitz '14, a member of Kappa Delta Epsilon sorority, said of Trips pong tournaments. "Since you're there with your trip leaders, you can ask questions and really get to know certain houses on a closer level."
Garrett Watumull '16, who will be a trip leader this year, echoed this sentiment, saying that simply knowing an upperclassmen one trusts within the Greek system is an added benefit to starting college, regardless of whether one's trip holds pong games or events involving alcohol. Still, he imagined that "it's a hard line to walk" between being a trusted member of a fraternity or sorority and simply being a means through which one's trippees can obtain alcohol.
Salmanowitz, who did not initiate pong reunions when she was a trip leader her trippees would contact her if they wanted to play acknowledges that the new restriction could help form closer bonds between trip leaders and trippees, because reunions centered around alcohol might not make all trippees feel comfortable.
Alex Wolf '14, a trip leader trainer, said that trainers have stressed the importance of maintaining healthy relationships with one's trippees outside of the Greek system.
"The goal of Trips both during the program itself and back on campus is to provide an inclusive welcome for all incoming students," Wolf said. "With that in mind, pong or other drinking related activities are not always fully inclusive for everyone, as some new students may be uncomfortable with, scared of or just simply not interested in alcohol or Greek life."
Wolf and the other trainers, concerned that freshmen's restricted access to fraternities might cause more freshmen to ask their trip leaders to supply alcohol, strongly discouraged trip leaders from buying their trippees alcohol, as they believe doing so could be "unhealthy for the trip leader-trippee dynamic."
Wolf also said he believes that the relationships between trip leader and trippees will be more sustainable if they are not centered upon alcohol.
"That means being very attentive to how alcohol can alter that important connection," Wolf said.
Both Watumull and Salmanowitz said they emphasized that most of their post-Trips interactions with their trip leaders or trippees had not been focused on alcohol, and instead consisted of periodic dinners or lunches.
Wolf highlighted how Trips training also emphasized that leaders should work to have one-on-one interactions with their trippees as well as larger group bonding. Most incoming students already know that the Greek system can be a significant part of Dartmouth life, so showing trippees the lesser-known gems of Hanover and the Upper Valley is often much more valuable, he said.
For example, "How many new students will immediately be aware of Mink Brook, the indoor climbing gym or Gile fire tower during their freshman fall?" Wolf said. "We hope that leaders will take their trippees to places they have personally enjoyed on campus and introduce them to a wide array of opportunities."
While it is possible that Greek houses will see a large number of Trips pong reunions once the ban on freshmen in frats is lifted in October, presumably by this time trippees will have strong relationships with their leaders that are not based upon alcohol and the Greek system.
"I still think [pong tournaments] will happen because [they are] a good way to get together, it's a social game," Watumull said. He emphasized that these types of interactions, later in the year, will simply be a way to spend time with one another, rather than a way to consume alcohol.
Regardless of how trip leaders choose to interact with their trippees both during the integral first few weeks of fall term and beyond if leaders succeed in forming solid, meaningful and long-lasting relationships with those on their trip, they will have done their job exceedingly well.
