In a meeting that began at 10 p.m. and lasted until around midnight on Thursday, the College’s eight sorority presidents met with nine executive members of Panhellenic Council and voted to proceed with winter recruitment.
“After much discussion, the Panhellenic Sororities have voted to go forward with winter recruitment as scheduled, primarily so that the women who planned to participate in recruitment this term have the opportunity to do so,” a statement obtained by The Dartmouth read. “However, we also acknowledge that we operate in an imperfect system, and that our recruitment process often reflects these flaws. As such, we are working together on short- and long-term improvements to the recruitment process itself and to the sorority experience at Dartmouth as a whole.”
Earlier on Thursday, five Panhell executives sent a “call to action” to campus via email, explaining their decision to abstain from recruitment next week.
“We feel that there are clear flaws in our Greek system and we acknowledge our role in re-creating these flaws, through processes such as recruitment and on a daily basis,” the email read.
At the meeting that was held in Collis 101 last night, the sorority presidents and eight of 10 Panhell executives, including one who is currently off campus and did not attend, affirmed the sentiments expressed in the email sent by the abstaining Panhell executives earlier that day.
“While we maintain individual differences in opinion — and while the abstention of five of the Panhellenic Executive Council members still stands — we are determined to move forward together to tackle the root problems within our Greek system,” the statement drafted at the Thursday night meeting read.
As of press time, Panhell’s two vice presidents for recruitment had not appended their names to the statement, which is to be sent out to campus today.
The announcement that five out of nine Panhell executives would abstain from recruitment provoked strong emotions from the student body — a mix of frustration, confusion, admiration and approval.
Much of the confusion stemmed from the wording of the abstaining Panhell executives’ statement, sent to campus around 10 a.m. Thursday, which to some seemed to imply that women would not be able to participate in recruitment this term.
“To the women who wanted to rush this quarter: We know our decision may feel unfair to you,” the email read. “However, we feel that enabling you to enter this unchanging cycle would be more unjust.”
Several female members of the Class 2016, speaking on condition of anonymity due to their intention to participate in recruitment, said they were upset by the manner in which the five Panhell executives’ were choosing to express their concerns.
“The girls who rushed in the fall and were lucky enough to get bid in houses they liked are set, but the other girls who were off in fall or dropped out will be the only ones affected,” one woman in the Class of 2016 said.
Others speculated that postponing or cancelling winter rush would divide affiliated and unaffiliated members of their class. Several women said they would not have dropped out of fall recruitment had they known that there was a possibility they would not be able to rush again the following quarter, pointing out that the timing of the email was unfair to the very students the decision was intended to benefit.
One member of the Class of 2016 intending to participate in recruitment said she felt the decision should have involved discussion with female members of her class and other students.
An email sent out from the official Panhell account at around 3 p.m. indicated that recruitment would continue as scheduled. It reminded potential new members of the deadline for registration and included the dates of an upcoming information session and recruitment events.
“To clarify confusion from an earlier blitz to campus,” the email read, “Panhellenic Council would like to clarify that winter recruitment will proceed as normal starting on Tuesday.”
Upon hearing that recruitment would continue as planned, some students questioned whether the decision to abstain by Panhell’s president, vice president of operations, vice president of public relations and two programming chairs had accomplished any substantial change.
Other members of the Dartmouth community, however, were quick to praise the five abstaining Panhell members for their bravery.
Hui Cheng ’16 said that she thought their decision demonstrated leadership.
“I think we should respect these five women for having taken on a very difficult position based on what they think is right, regardless of what popular opinion may be,” Cheng said.
Cheng said she also agreed with several points raised in the “call to action” email regarding flaws in recruitment, particularly the observation that the recruitment process is more accessible to people from certain racial or socioeconomic backgrounds.
“For students who are coming from backgrounds where they have to contribute for their tuition, they have to choose,” she said. “Do I pay for Greek dues or do I help my parents?”
Emily Estelle ’15 said she found recruitment to be a superficial process. By the end of her conversations at each rush party, she said she did not feel she had a good sense of who people were.
Several students said that some of the superficiality in rush could stem from the fact that sororities are not seen as open social spaces on campus.
Although men can rush every quarter if they do not get bids from the house of their choice, women who participate in recruitment cannot rush for a year if they are not matched with a house on preference night.
Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity president Alex Olesen ’14 said that while he did not think the decision by the five Panhell executives to abstain from winter sorority recruitment would directly affect fraternities, their public statement raised important issues about Greek life.
“It’s an opportunity for fraternities to reflect internally how to make our social spaces safer,” he said.
Greek Life Organizations and Societies Director Wes Schaub wrote in an email that GLOS would operate as usual and would assist women with the recruitment process while working with the Panhell executives on their stance.
Panhell executives and the presidents of Alpha Phi, Sigma Delta, Kappa Delta, Alpha Xi Delta, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Delta Delta Delta, Epsilon Kappa Theta and Kappa Delta Epsilon sororities did not respond to requests for comment.
This article has been updated to reflect the following correction:
Correction appended: January 10, 2014
The original version of the article misidentified Emily Estelle as a member of the Class of 2014. She is a member of the Class of 2015.
