For decades, Dartmouth’s faculty have been invested in the wellness of their students, both inside and outside of the classroom — with the small community at the College, separating the two is almost impossible. A 32-question Mirror survey allowed faculty to reflect on the current state of the College, and the results reveal that discussions about major issues are far from finished.
We contacted 411 faculty members with this survey, and 39 submitted their answers to questions, ranging from the frequency of cheating to overhauling the Greek system. Of those respondents, 70 percent indicated that they would approve of abolishing the Greek system.
Celia Chen ’78, a biology professor, falls in the majority of faculty members who believes the system should be abolished. She said that the Greek system may harm admissions, as the high percentage of involvement may cause prospective students to assume that participation in the Greek scene is a prerequisite for having an enjoyable social life.
While the antics of Dartmouth fraternities and sororities have received substantial media attention lately, Chen said these issues are not new developments.
“This has been a problem since I was an undergrad,” she said. “The unacceptable behaviors that go on in a lot of fraternities are a real worry.”
The relationship between the Dartmouth faculty and the Greek system has historically been a tumultuous one, sparking decades of debate over the effects of Greek life on the academic and social lives of students. Faculty made their opinions on the matter clear in 1978, when they voted 67-16 in favor of abolishing the Greek system. Faculty once again voted for abolishment in three separate instances in the 1990s.
These moves, however, did not end the debate, and faculty members began to express their concern in more vocal ways. In 2001, 101 faculty members signed a letter decrying the “institutionalized practices of sexist and racist humiliation” that they alleged festered in campus Greek culture, the New York Times reported. In 2012, 105 faculty members issued a similar statement, in which they condemned the Greek system for operating against the College’s values.
Still, several faculty members oppose abolishing the Greek system.
“The faculty focus on getting rid of the Greek system is misguided,” math professor Dana Williams said. “I think the problem is a generic one across campus. At Dartmouth, the fraternities are the center of the social scene, so things are going to happen there.”
Williams acknowledged that his opinion on the issue places him in the minority among faculty. He said he foresees upcoming changes to the Greek system, especially because of the prominence of issues like binge drinking, sexual assault and diversity within the organizations.
Classics professor Paul Christesen also noted the importance of Greek life in the campus social scene.
“I think in the short term there’s no socially functional alternative, so a unilateral abolition would create a major complication,” he said. “I think for the foreseeable future, primarily having to do with the drinking age, something like the Greek scene is a necessity.”
Faculty members may hold various opinions on how to reform the Greek system, but math professor Carolyn Gordon said she believes that sexual assault is the biggest issue that Dartmouth faces, an opinion with which Williams and Chen both agreed (Chen also listed binge drinking and hazing). Survey respondents also named sexual assault the most important issue facing Dartmouth today.
Aside from topics surrounding the Greek system, the survey also addressed issues of academic honesty, grade inflation and dedication to classwork.
When asked whether students dedicate more time to schoolwork or extracurricular activities, student and faculty responses differed. While a majority of students said they spend more time on classwork, faculty members said they expect students to prioritize extracurriculars (for student survey data and methodology, see pages 4 and 5).
Williams said he does not know what students spend more time doing, adding that a better question would ask if students spend an appropriate amount of time on classwork.
“I find it a little surprising that there’s a night during the week that would be considered a party night,” Williams said. “If students are partying fairly freely during the week, I don’t think they have enough work to do.”
Christesen suggested that the groups’ responses may differ because professors could use their own classes to gauge how much work students do.
“Typically, we only see a student in one class,” he said. “I think maybe we are simply projecting outward from the workload we assign individually, whereas students are handling three classes.”
Some faculty members — 11 of the 29 who expressed an opinion on the matter — also said that Dartmouth should change its name to Dartmouth University. Chen said that Dartmouth could change its name and still retain committed to high-quality undergraduate teaching.
Williams and Chen agreed that grade inflation is a common problem at Dartmouth and at colleges across the nation, and said that their classes’ medians match those of their respective departments. Williams’s grades are appropriate for the way that Dartmouth currently grades, he said.
He said that any pressure to give students higher grades is self-imposed, but that grade inflation is something Dartmouth must address as an institution.
“You can’t change grades unilaterally,” Williams said. “That would be grossly unfair. I like my students. I see that they work hard, and that makes me want to give them grades that reflect that.”
