Like last year, freshmen cannot attend Greek events serving alcohol for the first six weeks of fall term. The Greek Leadership Council launched this policy in May 2013 and is making changes in its second implementation, clarifying disciplinary procedures and planning to host more non-alcoholic social events.
The GLC will establish the Greek Board on Accountability to oversee compliance with the policy, GLC accountability chair Sarah Lucas ’15 said. Lucas, who will chair the new board, said it will mainly work with Greek organizations but will also hear cases of freshmen who violate the policy.
Greek organizations that violate the policy will be fined and disobedient freshmen will not be allowed to participate in rush until the end of their sophomore year.
The GLC, Interfraternity Council and the Panhellenic Council will also host more alcohol-free social events for freshmen in the first six weeks of the term, GLC summer chair Elizabeth Wilkins ’16 said.
Potential events include tailgates before sports games and discussions of sexual assault, summer IFC president Chase Gilmore ’16 said. Summer Panhell president Charlotte Kamai ’16 said the council planned the events to publicize aspects of the Greek community other than parties, including philanthropy and school spirit.
“There is a misconception that this policy means we don’t want freshmen in our houses at all, we want to keep them away, keep the Greek system as a big secret, and that’s not the goal at all,” Wilkins said.
Mary Sieredzinski ’17, a member of the women’s track and field team, said in a previous interview that the policy made her feel excluded from the broader campus community and made it more difficult for her to socialize with upperclassman teammates. She added, however, that the policy motivated freshmen to find creative ways to socialize and allowed them to bond as a class.
Panhell president Rachel Funk ’15 said she hopes the policy will help freshmen explore alternative social options before they are able to enter Greek houses after Homecoming.
“We want to them to have a sense that there are other social outlets than Greek life on this campus,” she said.
When the policy went into effect last fall, the College saw a record low number of alcohol-related incidents. Data released by the Dartmouth College Health Improvement Program and the GLC in January showed a drop in the number of intoxicated students handled by Safety and Security from 99 in fall 2012 to 83 in fall 2013. Over the same period, Good Samaritan calls decreased from 48 to 37, and the percent of alcohol-related incidents involving freshmen went from 49 to 46 percent.
Former DCHIP team leader and director of health promotion and student wellness Aurora Matzkin noted at a DCHIP- and GLC-led forum in January that it is impossible to show direct causality between a policy and a drop in alcohol-related incidents. Instead, she said, this data reflects the overall decrease in alcohol-related high-risk behaviors across campus.
Matzkin has since resigned, effective Aug. 31, and the position remains vacant.
Funk said that although the policy might not be the only reason for the drop, she thinks it was a contributing factor.
Grace Carney ’17 said that she thought the policy led freshmen to drink more dangerously, as they often drink hard liquor in residence hall parties and beers at Greek houses.
Alpha Delta fraternity president Mike Haughey ’15 said the policy enabled freshmen to make friends with fellow classmates outside of Greek social spaces, but noted that a lack of data makes it difficult to determine the policy’s influence on freshman drinking behavior.
Last year, various organizations worked to accommodate the policy. Collis After Dark offered substance-free weekend events including live music and dance parties, and the GLC gave Greek houses funds to host their own events for freshmen. The card office changed the color of the undergraduate year and Dartmouth ID number on freshman ID cards to make them easier for upperclassmen to identify.
This fall, the Greek Board on Accountibility will join the roster of organizations involved with the policy’s implementation. Consisting of affiliated upperclassmen, the board’s members will not create new regulations, but rather enforce existing GLC policies and the standards taught in various training sessions.
These meetings and facilitations educate students about Dartmouth’s standards of conduct, while the Greek Board on Accountability will work to uphold policies, Lucas said in an email.
Interviewed members of Class of 2017 seemed to recommend that the Class of 2018 abide by the policy and approach it with an open mind. Carney said that the six weeks will pass quickly, and added that it is better to follow the policy than to face the consequences.
Katie Fuhs ’18 said she thinks the policy will allow her to meet more classmates, and added that she has not planned to go to parties with alcoholic beverages.
“I think it is a good idea because it forces kids to be responsible and learn that there are other things to do in college,” she said. “The first six weeks will be a perfect opportunity for all of us to connect with each other and find other things that are fun to do but have nothing to do with drinking.”
A version of this article was initially published on August 8, 2014.
