College President Phil Hanlon’s proclamation that Dartmouth’s curriculum would become more academically rigorous in his Jan. 29 “Moving Dartmouth Forward” announcement sparked debate and worry amongst many students. A panel on academic rigor on Tuesday evening attempted to address these fears by having panelists, many of whom served on the “Moving Dartmouth Forward” presidential steering committee, discuss changes that will be associated with its enactment.
“It’s not a question of making students who are slacking off suddenly work like Nobel Prize physicists,” English professor Barbara Will, the presidential steering committee’s chair, said at the panel.
Will, who declined to comment for a follow-up interview in person or over the phone, emphasized mid-week, high-risk drinking as a cause of concern for the committee.
“A lot of us questioned how students were able to have these periods in the week where students were able to have a lot of high-risk drinking given the stresses of the academic calendar,” she said during the panel.
John Damianos ’16, a member of the steering committee, said that the College must work to become more intellectual.
“We’ve heard from students over and over again that Dartmouth is characterized by its “work hard, play hard” attitude,” Damianos said, expressing a desire to change that perception.
Will spoke of “magic moments,” those “late-night kind of casual intellectual conversations” as something that she hopes will become more frequent as a result of the “Moving Dartmouth Forward” changes.
At the forum, English professor Donald Pease said that fraternities should attempt to return to the model of the 1850s, where they held debates rather than “late-night drinking parties.”
In his plan, Hanlon had suggested ways to increase academic rigor on campus, such as having earlier classes scheduled for Tuesday and Thursdays.
“We’ve heard anecdotally that some students — it’s hard to tell how many — choose not to take early courses on Tuesdays and Thursdays because of Greek house meetings on Wednesday nights, so potentially if you have earlier courses on Tuesdays and Thursdays that could mean that Greek house meetings don’t go as long,” physics and astronomy professor and panel member Ryan Hickox said in an interview.
Though panel members discussed at length the role Greek houses may play in hindering an academic environment, several leaders of Greek organizations and sports teams cited systems of intellectual support within their houses that encourage academics and intellectualism.
Greek houses work in numerous ways to support members academically, various Greek presidents interviewed said. Alpha Chi Alpha fraternity president Noah Reichblum ’15 said that his house hosts study hall events, either at the library or in their house. Alpha Xi Delta sorority academic chair Stephanie Abbott-Grobicki ’15 said that AZD has a locker in their library stashed with academic supplies for members to use if they need such resources. Beta Alpha Omega fraternity president Chet Brown ’15 said that Beta has recently invested in renovating its study room to make it a more appealing intellectual area, and cited its frequent use by members.
Greek houses in general can foster intellectual stimulation and engagement, Reichblum said.
“When you’re living with each other, interacting with each other all the time, it’s very easy to have conversations around academics and seek out academic advice,” he said.
Pease said that Greek houses could become more academic environments if the spirit of the new “Moving Dartmouth Forward” policy initiative is met.
“If those houses can become locations for the discovery of the significance of experiential learning, by seeing how drama organizes the relations of those houses, I could see a new dimension of that course, an added rigor of that course, that could only be made available by the already existing collective spirit of fraternities and sororities,” he said.
While all Greek presidents interviewed for this story said that their respective organizations do not maintain “lay-up lists” — a list of easy classes that can fulfill distributive requirements — several acknowledged that other houses may maintain such lists or that they had heard of some houses keeping them.
“I would believe it,” Brown said. “I don’t know myself.”
Brown, who emphasized that Beta does not keep lay-up lists or answer banks of any kind, said that while such lists can be helpful, they are not usually necessary for students who have planned their course of study extensively.
Most Greek organizations and sports teams prefer to use informal communications between members during course selection periods when members want advice on specific courses or professors, students interviewed said.
“We work informally to kind of help each other in the course selection process,” Sigma Alpha Epsilon president Daegwon Chae ’15 said.
Sports teams function in much the same way, with upperclassmen’s mentorship of younger students playing an important role in academic development of student athletes at the College, several student athletes interviewed said.
“Coming in as a football player, you automatically have 100 teammates, 100 brothers, and you can talk to them about anything,” football quarterback Dalyn Williams ’16 said. “I don’t think any regular student — any student who comes in not playing a sport — has that kind of support behind them.”
Generally, academics still take priority at Dartmouth, many athletic and Greek leaders said.
“There probably aren’t many Division I basketball teams that constantly talk about school,” basketball co-captain Gabas Maldunas ’15 said. “When some of my friends from other schools come to visit, they’re like, ‘Why are you guys so crazy talking about school all the time?’”
The women’s track and field team does maintain course lists that are “sent out termly,” according to Dana Giordano ’16. Still, such lists are often “disregarded” by players, Giordano said, in favor of players simply asking each other about specific courses.
Sara Lindquist ’18, a member of the volleyball team, said that she enjoys the academic support she gets from her team.
“You automatically have a group of girls who have been in the school and been exposed to a bunch of different types of courses.”
Lacrosse captain Jack Connolly ’16 said that, while his team does not maintain such lists, he has in the past been aware of other teams utilizing them.
Maldunas said that it is important for athletes to balance their in-season and out-of-season workloads well, as they can be at a disadvantage when taking courses in-season and also dealing with the commitment of their athletic schedules.
Hickox said in an interview that advantages affiliated students and athletes may glean from having a clear mentorship system could be countered by the residential house system mandated by the “Moving Dartmouth Forward” policy changes. He added that Greek houses and sports teams supporting each other is not necessarily something to be condemned.
“If you have people around you who are willing to help you and share your academic and intellectual experience, I would say that’s definitely something to celebrate,” he said. “The problem comes about if there’s a feeling that access to those groups is exclusive and there’s some sort of built-in advantage to that.”
The sharing of academic and intellectual experiences, however, is “exactly the sort of thing that we want to promote,” Hickox added.
Reichblum said that his house is high-achieving academically, having secured the highest average grade point average amongst Greek houses last term, and said that he is satisfied with what the house is doing to support its members in school.
Abbott-Grobicki said that AZD’s highly academic reputation and high GPA can intimidate some women, and therefore a weekly ritual that traditionally recognized academic achievements of the sisterhood has been expanded to also recognize other achievements, including laundry completion.
Phi Delta Alpha fraternity president Taylor Cathcart ’15 and Phi Tau coed fraternity president Aylin Woodward ’15 said that top priorities in their houses include securing more faculty mentorship. Phi Delt is in the process of searching for a faculty advisor, while Phi Tau is looking for a female faculty advisor in addition to its male advisor. Under the “Moving Dartmouth Forward” plan, Greek houses are required to have both male and female advisors.
Ashneil Jain ’15, student member of the panel and president of Zeta Psi fraternity, told the audience that the policy changes should be interpreted as a way to make the College more intellectual, but not necessarily more difficult.
Jain could not be reached for phone comment because he is currently travelling overseas.
Woodward is a member of The Dartmouth opinion staff. Jain is a member of The Dartmouth business senior staff.
