Andrew Lohse ’12 Speaks Out Against Greek Life on the Huffington Post Website

By Marie Plecha | 4/24/13 3:00pm

Andrew Lohse ’12 commented on his experiences with Greek life and hazing at Dartmouth in an interview for the Huffington Post’s HuffPost Live College Week on Wednesday.

 

The Huffington Post will feature special programming this week discussing aspects of college life including academics, residential life and the Greek system. Students nationwide are encouraged to participate by contributing video or text comments throughout the week.

 

Lohse was one of several students taking part in a group video chat interview titled “A Greek Tragedy?” Lohse, along with students from Hobart College, NYU, and American University, shared his personal experiences and commented on the Greek system generally.

 

“It’s a pretty disgusting, abusive experience, you know, marked by exclusivity and all sorts of kind of traumatic hazing events,” Lohse said of his own experience with Dartmouth’s Greek system. “A culture of misogyny and sexual assault and classism as well.”

 

Lohse said that while much of Greek life’s problems are specific to Dartmouth, other colleges across the country experience similar issues as well. He pointed to schools like Cornell where students have died in incidents involving hazing. “In many cases it’s worse,” he commented.

 

Lohse also shared his perspective on issues such as sexual violence and hazing that are prevalent in Greek systems on college campuses across the country. He suggested that Greek houses be made coed in order to help eliminate such issues.

 

“If we can’t make Greek life safe across the country, then we need to do away with it,” he said.

 

Lohse proposed that colleges nationwide make dramatic changes to their Greek systems in order to deal with issues such as sexual violence. “Most institutions don’t have the courage to do that,” he said.

 

The full interview can be found at http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/college-week-a-greek-failure/516711e402a76018bc00042b.


Marie Plecha