News
A letter demanding several key College administrators "issue an order abolishing and banning all-male 'Greek' houses effective in the Fall of 1994" circulated from a fake BlitzMail account to a large number of students over the weekend.
The "Open Letter to the Administration about the Greek System" asked for student signatures to be added to the petition destined for College President James Freedman, Dean of the College Lee Pelton, Dean of Residential Life Mary Turco and Assistant Dean of Residential Life Deborah Reinders.
David Cohen '94, Sari Cohen '94, Sean Donahue '96 and Lynn Webster '94 signed the letter for the Dartmouth Alliance for Social Change, a recently formed group of about 40 students who aim to radically reform the Greek system.
But Donahue said the group does not realistically expect their efforts to end in the administration's abolishment of the fraternity system.
"We're hoping this will cause people to think about the system," he said.
DASC's plans to deliver the letter have not changed despite its premature release to the public.
"We will release a revised version of the letter to the administrators mentioned in the draft sometime later this week, and will make the letter public in a press release which will be sent out at that time," a statement released by DASC said.
The draft released over the weekend indicted the Greek system and criticized the administration's weak efforts to reform it.
"We, the undersigned, believe that through your failure to take effective action to eliminate or radically reform the 'Greek' system, that you have failed to fulfill your obligations to the student body and to the Dartmouth community as a whole," the letter said.
The letter went on to list a number of specific controversies concerning fraternities which occurred over the last year, charging all-male Greek houses with the degradation of pledges, homophobia, misogyny and social exclusion.
The letter did not exempt sororities and co-ed fraternities from its attack.
"All 'Greek' houses, including sororities and co-eds, are implicated in the criticisms of the 'Greek' system by virtue of their financial and ideological support," the letter said.
In addition to the abolishment of all-male houses, the letter urges administrators to investigate the sororities and the co-ed houses and "to suspend all rush activities in all CFS houses until this inquiry is completed."
"We have already waited too long," the letter ends.
Many students have reacted negatively to the letter, which was sent with a "Fuck the Frats" subject heading.
"My first response to the [BlitzMail message] is that I can't help but be perplexed at the hypocrisy of the authors," Co-ed Fraternity Sorority Council President Chris Donley '95 said.
"For a group of people against intolerance, stereotypes, and prejudice, they certainly prove to be intolerant and prejudicial of CFS houses and perpetuate many stereotypes," he said.
"If they want to make changes, they have to be more just about the way they do things," said Jessica Gregory '95, a member of Alpha Theta co-ed fraternity.
DASC said it did not intend to have the letter circulate so widely this early.
Donahue said originally the letter was sent only to DASC members and close friends, but someone took the letter and sent it under the false account named DASC, changing the subject header.
"I'm really baffled.
