Rolling Stone article targets College culture
By Sophia Johnston
Published on Thursday, March 29, 2012
An article in Rolling Stone titled “Confessions of an Ivy League Frat Boy,” addressing allegations of hazing at Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity made by Andrew Lohse ’12, has been published in the April 12 edition of the magazine, released online on Wednesday. While many students interviewed by The Dartmouth expressed displeasure with Rolling Stone contributing editor Janet Reitman’s representation of Dartmouth culture, some said they recognized that the article would provoke discussion about important issues addressed in the article, such as sexual assault and hazing.
Reitman’s piece includes a timeline of the events that led to Lohse’s January opinion column in The Dartmouth, as well as Reitman’s description of Dartmouth’s Greek system and its relationship to hazing. The article relies on Lohse as its primary source but also includes interviews with several current students, professors and alumni.
Lohse said that his relationship to the Dartmouth Greek system began with his older brother, a Dartmouth alumnus who was a member of a fraternity and whom Lohse highly admired. After arriving at Dartmouth and pledging a fraternity, Lohse told Reitman he expressed concerns about several activities with which he felt uncomfortable but never received a positive response from SAE members. During a one-year suspension from the College resulting from two criminal charges, Lohse brought his concerns to the attention of administrators and eventually described his experiences within the pages of The Dartmouth.
Reitman’s article characterizes the College as the “most insular school in the Ivy League,” where “fraternities essentially control the social life” and criticism of Greek life is equivalent to “criticizing Dartmouth itself.” Reitman describes the “rampant” nature of sexual assault, closely linked to “predatory” fraternities.
Citing the College’s recent charges against 27 SAE members — 24 of which have now been dropped — Reitman questioned the possibility of future open dialogue in an interview with The Dartmouth, particularly “given how the school has treated Lohse.”
Reitman contacted Lohse via email after the publication of his column, Lohse said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
Although sexual assault and hazing occur on many college campuses, Reitman said she took a particular interest in Dartmouth, where problems are magnified due to the large influence of fraternity culture. Lohse’s allegation raised interesting questions, she said.
“Dartmouth produces important people who will go on to do great things,” Reitman told The Dartmouth. “Dartmouth is known for producing a certain type of leader, known for Wall Street, powerful financial figures, and if you look at their background, many have been involved in fraternities. I wanted to ask, ‘What kind of kids is this culture producing?’”
Lohse said he considered Rolling Stone’s journalistic style in choosing to work with Reitman on the story.
“Longer-form journalism that will reach a lot of people is a great way to get the story out,” Lohse said. “There’s a great tradition of real quality journalism that holds powerful institutions accountable at that magazine in particular.”
Reitman conducted her research for the article over the course of two trips to Dartmouth — the first lasting five days and the second spanning Winter Carnival weekend — during Winter term. During this time, she interviewed approximately 30 students, only a few of whom agreed to speak on the record. One student to whom Reitman was introduced accompanied her to a fraternity, and though its members were initially friendly, they asked Reitman to leave once they discovered her identity, she said.
Interviewed students complained that limited forums exist for discussion or change, while many others declined interview requests. She said she also attempted to speak to administrators but received limited response.
“One of the common complaints I heard during discussions with students is that the administration is far more concerned with protecting Dartmouth’s reputation than with directly addressing the core problems that exist on campus,” she said. “After two visits to campus and dozens of interviews, I didn’t feel this criticism was unjust.”
The article relied heavily on “hearsay and sensationalism” in response to “challenging and complex problems on U.S. campuses,” Dartmouth College Director of Media Relations Justin Anderson said in a statement to The Dartmouth.
“It is regrettable that Rolling Stone has failed to see that Dartmouth is a vibrant, diverse community, and instead reduced it to a one dimensional, inaccurate caricature,” Anderson said.
An article such as the one published in Rolling Stone, however, could contribute to discussions regarding social issues, according to Lohse.
While Lohse said he could not comment on the article’s potential effects on nationwide hazing discussions or the College community, he said his own focus is not on the national perspective.
SAE president Michael Fancher ’13 said Reitman’s article omits the positive aspects of Greek life and efforts for reform.
“[Lohse] never demonstrated any desire to have a role in the reforms SAE is introducing regarding the way in which we conduct our new member activities,” Fancher said.
Aimee Le ’12, who was interviewed for Reitman’s article, said she believes the article will force both students and administrators to answer questions about College culture.
“I hope the College will take this in a broader sense as an indication that there is something questionable about the culture in general,” she said. “Not just the fraternity culture, but the foundations of the school and what it means to have an intellectual and educational environment.”
The article raises many issues that need to be examined by the community, including hazing, Student Body President Max Yoeli ’12 said.
“Hazing is a collective problem because it implicates the rest of the house, which is why people are more reluctant to talk about it,” he said.
The issues the article addresses — including hazing, sexual assault and alcohol abuse — are clouded by Lohse’s personal narrative, according to Yoeli.
“The article almost reads as a presumption that there is black and white, good and bad,” he said. “It did not convey the true picture of Dartmouth College and oversimplifies the nuances of many personal interactions that occur on campus.”
Yoeli said the issues raised by the “sensational piece” would have been better tackled by a male leader in the Greek community openly addressing the existence of problems within the Greek system, gathering the “right kind of attention” rather than ridicule.
Of the 50 students approached by The Dartmouth on Wednesday, 75 percent had read or were aware of the article’s content. Several were reluctant to speak on the record and many refused to comment.
Gillian O’Connell ’15 said that while many students may be upset by the article, it still points to “elements of truth” about Dartmouth culture, which “revolves around drinking and social life.” In order to address social issues, students must remember the reasons they chose to attend Dartmouth, including the desire to “make a difference.”
James Rascoff ’15 said that Dartmouth’s elitism is drastically overstated in the article.
“I think it was an opinion piece — not a single positive thing was said about the school,” Rascoff said. “Dartmouth has been demonized. Hazing exists on countless college campuses and because of this ‘whistleblower,’ Dartmouth will receive all the negative press.”
Lohse received no monetary compensation for his involvement in the Rolling Stone piece and has not profited from other interviews he has given or writing he has published, according to Lohse and Reitman.
Staff writers Ashley Ulrich and Leslie Ye contributed reporting to this article.
As an alumni, I have to say I found the Rolling Stone article sadly accurate. Dartmouth can whine all they want about ‘unfair media representation’, but we’ve got no one but ourselves to blame.
Wait till you get out into the job market and find what kind of opinions most people hold about Dartmouth based on their perception of frat culture there. It might not always be fair, but there’s a huge PR problem here that Harvard or Yale doesn’t have.
By Anonymous on Mar 29 | 4:08 am
I wish the RS article hadn’t repeated the myth about Wright (who is not an alum as stated in the article) and how he tried to end the Greek system “as we know it.” That was his prediction, not his goal. Why did he make that prediction? He thought the new model Undergraduate Society, which his administrators created, would flourish. The two groups that signed up failed to compete with the Greek system as Wright had expected.
By An “alumni” on Mar 29 | 7:08 am
In my Wall Street experience, Harvard and Yale may not have this “PR problem” but they certainly have a ton of envy at the camaraderie, good feelings, loyalty and lack of backstabbing shared by Dartmouth grads. Long live your “insular culture”.
By Wannabe on Mar 29 | 7:39 am
As an alumna, I can tell you that Dartmouth’s reputation is out there. When my alma mater comes up, I wind up saying, “I went to Dartmouth and no, I’m not a drunk.” Otherwise the first reaction to “I went to Dartmouth” is drunk jokes.
The Rolling Stone article is sensationalist, but it doesn’t seem inaccurate about the basic fraternity culture. It doesn’t throw a flattering light on Lohse — far from it! — but the baseline smells accurate. Even when you discount the swimming pool full of whatever, the drink-till-you-vomit culture isn’t debatable. This reputation is, believe it or not, not a good thing in most professions.
To Mr. Yoeli: If a “male leader of the Greek community” can address this mess, why didn’t it happen years ago? Answer: because nobody wanted to, and they don’t want to now.
By An ‘81 on Mar 29 | 11:41 am
The Rolling Stone author also wrote that magazine’s piece on the Duke Lacrosse Scandal. Perhaps there is more than one pattern here.
By Concerned on Mar 29 | 11:52 am
It is “Wannabe” who is correct. Harvard and Yale are full of students taught by their parents and their social circle that they are nothing unless they go to school there, nothing if they don’t get the right jobs with the right companies, nothing if they don’t beat everyone else with more stuff in a tonier neighborhood, nothing…what they are taught is that they are nothing and the stuff is everything. That is one thing Dartmouth has going for it, the students that go there are more independent than that and have deeper relationships with people.
By Bobo on Mar 29 | 12:24 pm
Mr. Lohse has, through his comments and actions, demonstrated his incredible immaturity. A mature mind understands the cultural need to place the whole ahead of the self. Mr. Lohse has consistently shown his self-centered, child-like response to situations that did not conform to his ideal reality. College first, Fraternity second, Self last is a motto that can and should be carried through life. Substitute Friends for Fraternity if you are unaffiliated.
By Anonymous on Mar 29 | 12:31 pm
Dear Dartmouth –
Wake up! The rest of your peer schools moved on from this type of behavior over 20 years ago – they’ve been fully engaged in actually educating their graduates to take a productive place in the global economy instead of hankering for the days when fraternity boys ran the world. Take a hard look at yourself and make changes, or Dartmouth will be left further behind and not even able to compare to most NESCAC schools, let alone the Ivy League.
By The Real World on Mar 29 | 12:48 pm
^Making sweeping generalizations about entire student bodies? Sounds like another Reitman in the making.
By Anonymous on Mar 29 | 12:58 pm
An, you think “every frat has a couple of guys who use date rape drugs” smells accurate to you?
Maybe you are drunk. In my four years I never heard of date rape drugs being used, and if I had would have been glad to turn anyone over to the police. As would the company I kept. One of the few people I recall ever turning away at the door was a student we felt had date raped a girl. Anyone who had been accused of such an offence did not get a bid. Your insinuation that there is a wide spread acceptance, tacit or otherwise of such behavior, begs the question why someone so wholly ignorant of the matter on which they speak would take time to weigh in.
By TN ‘99 on Mar 29 | 1:00 pm
Surely at this stage, denouncing Lohse’s actions as immature demonstrates your maturity. The Rolling Stones article should not spur a discussion of Lohse’s actions or the accusations that the article contains. It should spur a discussion of Dartmouth’s identity. It is how about how we view ourselves and ultimately how the rest of the world sees us. While it is not unfortunate that the Greek system is so dominant on campus, it is unfortunate that we see it as a stepping stone to a future career or a way to get girls. The article depicts our culture almost as one filled with sex, drugs, money, and power. This is definitely not how we should be viewed. If you’re angry at Lohse, you’re angry at the wrong thing. Lohse merely said what we all know and feel. You should be angry that our traditions have made us appear the way the article depicts us.
By D14 on Mar 29 | 2:51 pm
During my 43 year tenure on the Dartmouth faculty there were three presidents who displayed the courage to challenge alumni: (1) John S. Dickey when he denounced Senator Joseph McCarthy (2) John G. Kemeny when he opposed the war in Vietnam and (3) James O. Freedman who revealed the anti-Semitism and admissions quotas of President Hopkins. Wright and Kim created committee after committee to “study” alcohol and sexual abuse at some fraternities. Quick fix: make them all co-ed. Don’t expect Acting President Carol Folt to address the problem. Like her immediate predecessors she is part of the problem. Unfortunately the Rolling Stone article is just the beginning of a media blitz that will deprive Dartmouth of the students it most needs.
By Jon Appleton on Mar 29 | 3:11 pm
I think it’s great that the professors who make statements and write articles for the D are uniformly anti-fraternity. They have nothing positive to say about them or the members as a group, or the members as individuals, unless they are attacking the fraternities. The College, administration, faculty and parts of the student body, admitted, paid for and coddled to make a career out of attacking Dartmouth and the fraternities has an agenda of wrecking what made Dartmouth great and the nation great with nothing to replace it. They are a disgraceful group of know-it-alls.
By Anon on Mar 29 | 3:51 pm
No sensible reader of the Rolling Stone article will think it is an accurate portrayal of Dartmouth.
Dartmouth’s biggest problem right now is a lack of common sense among its top administrators, many faculty members, and even some students. The result: a Salem Witch Trials/McCarthy era atmosphere where charges are filed before investigation, and fifth hand rumors are regarded as gospel.
By Giles Cory on Mar 29 | 4:04 pm
Faculty are uniformly anti-fraternity because the fraternity system reinforces the worst in Dartmouth. If you are suggesting the fraternities make Dartmouth great, you don’t understand greatness. I don’t doubt that the members as individuals are great people, but can they not be greater without the fraternity? Is a group that is clings so tightly to tradition more for power’s sake than tradition’s sake deserving of positive statements?
By @Anon on Mar 29 | 4:13 pm
I was in a frat in college in the 1980s (not Dartmouth). Back then, 18 year olds could drink legally and freshmen could join second semester. We drank but we did not do ANY of the things described in this article. We had beer parties but we also had poetry readings, a literary magazine, and nightly group dinners. Our pledging and initiation processes were silly but harmless—no drinking was encouraged or required. Alcohol was available but completely optional: some drank, others did not.
Dartmouth faculty do not see any of the benefits of fraternities on campus. We only see filthy front lawns strewn with beer cans, hung over students on Thursday mornings—yes we know about Wednesday night “meetings”—horrifying posters for pig roasts and stories about pong. We read D reports about students involved with the police for drugs and alcohol. We never see or hear anything positive about the frats, how could we have a positive attitude toward them?
By faculty member on Mar 29 | 4:26 pm
Admission decisions will be out soon. I wonder what this will do to the “yield”.
By Anonymous on Mar 29 | 4:30 pm
Amen
By @ faculty member on Mar 29 | 5:47 pm
of course the faculty doesn’t see anything good about the houses, they’re either jealous that they don’t have any fun and have no good friends or they are wet blanket academics. Another reason the faculty and the houses don’t get along is that the faculty is full of leftist whiners and busybodies. How would the faculty like it if the fraternity brothers got to criticize what the faculty does on off campus hours? I bet we’d get a whole lot o' shuttin' up on the subject of whose business other people’s lives are. Most of the faculty would never get a bid and wouldn’t want to be in a house because they’d have to spend too much time changing their messed diapers.
By Anon on Mar 29 | 6:17 pm
PREACH!!! Yo Dartmouth – listen up. This dude knows where it’s at.
By @The Real World on Mar 29 | 6:19 pm