Fifth in a series of articles about James O. Freedman.
For many Dartmouth students the start of James Freedman's presidency was sort of like College Safety and Security officers busting up a dorm party.
The difference was that when Freedman gave his inaugural address in July 1987 the party had been going on for decades and left an entire Ivy League school with a hangover.
"Our primary goal in the years ahead must be to enhance the intellectual distinction of our academic enterprise," Freedman said at the inaugural ceremony on the Baker Library lawn.
"We must strengthen our attraction for those singular students whose greatest pleasures may come not from the camaraderie of classmates," he said, "but from the lonely acts of writing poetry, or mastering the cello, or solving mathematical riddles or translating Catullus."
The challenge Freedman has faced over the past six years is reconciling his quest for intellectualism with Dartmouth's work hard-party hard history.
He has responded with student life policies based on his belief that somehow students can be convinced that education is itself a party held in a variety of venues, only one of which is the classroom.
Freedman inherited the blueprints for change from his predecessor David McLaughlin. Under Freedman's direction and with the support from the Board of Trustees, the College has lessened the Greek system's iron-clad grip on the campus, reshaped students' residential experiences, hired administrators dedicated to student life and laid the groundwork for a full-blown student center.
In a December letter to the Dartmouth community commemorating his first five years at the College, Freedman wrote that a social environment that brings students together also promotes education.
Education "happens in the Hopkins Center and the Hood Museum; in the Outing Club and on the playing field ... and in a plethora of student organizations and activities," he wrote. "The educational process happens in dormitories and dining halls, in fraternities and on the Green, anywhere students -- male and female -- interact."
The Wright Report
The driving force behind social change in the fraternities and residence halls predated Freedman's inauguration in 1987.
Just months before McLaughlin resigned, he formed the ad hoc Committee on Residential Life, chaired by Dean of Faculty James Wright.
The committee was formed in response to a Trustee declaration in February of that year that the College needed to "hasten aggressively our progress toward making our residential life system fully consonant with our intellectual purpose."
The committee's recommendations, released in April 1987 in what is now known as "The Wright Report," began reshaping the College's social atmosphere. Among other things, the report called for limiting the Greek system's influence on campus.
The report was hardly met with joy and acceptance by the student body.
More than 600 students rallied to show their support for the Greek system with a petition of more than 2,000 signatures. As a comparison, only 500 students protested the Rodney King verdict last spring.
Dean of Residential Life Mary Turco said the influence of the Wright Report is still felt today. She said the recommendations made "have become marching orders for a lot of departments."
Behind all the changes the committee proposed was one underlying purpose: "The charge to the committee is a sweeping one and it explicitly requested that we propose ways to enhance the intellectual life of students outside of the classroom," the report stated.
Taming Animal House
Two stated goals of the Wright Report were to "reduce the role of alcohol in the social environment on the campus," and to "reduce the role of fraternities and sororities on campus" -- not an easy task at the school which inspired the move "Animal House."
Stricter and stricter alcohol policies -- first not allowing students under 21 to drink and then banning all common sources such as kegs -- were met with increasing student opposition. The effort to substantially overhaul the primary place where students interact and relax was proving to be a thorny task.
In spring of 1991, more than 800 students filled Webster Hall to express their displeasure with the proposed alcohol policy calling for the banning of kegs and giving the College the power to regulate the policy.
Finally this year, the tide turned back. The College gave the Greek system the power to monitor itself and the ban on common sources was lifted.
Although the committee made many recommendations on how to lessen the influence of the Greek houses, the recommendation that had the longest effect was to delay rush of Greek houses from freshman to sophomore spring.
In 1988, the Trustees moved rush to winter term of sophomore year. Fraternities were very opposed to the measure. Moving rush from freshman year deprived houses of one quarter of their potential members and lessened the reliance of first-year students on the fraternity system.
Again, student opposition eventually got rush moved back to sophomore fall.
In protest of delayed rush and other constraints, several fraternities broke away from the College. After negotiations to bring them back failed, Dean of Students Lee Pelton said all students must live in College-affiliated housing. Fraternities that declared their independence would rejoin the College or be crippled financially.
Through it all, the Greek organizations do remain the dominant social outlets on campus, with more than 50 percent of students involved in them, and with fraternity basements continuously packed on Friday and Saturday.
But the changes keep coming. Facing continued attacks by administration and Trustees, the Greek system now faces perhaps an even more drastic change.
At Convocation, Student Assembly President Andrew Beebe '93, then a fraternity member, proposed the mandated co-education of all of the College's Greek organizations.
When the Trustees met this spring, one of the topics they discussed was the future of the Greek system. The school that only became co-educational 21 years ago now faces the possibility that its fabled "Animal House" fraternities will include females.
Despite internal and external reforms, the function and future of the Greek system at Dartmouth is still being questioned by administrators.
"The fraternities still call the shots on campus -- there is a sense that will change though," said Holly Sateia, dean of student life.
"I would say internally, the role of the Greek houses is not fully defined," Dean of Students Lee Pelton said. "I'm not sure if most co-ed, fraternity and sorority houses have a clear sense of what their purpose is."
Freedman said although fraternities seem to be firmly entrenched in Dartmouth's social life, he said he thinks students will soon question their function.
"Fraternities just don't look like they are part of the wave of the future -- that's not the present case at Dartmouth," he said. "My guess is some time in the next period of years you're going to see the question that Andrew Beebe raised widely discussed."
This year, the Panarchy, a co-ed house perhaps established a precedent by breaking away from Dartmouth's Greek system and establishing itself as an "undergraduate society" under the College's jurisdiction.
Freedman said any structural changes in the Greek system must eventually be made by students.
"If the Trustees try by edict to say we're going to change the role of fraternities on campus -- we're going to have a very difficult situation," he said. "If any change is going to come, it's going to come from students."
Residential Life
The Wright Report suggested a more communal living experience at the College, centered around the cluster system.
However, Freedman wrote that the residence system is invariably connected to education.
Pelton and his colleagues "work to ensure that the residential and social aspect of Dartmouth College -- that part of the Dartmouth experience that occurs outside the classroom -- is seen not as respite or retreat from academic enterprise, but as an area that supports, enriches and extends that enterprise," Freedman wrote.
During Freedman's presidency, all residence halls have become co-ed, and there are more efforts to make the cluster more than merely a place to sleep at night.
"The whole residential life experience gives first year students the chance to make more friends and build a community in your dorm," said Linda Kennedy, coordinator of student activities.
Also, this year, the Office of Residential Life created the Graduates Students-in-Residence Experience, which will hire graduate students to live in undergraduate dorms and serve as academic mentors.
Turco said the program fits in with the Undergraduate Advisor and the Area Coordinator to try to enhance the environment of the residence halls.
Once again, Freedman wrote that residence halls must serve as an extension of the classroom.
"If the assertion that the College is committed to 'the education of the whole person' means anything, surely it means a commitment to the personal development of students inside and outside the classroom," he wrote.
Dean of Student Life
In 1989, the Trustees created Sateia's position as Dean of Student Life, and instituted a per-term $35 student activities fee.
Kennedy said because Freedman has to prioritize what he does for the College, it may appear he does not care about student life.
Kennedy said the development of the activities' fee was vital to the development of social alternatives. The money goes to the Undergraduate Finance Committee which gives the money out to students, she said.
"It has made programs more accessible and more affordable," Sateia said.
Sateia said her position helps to give students options.
"My job is to advocate all students -- I don't want students to feel a certain pressure to do something in order to have a social life on campus," she said.
Collis Student Center
To try to lessen the influence of the Greek houses, the College in the last six years has tried to provide students with consistent alternatives to the alcohol-dominated fraternity basement.
The Wright Report said it saw the need to provide opportunities for late night student activities, and suggested the creation of a campus center.
"We recommend that the College consider proposals to build a comprehensive campus center that will expand upon the base established by the Collis Center," it said.
Charles Collis '37 donated $5.5 million last year, and the project is underway. The new student center, planned to be completed in March of 1993, will have a TV room, billiard and games rooms, vending machines and a pub.
"The College has some commitment in providing some resources for social life above and beyond the Greek letter organizations," Pelton said.
"There is $5.5 million invested in renovating the Collis Center. It shows the College understands it's commitment and is trying to live up to that," he said.
"One thing fraternities and sororities provide for is good hang-out space," Pelton said. "My hope is that the new Collis Center will provide that space as well, but it will be neutral space."
Sateia said the new building will consolidate student services and programs into a campus community center.
"The building will be a true campus center," she said. "People will be blown away when they see it.
It was called D-tour, Playground and Funkytown on Wednesday nights, and then when it moved to Friday it became Friday night dance club. Now it's called the Rave.
"It put Collis on the map as the place to go," Kennedy said. "The last few years it was a place all kinds of people went to --it ceased to be just an alternative as the classes took to it."
But with the closing of Collis for renovations, the dance party lost its home, and now wanders from location to location. The first few raves were exclusively at Greek houses --one was even shut down because of noise complaints.
Now there are two raves: one at a Greek house, and one at a non-Greek location.
With Webster Hall planned to be converted into a special collections library, Collis will be the only location on campus with a large common ground area.
Pelton said he does not expect the College to spend money to build more facilities for social events.
"Our priorities in terms of budget are elsewhere ... We principally want to change the quality of life of students within an academic sphere, which is why students are here," he said.
But Sateia said students who believe the social life of the College has been ignored to create an intellectual haven are wrong.
"The students sometimes feel [Freedman] looks only at the academic side of the College, if you really look closely, there has been some support in physical facilities and financial resources."
