The heads of the four major governing bodies of the College's Greek System and a representative of the co-ed houses announced yesterday their intentions to form a committee to investigate the Greek system's role at the College.
The formation of the Greek Life Evaluation Committee comes in response to recent reports by the Committee on Diversity and Community at Dartmouth and the Sexual Assault/Sexual Harassment committee that call for a complete review of the Greek system.
Chris Donley '95, president of the Co-ed, Fraternity and Sorority Council, organized the group to address the relationship between the Greek system and intellectualism, diversity, gender relations, race relations, sexual orientation and alcohol abuse.
The other students who suggested the Greek Life committee are Hosea Harvey '95, president of the National Pan Hellenic Council; Interfraternity Council President Scott Swenson '95; Panhellenic Council president Lissa Trumbull '95; and Liz Shor '95, a representative from the co-ed houses.
The issues the students said they would focus on were all listed as topics of concern expressed in the CDCD report, which was presented to College President James Freedman earlier this month.
The report recommended that the College immediately undertake an investigation of the CFS system.
Harvey, who heads the self-governing body of the College's historically black Greek organizations, and a member of the new committee, said its aim is to start an independent investigation of the issues rather than to wait for the administration to dictate its solutions.
"What I want to see done is a report saying here is where we fail, here are ten things we can do, and then take that back to the different sub-councils and organizations," Harvey said.
The students who released the statement will be on the Greek Life Evaluation Committee but Donley said they are still unsure about the rest of its composition.
"I do not have to join a committee to see that there is sexism in fraternities," Shor said. "I want to see what the nature of the problems is. The only good that can come out of the committee is if we recognize the faults and find the causes of the problems and not dispute whether the problems are there."
The students will solicit responses from the College through a questionnaire and invite representatives from campus groups to speak to the committee.
The committee plans to release its findings and recommendations for the CFS system in May to the Board of Trustees, Freedman, Dean of the College Lee Pelton, Dean of Residential Life Mary Turco, Associate Dean of Residential Life Deb Reinders and the Dartmouth community.
