Chairman of the College's Board of Trustees Stephen Bosworth '61 said yesterday the Trustees are prepared to weather any and all opposition to their plan to eliminate single-sex fraternities and sororities from the College -- and it appears the Board will have quite a fight on its hands, as approximately 1,000 mostly Greek students gathered in protest last night in front of College President James Wright's Webster Ave. home.
In an interview with The Dartmouth yesterday, Bosworth echoed statements Wright made Tuesday regarding the firmness of the Trustees' plans for an overhaul of social and residential life at the College.
"This is a decision which the Board took with due consideration," Bosworth said. "We are fully behind it."
Wright told The Dartmouth Tuesday the initiative "is not a referendum on these things. We are committed to doing this."
News of the Trustees' plan spread quickly throughout the Dartmouth community yesterday, especially among members of Greek organizations, who reacted with surprise and anger to the announcement.
Members of the Coed Fraternity and Sorority Council met during the evening and, after more than an hour of debate, voted 23-12 to cancel all Greek sponsored events for the upcoming Winter Carnival weekend.
Following the meeting, members of the Council went to their individual houses' weekly chapter meetings where they informed their brothers and sisters of the decision.
At approximately 11 p.m. members of virtually every CFSC organization on campus made an impromptu march to the College-owned Webster Ave. house, where two Safety and Security officers stood with arms crossed in the driveway.
The gathering was without incident, and the crowd dispersed peacefully after singing three choruses of the College's alma mater. Change will be radical
Bosworth said community input will play an important role in determining what the new system will look like -- a decision the Trustees are expected to make next fall or winter -- but said the system is going to be changing "very radically."
Although Bosworth would not say when single-sex fraternities and sororities will cease to exist at the College, he said this fall's rush process will be affected by the initiative.
"It will become clear to everyone that the system is changing and that what you call 'traditional rush' is no longer relevant," Bosworth said. "I think [students] should realize that now."
Bosworth said the Trustees expect substantial opposition from students, as well as alumni, but they believe Dartmouth's historically strong alumni connections will survive the momentous shift in the College's social structure.
"We are confident that the affections and loyalties of Dartmouth alumni rise above those of fraternities," Bosworth said. "People realize that there have been changes to the world around Dartmouth College and therefore Dartmouth has to change."
Bosworth, who is United States ambassador to South Korea, also echoed Wright's statements regarding the need for more beds on campus and additional student-controlled social space.
Although Bosworth said he did not have a plan as to what the new social space or spaces should be like, he said it is possible that movement on the construction of a new social space could begin in the fall.
"We're prepared to put money where our mouths are," Bosworth said of the Trustees. "We'll do what has to be done to make this vision a reality."
Bosworth said there was no particular event or incident which led to the Trustees' historic decision, but said "a lot of people have been unhappy with the current system, and they will welcome a chance for innovation and change."
"It's been our feeling for some time there's been a significant or even substantial percentage of students who have not felt that the current system meets their desires or their needs," Bosworth said.
Bosworth also commented on the fifth of the Trustees' principles -- the one which deals with the Board's mandate to eliminate "the abuse and unsafe use of alcohol."
"I think the vision is to work towards a system where the abuse and excessive use of alcohol is less likely to occur," Bosworth said. "In which people could envision having social interaction without alcohol."
