While Tuesday's announcement of the Trustees' plan to overhaul social and residential life at the College came as a shock to most Dartmouth students, in reality, it was a decision at least two decades in the making.
College President James Wright will likely be remembered as the Dartmouth president who presided over the revolution mandated by the Trustees' decision. As the president who will guide the creation of what will be a dramatically different Dartmouth, Wright will be the inevitable recipient of whatever praise or anger the changes bring, not only in the coming months, but for generations to come -- it will be his place in the history of the Wheelock Succession.
But Wright cannot be held solely responsible -- for better or for worse -- for the groundwork which lies beneath the five principles laid out by the Trustees in their vote two weekends ago.
"The Board has probably talked about [making a major change to the Greek system] off and on for 20 years," Wright said, who added that the discussions which culminated in the Trustees' initiative took place throughout the 10-year presidency of James O. Freedman, as well as during the tenure of Dartmouth's 14th president, David T. McLaughlin.
But that is not to say that Wright has not played a major role in discussion of the Greek issue. As a member of the faculty since 1969 and a member of the administration for most of the 18 years prior to his appointment to the College's presidency, Wright made his opinions on residential and social life at the College well known on a number of occasions, at times leading the discussion and the call for a deemphasis of Greek life on the Dartmouth campus. The Wright Report
In March of 1987 -- in response to a statement by the Board of Trustees that the College needs "to hasten aggressively our progress toward making our residential life system fully consonant with our intellectual purpose" -- then College President McLaughlin appointed an ad hoc committee charged with creating a set of specific proposals to improve the quality of residential life.
The chair of that committee was History Professor James Wright, and the committee eventually submitted what is known as the "Wright report."
Included in the Wright report were recommendations that the College reduce both the role of alcohol and the influence of fraternities and sororities on campus social life, stating "The image of Dartmouth as an institution that focuses on partying as much as learning is an unfortunate one and it is certainly an inaccurate one."
The Wright report was the impetus behind the movement of fraternity and sorority rush to sophomore year, and played an important role in sparking the Trustees to announce later that year that they would "evaluate the cost and the impact of the establishment of a student center," which came in 1993 with the transformation of College Hall into the Collis Center.
The committee was asked to create proposals in response to the following six goals outlined by the Trustees, many of which bear a striking resemblance to the five principles announced by the Trustees last Tuesday:
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"a significant reduction in the role" fraternities and sororities play in the College social structure
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a lessening of the role of alcohol in the campus environment
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greater respect and tolerance in the campus environment
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enhancement of the intellectual life of students outside the classroom and of the image of the College
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a more fully integrated residential life system
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a greater faculty role in residential life
At the time of the committee's formation, McLaughlin informed the committee "we will not consider at this time a total abolition of the fraternity/sorority system." Wright said the committee would consider a reduction in the number of members in each fraternity.
In the end, the committee did more than consider a reduction in the number of fraternity members -- it was as a result of the findings of the committee that the College moved the fraternity and sorority rush process to sophomore year from its former date of freshman spring.
The committee also considered plans to strengthen the cluster system such as including greater continuity in cluster assignments, occasional cluster dining functions and increased cluster programming funds.
The Wright report was finally released in April of 1987, recommending increasing social and intellectual options at the College by strengthening dormitory cluster cohesiveness and constructing a campus center.
Still, McLaughlin said the report did not represent, in any way, "an unwritten agenda to get rid of fraternities."
He did say, however, if there was not a continued improvement in the fraternity system, however, it could start "moving the way of Amherst and Williams," both of which had removed fraternities from their campuses.
The Freedman presidency
Two committees formed by Freedman during his presidency found the Greek system to be detrimental to the College's academic mission.
In 1994, the Committee on Diversity and Community at Dartmouth -- chaired by College Trustee Stanford Roman and formed by Freedman in 1992 to evaluate the state of diversity at Dartmouth -- confirmed the findings of the 1989 Committee on Diversity.
"The CFS system tends to encourage excessive drinking, anti-intellectualism, sexism, racism and homophobia ... The CFS system fosters a climate that is detrimental to the academic mission of the College," both reports stated.
The CDCD also expressed concern that the Greek system's problems affect the public's perception of the College and consequently the make-up of the applicant pool.
"Despite Dartmouth's success in increasing numerical diversity, its recruitment of minority students remains extremely sensitive to the interpretation of the outside world, particularly to those who view Dartmouth as less tolerant than its peer institutions," the report stated.
Freedman said the charges concerning the Greek system were very strong and warranted action.
"It's an important recommendation, and I'm not quite sure how to carry it out," Freedman told The Dartmouth in January of 1994.
Also serving on the CDCD was Andrew Beebe '93, the former Student Assembly president who advocated a change to a completely coed Greek system to improve gender and race relations on campus.
Changing the environment
In an interview with The Dartmouth in April of 1998, on the day the announcement was made that Wright would become the 16th president of Dartmouth, Wright said the College should not be an environment that is "hostile or demeaning to women or other members of the community," and said the Greek system in particular encourages "an environment or a mood or an attitude that is demeaning to women."
"Fraternities encourage conduct that is not appropriate," Wright said, adding that "fraternities probably have too large a role in the social life." He said then that he would like to expand some of the social options available to students.
In his Inaugural Address, Wright said he planned to work with students to expand social and residential options.
"The diversity of our social options needs to reflect the diversity of this community," Wright said.
Wright said the out-of-classroom experience must complement and support "the central mission of the College."
Although he did not specifically mention the Greek system during his address, Wright was dean of the faculty when both the CDCD and the Committee on Diversity reported that the academic mission of the College was being negatively effected by the Greek system.
The faculty vote of 1978
Long before Wright, and even before Freedman began his term as president of the College, it was clear that administrators and faculty members were having a difficult time reconciling the role of the Greek system with their visions for intellectual life outside of the Dartmouth classroom. For more than 20 years covering more than three Dartmouth presidencies, fraternities and sororities have been targets of criticism from faculty and administrators who have seen them as bastions of anti-intellectualism, sexism and racism.
In November of 1978, during the presidency of the College's 13th president, John G. Kemeny, the faculty of Arts and Sciences voted 67-16 in favor of a proposal to abolish fraternities and sororities at the College.
The proposal was sponsored by Professor of English James Epperson who said, "The ethics, standards and values of the fraternities are antithetical to the values and standards of Dartmouth" during the faculty debate over the proposal.
Professor of Government Roger Masters said after the vote that the fraternities were damaging the reputation of the College by their anti-intellectualism and "animalistic" behavior.
"When I go off this campus and meet people who ask me why I teach here, that is embarrassing," Masters said.
Many expected the Trustees to vote on the proposal at their February, 1979 meeting, but the Board instead voted to indefinitely postpone a decision on the Epperson proposal.
Then Assistant Dean of Students William Dennet, adviser to the Interfraternity Council, told the group the Trustees' decision was similar to putting the fraternities and sororities "on a one year renewable contract. The Trustees are going to want to see exactly what you've done and haven't done."
One part of the Trustee decision allowed the Trustees to vote on abolition of the fraternity system at any time should they decide change is not occurring or is occurring too slowly.
Kemeny stressed the warning "does not have a time limit on it" ... Trustee consideration of abolition "could happen whenever the board loses confidence in the fraternity system."
The Trustees also voted to commend the faculty for their actions and concerns and called upon the Fraternity Board of Overseers to "help reduce the dominance by fraternities of the social life of the College." As an example of this, Kemeny said he personally hoped for the "banning of freshmen from fraternities for some portion of the year."
The Trustees voted in September of 1979 that freshmen would not be allowed access to fraternities when alcohol is being served during Fall term and on three winter weekends.
