Greek leaders expressed widely differing responses to Saturday's Steering Committee tours through almost every Greek house, some pleased with the receptiveness of those on their tours, and others criticizing what they saw as a "rude" and rushed atmosphere.
Members of the Steering Committee split into four subgroups, each of which visited about five Greek houses in approximately an hour and a half on Saturday afternoon - and depending upon which subgroup visited their houses, Greek leaders got very different impressions of the Steering Committee members and their goals.
In an interview with The Dartmouth following the tours, Trustee and Steering Committee co-chair Peter Fahey '68 said, "The only surprise was that every single one that I went in was spit polish clean, since they're not always that way."
However, Trustee and Steering Committee co-chair Susan Dentzer '77 said, "The houses as far back as I can remember, certainly when I was here, were often where guys brought their mothers in and the first reaction of the mothers was not, 'what a totally gorgeous place for my son to live' - and I would say that was consistent with what we saw."
While Chi Heorot fraternity Summer President Jeff Davidson '01 said the subgroup of Dentzer, Engineering Professor Ulf osterberg and Hillary Miller '02 was "respectful" and "seemed to be genuinely interested in what was going on" in his house, Epsilon Kappa Theta sorority Summer President Laura Duncan '01 got the opposite impression from the subgroup of Tom Csatari '74, chemistry graduate student Jesse Fecker, Anthropology Professor Deborah Nichols and College Vice President and Treasurer Win Johnson.
"It was really shocking," said Duncan, the niece of new Dean of the College and Steering Committee member James Larimore. "I was pretty much overall a rude atmosphere ... They didn't introduce themselves, and they kind of stormed in and asked if they could see our basement ... It was sort of strange."
She said a few people visiting the house seemed "skeptical" and "indifferent, even to the point of hostility."
Duncan said the subgroup's questions focused on alcohol use in the sorority - the subgroup members focused on the basement and asked what the pong tables were used for - and when one of the sisters responded to a question about house activities, a subgroup member interrupted her and said the tour needed to keep moving.
"We had a tour planned, a formal tour, and they said no, just show us our basement, and they didn't seem to have any interest in what we had to say about the house," Duncan said.
While Duncan said the subgroup which visited her sorority put sisters "on the spot," Davidson said Dentzer, Osterberg and Miller were "overall very positive and encouraging."
Davidson said he got the impression the subgroup felt "almost awkward" and "intrusive ... but I think we kind of made sure the doors were open, and people were there, and that they were more than welcome."
He said the group mostly inquired about Heorot's physical structures, the traditional significance of memorabilia within the house and what sort of events the brothers hold in the house.
"We were pleased," Davidson said. "I thought they were gong to be a little more disciplinarian, sort of pessimistic than they were, so it was a nice surprise."
Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity Summer President Eun Sohn '01 said he felt the subgroup of Fahey, Susan Finegan '85, Director of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Ozzie Harris and Matthew K. Nelson '00 "seemed very eager to get in and out of the houses very quickly" and expressed a "fairly stoic" response to what it was seeing.
"To me it just seemed like they were seeing the same thing over and over again, a very clean house. I don't think anything could have really surprised them."
Sohn said the group "didn't ask any burning questions about drinking" but instead focused on the physical plant and the "Balanced Man" program in Sig Ep.
Sohn said Fahey did ask if brothers at Sig Ep play pong often and whether pong was a major social activity in fraternity basements. "I said a simple yes, and we went back upstairs and toured the rest of the house," Sohn said.
Alpha Xi Delta sorority Summer President Suzanne Devries '01 said she was pleased by the response of the subgroup which visited her house, composed of Larimore, Meg Smoot '01 and French Professor Mary Jean Green.
Devries said her sorority tried to emphasize how it uses the house and what sort of programming it plans. She said alcohol was not a big topic of discussion, since Alpha Xi Delta is a national sorority and is not allowed to hold parties or use alcohol.
She also said the group actually stayed longer than she expected.
One tour's story
The Steering Committee granted The Dartmouth permission to observe the tour of Dentzer, Miller and Osterberg, which visited Chi Heorot, Alpha Delta, Psi Upsilon and Theta Delta Chi fraternities and Kappa Kappa Gamma and Sigma Delta sororities.
Brothers in the fraternities often emphasized the physical plants and improvements they planned on making to them, and sisters in the sororities spoke a lot about programming that their groups organize.
The tour started at Kappa Kappa Gamma, where Summer President Amy Coe '01 discussed many of the house's activities, including committee meetings, "sisterly bonding," retreats and talks on sexual awareness and alcohol.
Coe also said the sorority sisters are "friends with a lot of houses, and everybody can come down."
Dentzer said to the other members of the subgroup as they left the house that she wanted to spend about the same amount of time at each house on the tour, so that none of the houses would feel left out.
The group next approached Heorot, where some brothers were playing a game of horseshoes on the front lawn and others were socializing on the porch of the fraternity.
It entered the house to witness a group of men and women watching the women's World Cup Soccer Finals game - an activity that was occurring in every house it visited - while other brothers worked on homework in the same room.
In an interview with The Dartmouth yesterday, Davidson said the fraternity was attempting to show its "brotherly interactions" and "how people spend their lazy afternoon downtime as a house."
"There were some things that you can obviously strategize and rally around ... We knew that the World Cup game was on and that could draw some interest," Davidson said. "We did a little bit to set the scene, but a lot of stuff just fell into place."
Osterberg asked Davidson how people are chosen to live in the house and whether the house had a kitchen, and Dentzer asked general questions about what was hanging on the walls, what goes on in the basement, and how many people were living there this summer.
The subgroup next approached Alpha Delta fraternity, where a group of brothers was outside, some tossing a lacrosse ball and others socializing. It walked up the stairs, avoiding the textbook that was lying on the stairs, and went into the large common room, where flowers, soda and iced tea were on a table, men and women were watching the soccer game together and jazz music was playing in the background.
Dentzer asked early in the tour to visit the basement, and she and the rest of the group saw a clean room in which almost all of the walls were completely black, candles were lit on the bar and not one pong table was to be found.
In the basement, Osterberg said many students in AD and Heorot - to which he referred as "Chi," then hesitated, and was told by an AD brother that its second letter was "Heorot" - are athletes, and he asked if their coaches tell them not to drink too much.
AD Summer President Philipp Saumweber '01 responded that the coaches do not discuss it a lot and said, "I think if you take a sport seriously, you know the consequences of alcohol."
Saumweber emphasized on the tour the openness of the house, saying, "When people come over they're never treated like it's not their own." Much of the rest of the discussion focused on the physical aspects of the building.
At Psi U, the group again approached brothers and dogs on the lawn and entered the house to the sounds of jazz music in the background.
Summer House Manager Chris Hummel '01 and Summer House President Sujan Patel '01 emphasized house history and projects to physically improve the house as brothers prepared for a barbecue with Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority in a nearby room. They also emphasized the strong role that the house's adviser plays.
During the tour, Dentzer mentioned that the group would next be going to "Sigma Kappa" - the name for Sigma Delta sorority when she was a student - and hesitated before correcting herself and saying "Sigma Delta."
At Sigma Delta, the sisters emphasized the use of their common room for cultural dinners, faculty dinners, a cappella meetings and performances, and they discussed other sorority traditions.
In the basement, CFSC Co-programming Liaison Lindsay Reich '01 was the only tour guide to point out the house's kegerators. Dentzer asked how often the sorority uses kegs at parties, and Reich responded that the organization usually holds parties about once a term.
When Summer Vice President Katie Reichardt '01 mentioned that sisters often leave their textbooks for other students to use in the future, Osterberg joked, "What about old homework and old exams?"
"I've never heard of anyone here doing that," Reichardt responded.
The subgroup again asked several questions about the number of people living in the house and how people were chosen to live in the house.
At Theta Delta Chi, where jazz music was also in the background, four brothers dressed in shirts and ties explained the extensive physical improvements the fraternity was planning to make to the house, and also discussed the history of the fraternity, what goes on at meetings and talked about special weekly discussions that occur at the house.
Osterberg asked questions about physical aspects of the house and how the brothers raise money for renovations.
Coed Fraternity Sorority Council Vice President Alex Wilson '01 said he thinks overall the tours went "pretty well," but he is not sure exactly what the Steering Committee's aims were in taking the tours and as a result does not know exactly what will come out of the afternoon.
He said he thinks the idea of the Greek houses hosting tours originated with a Steering Committee request for them.
Zeta Psi and Kappa Kappa Kappa fraternities were the only Greek houses that did not receive visits from any members of the Committee.
