As the steering committee writes its report to the Board of Trustees on the Student Life Initiative, College faculty and administrators are decidedly unsure about what the recommendations in the report could include.
The majority of faculty and administrators The Dartmouth spoke to yesterday said it is hard to predict what the steering committee's report will include for possible changes to the College.
The Trustees' intention to make social life substantially coeducational has dominated much of College discussion since the introduction of the Five Principles and nine months after the February announcement, professors and administrators are unsure what the future will hold for the single-sex Greek system.
Dean of Residential Life Martin Redman said he has heard many rumors and conjectures about the recommendations but still wishes he had a crystal ball to predict what the steering committee will recommend.
Redman predicted there will be a change and modification of the Greek system but said he has "no clue" how drastic those changes will be.
"The long tradition of the Greek system has to weigh pretty heavily in the thoughts of the committee," he said.
Redman said he would not be surprised if the committee recommends the system's elimination, but at the same time he is not expecting that result.
Religion professor Susan Ackerman said the decision on the Greek system "totally depends on how gutsy the Board of Trustees feels."
Ackerman said she does not feel the Greek system enhances the intellectual mission of the College and that other comparable liberal arts institutions are without one.
English professor Thomas Luxon said he is unable to predict anything concrete that will be included in the proposal.
After the initial announcement in February he said he was certain "nothing we would recognize as fraternities would survive."
But now, Luxon said he fears the College has taken too long to announce formal recommendations for change, and is unsure whether his initial prediction will become reality.
"Institutions as big or as old as Dartmouth don't change quickly, and they don't change easily without momentum," he said, explaining he feels the College has lost momentum towards eliminating the Greek system in the nine months since the Initiative's announcement in February.
Luxon said he thinks all student organizations sanctioned by the College -- including Greek houses -- should abide by Dartmouth's standards of non-discrimination, and should not be allowed to hinge membership in an organization on gender.
If the Greek system is not changed or eliminated by the eventual decisions of the Trustees, Luxon said many people will perceive the Initiative as a "badly missed opportunity" for change.
Redman said he personally feels the College should be looking at ways to help students "teach each other and help each other to identify things that provide them with a social life for the rest of their lives."
"You can't tell me independent students don't have a social life" here at the College now, Redman said. "And not all Greek members think the Greek system is the only social game in town."
Redman said it would be remiss for the College to say there is not a social life here, but that it is one that often seems centered around Greek houses and alcohol.
About the residential aspects of the Initiative, Redman said the Office of Residential Life has suggested the need for more amenity space in the residence halls.
He said the idea of common houses sounds like the already-existing East Wheelock common area Brace Commons, and that ORL would love to have more spaces like that.
Ackerman said she does not think a house or college residential and social system like those of Harvard and Yale would work at Dartmouth.
The College's setting allows faculty affordable, quality housing in the vicinity of Dartmouth, Ackerman said, something that Harvard University and Yale University lack. This makes living in a common house at those institutions more inviting, she said.
Sexual Abuse Awareness Coordinator Susan Marine said her one hunch about the impending recommendations is that implementation of any decisions would be gradual.
"I'm sure they're going to make a lot of recommendations to change a lot of different parts of campus," Marine said. "It takes time to make new ways of thinking about social and residential life."
Marine said overnight changes to longtime institutions at any university are rare and that drastic, immediate changes at Dartmouth would be difficult for students and administrators alike.
History professor Jere Daniell said that whatever happens to social and residential systems, they will be accepted at the College.
"Students have very short memories," Daniell said. Students will work within any framework the College institutes, he said.
Daniell said he thinks "systematic bingedrinking" has resulted in the Initiative, which itself is one of a series of attempts by the College to clean up the Greek system at various times in the school's history.
Daniell said the Initiative in the long run will be a "small blip" in the history of the College.
