The College's faculty members largely criticized the steering committee recommendations for not going far enough to radically alter the Greek system and called on the Trustees to do more to change the current campus social climate at a faculty meeting yesterday.
About 90 members of the Dartmouth faculty and administration discussed the proposals released earlier this month by the steering committee during the special meeting of the general faculty.
Talk focused on faculty involvement in the discussion process and the future of the Coed Fraternity Sorority system.
There was widespread consensus on most issues during the one and a half hour meeting -- every faculty member who spoke in reference to the CFS expressed the desire to see the Greek system as it stands now eliminated from the Dartmouth campus.
German Professor Irene Kacandes told The Dartmouth she feels this is a sentiment shared by the majority of College faculty.
In regards to the proposals, many said they feel they are a step in the right direction, but fall short of the needed resolution to the problems described at the beginning of the committee's report.
"The Coed, Fraternity and Sorority system must be replaced ... not tweaked, not changed -- replaced," English professor Terry Osborne said.
Several professors asked about the Board of Trustees' willingness to seriously consider stronger anti-Greek measures if the faculty were to take a position supporting them.
Various reasons were given in defense of such a position, including the difficulty of gradual change, the failure of past reform efforts, and the inability of the changes proposed to correct the problems that inspired the Initiative in the first place.
Some suggested that the CFS system can not possibly change gradually because of "entrenched" traditions, which have caused past attempts to shape campus social life to fail.
Professors pointed out the lack of success resulting from past attempts to enact codes of conduct for Dartmouth's social system.
Calling fraternities "unreformable," Professor of Religion Kevin Reinhart agreed with this sentiment, appealing to the Trustees to "bite the bullet and not incrementalize."
Other faculty members focused on discrimination seen to result from the selective nature of the Greek system.
"Preserving choice is sometimes at odds with non-discrimination," said English Professor Tom Luxon, who has been an outspoken critic of the Greeks in the past.
Osborne, who advocated a rapid shift to a predominantly co-educational system, agreed. "Until [the CFS] system is replaced, Dartmouth will neither be truly coeducational nor truly diverse," he said.
Many faculty members said they were disappointed that the proposals fall short of Wright's promise in an interview with The Dartmouth last February that the Initiative would end the Greek system "as we know it."
In regards to faculty involvement in the process, Religion Professor Susan Ackerman said the steering committee received only one report from the faculty and spent only one hour with a faculty group.
Ackerman called upon her colleagues to increase their participation during Winter term.
Dean of the College James Larimore also invited the faculty to participate in the process, both by expressing their views and by encouraging students to do the same during the upcoming Spring term.
"The status quo is not acceptable," he said again yesterday.
Wright also discussed the large amount of funding that proposed improvements in College facilities and social programming would require. He said that the faculty would not have to make financial sacrifices to support Initiative projects.
Commending the steering committee for its work, Wright said they had "addressed the issues in a bold and comprehensive way." He called the proposals "detailed, thorough and thoughtful."
Yesterday's meeting was intended to facilitate discussion rather than faculty action. Working meetings of the individual college faculties -- Arts and Sciences, Business, Engineering, and Medical -- are set to take place during the remainder of the term.
The Undergraduate Arts and Sciences faculty will meet on February 14.
At a general faculty meeting soon after the announcement of the Initiative last February, the faculty voted 82-0 to support the Five Principles.
The official name of the steering committee is the Committee on the Student Life Initiative.
