Dartmouth Revolutionizes

Last week the Dartmouth College Board of Trustees recommended strategies to de-emphasize the school's Greek system--illustrated in all its splendor by the movie Animal House. We welcome the changes that will provide students with residential and social opportunities outside the fraternities and sororities that currently dominate the campus.

The board authorized the building of new on-campus housing and centralized dining services in order to provide students with a campus community that doesn't center on fraternities and sororities. This plan is a timely response to the concerns about binge drinking that often occurs in frat houses. While fraternities are a traditional part of the Dartmouth landscape, last year the college announced plans to dismantle the Greek system on campus. This year, the board has expressed a willingness to work with the fraternities and sororities while providing students with other housing options. The fraternities have been asked to remove their extensive bars with taps and mass refrigeration. The board has also recommended that an undergraduate advisor be housed in each fraternity and sorority. These changes are in line with other institutions like MIT that has also tried to provide students with housing and social activities separate from a prominent Greek system.

However, we hope that the board does not simply crack down on the Greek houses without providing other social venues for students. If other forums for student life are not promoted by the administration, students will continue to flock to fraternities and sororities on the weekends. Elite, single-sex organizations will continue to flourish as long as dorm life is anonymous and alienating. If the board is serious about creating a greater sense of campus community, it must make real efforts to provide students with viable social options. The board has called for expanding the current student center and creating more social centers. This is a step in the right direction.

The Dartmouth proposals for the construction of new on-campus housing are bold. The board has called for the creation of housing clusters where students of similar interests can live together. These clusters of students would be based in residence halls but students would be allowed to choose in which cluster they would live. This plan preserves the choice of residence that most Dartmouth students are accustomed to, and increases their options since students will be able to choose to live outside of the Greek system with the same freedom as they are able to choose within it.

Dartmouth's board has emphasized student groupings around interest. Already, students at Dartmouth are highly separated by their residences, both in Greek houses and interest houses. While the board emphasized an "overarching community" which would bring together the cluster communities there is a concern that the current separation of students by interest would continue under the new system. While the student choice that the board proposed is attractive, it may lead to self-segregation.

Dartmouth must try to balance these two concerns--that of diversity in residences and viable social forums apart from the Greek houses--in the months and years ahead. We applaud their decision to provide students with on-campus housing options and prevent unhealthy atmospheres of binge drinking fostered by fraternities. Students must be given meaningful community centers around which to forge social connections and friendships.