The Fraternity Situation

At a general mass-meeting of the College, held May 9, at the instance of Palaeopitus, to determine the undergraduate attitude toward a "chinning" system, a proposal that a long season be enforced was overwhelmingly vetoed. As a result the interfraternity council has been resurrected arid general dissatisfaction is abroad among the undergraduates. It is doubtful that any solution of the problems involved will be found before the opening of another college year. The unfortunate truth of the matter is that the younger fraternities are jealous of the older ones and can see nothing but selfishness in the proposals which the representatives of the organizations of long standing offer. That what is good for the old ones must necessarily be bad for the new ones, appears to be their basic attitude.

Further complications arise from the general disregard for the chinning rules which characterized the fraternities dtuing the latter years when these rules were presumably in force. The adoption now of any rules that imply the element of good faith is considered a virtual impossibility. The trouble with the undergraduate is that he considers today only and cannot look ahead to the morrow. Under the catch-as-catch-can method in vogue during the present year nearly every fraternity pledged men, but to lose a fair proportion of them for poor scholarship, or to find that the stars'of a week's acquaintance became, on larger knowledge, but draggled fireflies. Yet the full delegation,—though full for the first semester or the first year only—is still the apparent ideal of the fraternity, and when the freshmen are pledged while sufficiently green, it is assumed that every chapter has an equal chance to gorge itself at the grab-bag.

The situation is likely to.be one to call for alumni interference, if the alumni were possessed of proper organization for the purpose. If the fraternities in Dartmouth College ever reach the point where they are a detriment rather than a benefit to the institution, a heavy hand must be laid upon them. If it is that of the faculty there will be something of a howl; if it is that of an Alumni Council, there can be no question about it.