WHAT'S THE NEXT MOVE
As A PREFACE to the editorial which follows, we are L quoting from an article in the Dartmouth Steeplejack titled "Fraternities Failing":
"The fraternity no longer has to satisfy important social needs and makes no organized efforts to do so. Thefact that it is useful for house-parties and Carnival hasnothing to do with whether or not it is a fraternity. Thehouses bow before the movies, out of town travel, lectures, the Tower Room, and extra-curricular activities.Meetings are attended mostly by men with narrow interests or who are professional fraternity men.
"The national connection, costing from $6OO to $850 ayear, offers absolutely no indispensable advantages.Houses vary so much from campus to campus that membership is not a sure national honor to the individual.The travelling representative can be supplanted by alocal adviser who could inspect the fraternity with a moreintimate knowledge of its problems. The nationally established ritual occasions smirking and hypocrisy.
"In conclusion, the fraternity's ideal is to pledge morepotential recipients of honors than its rivals. In otherwords, it is looking for external prestige rather than internal fellowship and concord. This applies principally tothe power-houses, which set the standard of course for thesmaller houses.
"Briefly, then, a clump of overgrown, heterogeneousclubs is arising from the, ashes of the 'brothers staunchand true' tradition."
Although that hardy perennial, the Fraternity Problem, is one whose blossoming is particularly evident to the Hanover population, its bright foliage and pleasant, or otherwise, odor become of increasing concern to alumni. In the final analysis, administrative action by the Faculty or President and Trustees of the College is the source of such guiding principles as may control fraternity life on the campus. And the fraternities have been allowed to live their own lives with a remarkable degree of laissez faire on the part of the Administration. Hardly more than two or three "rules" have been made especially for fraternities. That not more than 16 men may live in a fraternity house is one; another is that members may not board in the houses; a third, that pledging shall not be permitted until sophomore year.
Undergraduate generations change quickly and the loss of continuity in student societies is marked. Hardly does an active fraternity member put his mind to working out plans to make his society a more useful part of the College than he is called away by graduation. If his constructive ideas bear fruit, it is not for long. Only rarely is there any close cooperation from out-of-town alumni with the chapter in Hanover, and this lack of contact can easily be understood. As for help given to fraternities by fratres in urbe there is financial guidance, but with certain exceptions alumni advice is confined to this aspect of the fraternities' problems. The cases of the exceptions, where faculty advisors have taken time and trouble to assist their young brothers toward contributing something of value to the purposes of the College, have proved that the fraternities need something more from the local house corporations than oversight of income and expense. The Administration cannot be charged with negligence in allowing the fraternities too free a hand. If there is any one group that has not recognized its obligations, and opportunities, to assist the societies it is the "local alumni." Whether or not the active chapter welcomes the paternalism involved, it must ask for and accept it, if it is to have continuity of effort and be recognized as a factor in the educative processes of the College.
Fraternities are said to be parasitic growths on the otherwise healthy body of the College; but we rush to their defense saying that there is a place for them, but admitting that there is truth in the statement that their purposes are not well synchronized with those of the College. Critics question the value of further retaining any national affiliations; we agree that there is no commensurate return for the dues and fees paid to national headquarters but we wonder how the transformation of "Fraternities" into "Dartmouth Clubs" will do any more than ease their financial burden. "If nearly half the student body can get along without fraternity life, is there any need for any fraternities?" is a question often heard; we know that groups of students will band together as long as there are students on Hanover Plain. Thoughtful persons ask if there isn't some way of fitting the Dartmouth fraternities into the general educational program of social and intellectual growth.
This last is the vital question. To take what we have and build on it, reforming the system and its traditions toward greater usefulness, is the correct approach. There is no room for further tearing down. All of this has been done by the critics. But there is a place, a need, for constructive planning for the future of fraternities in Hanover.
