THE UNDERGRADUATE CHAIR

THE INTERFRATERNITY Council might take its cue from Richard Nixon in coming up with a jazzier title for its next rushing handbook. They could write it about the events this fall and call it "Three Crises." It would be a sellout.

The three would be the general problem of this fall's rush, the apparent disaster of Delta Kappa Epsilon's poor rush, and facing up to the ugly problem of racial discrimination.

SEVERAL discomforting trends turned up in a study of fraternity membership in the fall of 1962 indicating that the fraternity system would have to do well this September "or face serious trouble." The percentage of sophomores pledging had dropped steadily from a high of 74 percent for the Class of 1958 to 57 percent for the Classes of 1964 and 1965. Fraternity membership showed a marked falling off after 1960. Last year eight houses had less than 55 members, the point at which financial difficulties are supposed to begin; one had as few as 47, and three others were below the 50 mark. A feeling of approaching disaster spread.

A "change in the Dartmouth Man," academic pressure, too many "pre-pro-fessionals" in the student body, "dull" social programming by the fraternities - these were among the reasons none too cautiously advanced on all sides. News of fraternity crises at Brown and Williams did not decrease the tension. But even by spring the tide was turning, and late rush, with other factors, had brought all houses up over 50 members.

The statistics now in show a real increase in the number of pledges over last year, but numbers don't tell the whole story. Several houses are still in trouble; others had much smaller pledge classes than expected. In contrast, many, even most, reported the best rush in memory.

A quick look at the situation led to the conclusion that it was the more active houses that did well. Those that had placed high in the interfraternity competitions reported no difficulty in filling their openings. One reported some 280 rushees during the first night - more than one third of the rushing class. Rushing chairmen were speaking of "potentially the finest pledge class in our history," an "exceptional group," and "much better than last year."

There was no evidence to support the idea that there was a lack of interest or "house material" among the sophomores. The contrary was true. "The fraternities apparently can make what they want of the situation this year," said Assistant Dean Jay C. Whitehair Jr. '55.

IFC President Ronald B. Schram '64 felt the determining factor in rush success was "leadership." A house has to have effective administration for two main reasons, he explained. First, with today's academic and other pressures forcing a better budgeting of time, a house has to be well-organized in everything from its social program to athletics if these programs and the house are to be successful. Secondly, rush itself requires even greater organization than in the past because of greater competition.

tow MEMBERSHIP has been a chronic problem at DKE for the past five years. They are afflicted with a partially-deserved reputation for drunken and disorderly conduct and seemed to be headed in a steady decline toward the end of the trail - until last year.

Last year membership took a sharp upward turn, and even more significant, the house academic average zoomed from near the bottom to tenth among the 24 fraternities, well above the fraternity average. They also placed even higher than usual in what has become pretty high pressure intramural athletic competition. Despite some bad publicity from a "girls upstairs" violation last spring, the house had seemingly "turned the corner" - so it came as a double shock when this fall's rush turned out to be, as they put it, "much worse than expected."

As a result, formal rush was called off and no pledges had been taken by sink night. Why the poor rush? The brothers have one theory: "We have a different idea of what a house should be than is usual on the campus now. A fraternity shouldn't be another commitment demanding more energy and time, but rather a place to relax away from the pressure. We find it difficult to .put this across in the ordinary pressure-packed rush."

Another factor is that DKE doesn't have a fast-moving, well-organized administration. In that department of interfraternity competition they are last. There are three ways to lose points in administration, and DKE uses them all. They don't pay their dues on time, their reports and audits are late, and their representatives are often absent from IFC meetings. But even a brief conversation with the brothers removes any thought that the leadership is incompetent; the problem turns out instead to be one of approach.

"Our house is an easy-going, low-pressure organization," one brother explained, "and we are not interested in changing."

The steps they have taken on rushing come logically from this. During the week following sink night they held several well-attended informal rush sessions. "We feel we're a house where a brother can get away from his work from time to time with a glass of beer, maybe a game of cards, and conversation; so we served beer at these sessions. There was a lot less of the unreality of the usual rush situation, and the men who came had a chance to see what the house really offers. We hope not to have to do this next year, but it has worked well. The makings of a fine pledge class are in the house now and we expect to be getting more. If in the future a more informal aspect could be brought into rush, it would probably be a good idea."

The brothers stressed that there was "no aspect of crisis involved" and no thought of closing down. The financial pressure is there, but it is by no means critical. They point out that they have gotten along with fewer members in the past and that, if necessary, they could do so again.

They realize that the type of man they look for is increasingly rare on campus and that a time of change is at hand which will leave behind whatever does not move with it. "Our house has changed," they admit, "even in just the last few years. Certainly there is less drinking and more studying, but we think we have the right idea about the basic purpose of a fraternity."

Perhaps the DKE episode shows no more nor less than that fraternities at Dartmouth have the means, the desire, and ability to meet their problems.

AND PROBLEMS they have. The festered L visage of racial discrimination showed up three times during rush. The Tabard, formerly Sigma Chi, told two Negroes during the first night of rush that they did not have a chance of becoming brothers. Then, as later brought out in IFC Judiciary Council proceedings, Tabard's president misinformed fellow presidents in the IFC by saying that racial discrimination had not been a factor. The turning away was the result, he said, of a pre-rush evaluation that gave five whites similar short shrift. That racial considerations were involved became certain when it was discovered that the second Negro was a transfer student who could not have been considered before rush. The real situation was that at least five members of the house said they would consider dropping out if a Negro was pledged, and the rushing committee had chosen to respect the bigotry of these brothers.

The second ease was at Bones Gate, formerly Delta Tau Delta, and involved the throwing of "blackballs" (unexplained rejections) by four brothers on the third night of rush to prevent a bid being sent to a Negro. According to the house constitution such a vote eliminated the man from consideration, despite the fact that many of the brothers were favorably impressed by him. Since at least two of the blackballs were prompted by racial bias, one member of the house resigned in protest and brought the case to the attention of the Dean's Office.

The incidents became a front page story in The Dartmouth, were picked up by the wire services and given wide publicity. Rumors of a faculty petition to ban fraternities circulated freely. Action was required, and the IFC moved "with all deliberate speed."

No action was taken at its first meeting, but several proposals were sent back to the houses for consideration, including abolition of the blackball, an enforced "open door" to all policy on the first night of rush, and a "President's Pledge" that discrimination would not be practiced by his house.

At its second meeting a week later, a four part "Amendment to Rush Regulations" was adopted. Penalties "up to and including a recommendation to the Trustees" that a house be closed down were provided for; the IFC Judiciary Council was empowered to investigate cases of discrimination; all houses were required to submit an official statement of their rush procedure; a statement of anti-discriminatory policy and a prohibition of racially discriminatory clauses and agreements were included.

The legislation could not be used retroactively, but the Judiciary Council was able to hand the Tabard a double warning for its irresponsibility and issue "non-formal letters of censure" to both fraternities.

The Amendment does nothing to get rid of the blackball, which is the vehicle by which discrimination for racial reasons is accomplished, and does not attempt to control private prejudice — as opposed to prejudice enforced by the house as an organization. Letters to TheDartmouth show that there is still some dissatisfaction with the extent of the action.

Phi Kappa Psi wrote a specific prohibition of the blackball into its constitution, and several other houses, including Bones Gate and Tabard, were working on doing the same. Most houses never had one.

IFC President Schram summed up the opinion of the great majority of the present men at Dartmouth. "Racial discrimination is plainly out of order here. The only question is whether we can successfully legislate it out of existence."

As a cub reporter for the Boston Globe this summer David R. Boldt '63, son of Joseph R. Boldt '32 of Westport, Conn., matched strokes on Lake Cochituate (Mass.) with a long distance swimmer to interview him. As the new occupant of The Undergraduate Chair Boldt can be expected to plunge into the life of the College with the same zeal. He is Executive Manager and a member of the Board of Proprietors of The Dartmouth, often writing columns under his own byline. He has also been active in Army ROTC, freshman and varsity swimming teams, and Alpha Theta fraternity. He took a year's leave of absence (1961-62) to "see the world" and did.