Fraternities Should Be Strengthened
This whole Discussion reminds me of the family dentist I had as a kid. A tooth zealot, he would put all these nasty instruments in my mouth and ask accusingly: "Do you brush after every meal? Floss?" My affirmative grunts never seemed to satisfy him; he'd always up the ante. "Use antiseptic mouthwash? Fluoride supplements? Stimulate your gums with orangewood?" The man was a dental Calvinist. I could offer to sleep with a flashlight in my mouth to discourage bacteria and still it would fail to shake his conviction that my mouth was inherently doomed.
That last word leads me to the Greek system. What is the anti-fraternity argument but a form of social Calvinism? It's not that fraternities encourage evil. No, that's not what raises the frat-bashers' hackles. It's that fraternities, in the mind of our alter ego, are evil.
The Greeks could never do enough for people like him. In the early eighties, under President McLaughlin, the houses were forced to comply with tough "minimum standards," fixing up the buildings, toning down rush, eliminating hazing, stepping up volunteer work. Those standards are still rigorously enforced by the College. But not to the Greek-flayers' satisfaction.
More rules have been piled onto the old ones, and the houses have struggled to comply. Rush is now sophomore year. Kegs are verboten. Town and state cops, along with campus police, are looking for any sign of under-age drinking. Houseparties have changed from campuswide celebrations to cautious, closed gatherings.
And still that's not enough! Our misguided half will not be happy until the houses are taken over by discussion groups and the chess team. Well, we've got news for our strident partner: the evils he sees oozing from Fraternity Row will continue even without fraternities.
The problems of alcohol abuse, conformity, elitism (it does happen to be an elite institution) will remain. And the College will lose some benefits of the Greek system: volunteer work, the chance for a vibrant social life, for interaction among students divided by the Dartmouth Plan, the opportunity to develop leadership and teamwork skills—and the chance for the administration to excercise control over organized groups.
But our worthy opponent is not satisfied with any of these advantages. One wonders whether the real problem isn't the fraternities but all these active, gregarious, young people running about. Now, if only he could do something about that...
