Chapter Six: Taking Winter Carnival by Storm
can Wright and the Trustees do this without consulting any of the students?" the kid Blitz Mailed me when the students learned that forthcoming changes in residential and social life at the College would, as President Wright put it, end the Greek system "as we know it." I e-mailed back a simple "Yes, they can." But I was amazed to realize that the Trustees' announcement had mixed up the emotions in my maternal heart. Foryears I had bemoaned the downsides of frat life—underage and excessive drinking, for starters. I hadn't quite believed the kid when he had told me that one of the reasons wanted to go to Dartmouth was that he wanted to join a fraternity. I thought he was joking. But when he said the idea of "brotherhood" was what appealed to him, I felt a pang of recognition. Years ago I so longed for a sense of community at a certain Big Red Ivy that I joined a sorority for a semester. I attended my share of toga parties, too.) As the kid began to explore Greek life at the College and seemed to be making friends with an ever-wider range of students, I started to think that maybe there really was more to fraternities than I had thought—or less to them than I had feared. Or maybe I just wanted to let the kid find out for himself what he liked or didn't like, as I myself had done.
One thing he couldn't find out for himself, though, was the immediate campus response to the Trustees' announcement. He was sick in bed at Dick's House. (Did his fever have anything to do with the fact that he had worn only shorts, a Hawaiian shirt, and sandals when he walked to Sigma Alpha Epsilon's beach party the previous weekend? He claims that the nurses said no.) So he asked me to go to the Green to see how many students showed up for a Blitz-Mail-advertised protest. (Dick's House provides students with bedside access to their e-mail.) I hurried to the Green. About a dozen people were there, including students working on the snow sculpture—a big dog—for Winter Carnival, which was to start the next day. Where was everybody? I wondered.
Had I gotten the time wrong? No, it turns out, the Coed Fraternity and Sorority Council had blitzed students to forego the informal afternoon rally and turn out instead in front of President Wright's house after house meetings that evening. The next morning the kid read in the D (Dick's House has everything) that approximately a thousand students—mostly members of Greek houses, but many unaffiated supporters as well—had joined the protest.
I wasn't surprised that so many students were angry about the bombshell element of the announcement. Or that so many students supported the Greek system. Or that many other students didn't. Nor was I surprised that most, if not all, students said they actually welcome the Trustees' call for more dorms and social alternatives. (The guys at Gamma Delta Chi even responded to the Trustees' requirement that the new system be "substantially coeducational" by hanging out a sign calling, "Hey Ladies! Wanna live here next year? 'Inquire within.'")
Something did puzzle me, though. Now, maybe the kid and I have watched AnimalHouse too many times (hey, it's just a movie), but I expected that fraternities (if not sororities) would react in truly juvenile fashion—especially considering that this year's Carnival theme, "Gone to the Dogs," could be ratcheted so easily to a whole new notch ofyouthful abandon. True, a few people barked up that tree. At Alpha Delta, the fratthat inspired, Animal House, a banner screaming, "Hell no, we won't go!" fluttered behind the beer pong table thatwas setup on their front lawn at 1:15 in the afternoon. (And they wonderwhy Jim Wright thinks there's a problem.) And a self-consciously campy "Deathmobile," complete with a John Belushilike sword-wielding pirate, drove around campus, courtesy of the Dartmouth Review. (The kid, health restored, saw it right after he left Dick's House.)
The Coed Fraternity and Sorority Council, however, completely countered my expectations: they cancelled their Winter Carnival parties. They said they wanted to show what the campus would be like without open parties. I guess this made sense to them. But I'm thinking, this is a dean's dream come true.
The Reviewtook itsCarnival cuefrom AnimalHouse.
