Eight months out of the year, the weather kind of sucks. The new meal plan is all but highway robbery. The administration is often unresponsive to student concerns. The college laid off 76 workers to cut the budget but then proceeded to needlessly redecorate Baker Main Hall (before / after)and install a bazillion flat screen TVs in the newly-renovated dining hall (most of which display only one or two alternating screens...why not just get signs made?!). Most of these issues are only noted by members of the Dartmouth community, but recently one of Dartmouth's bigger problems has made headlines.
I'm talking of course, about hazing.
After Andrew Lohse's article in The Dartmouth was leaked the night before its publication, it was simply everywhere. Jezebel, Gawker, and The Boston Globe have all run stories about it, and an exclusive Rolling Stone article was published today. So it's safe to say that everyone in the world now knows that Dartmouth is hellish hotbed of dehumanizing criminal activity. Down with the frats! Down with the Greek system!
Except wait. I've been in a sorority at Dartmouth for the last three years, and the horrors described in Lohse's article could not be any further removed from what my own Greek experience has been.
Look, I'm not saying that hazing is not a problem. It is. It's a horrible, ugly, pervasive problem and it is one that the Dartmouth community must solve sooner rather than later. Our Greek system is flawed. Our sexual assault rates are far too high. Let's be blunt: our campus has a reputation as an alcohol-saturated breeding ground for privileged dumbasses. And to be sure, I have met people in my time here who do such a good job of confirming that stereotype that they seem more like cartoon characters than real people. But the truth is that the majority of the people I have met at Dartmouth--and, more particularly, through my Greek experience--are kind, conscientious, thoughtful, driven, intelligent, community-oriented, and genuine.
Greek houses on Dartmouth's campus are not just bizarre underworld dens of debauchery and sin. Fraternities, sororities, and co-eds co-sponsor panel discussions and community events; they fund raise for different charities; they put on events for the campus and the community. Yes, some of these houses do have a much darker side once it's a Friday night or a big weekend. That's unfortunate, and I'm not going to pretend that Greek houses are all pure as the driven snow. To do so would be an insult to those who have been adversely affected by hazing or by the other not-so-admirable aspects of the Greek system. The atmosphere surrounding Greek life certainly needs to change. But fraternities and sororities (and co-eds!) are not just one-sided forces of evil.
It seems that Greek organizations only get press when they've done something wrong. I've seen no major news articles picking up stories about AZD's White Rose Benefit, or APhi's Red Dress Gala, or Tri-Kap's holiday parties/carnivals for local kids. When my sorority raised $3,300 for the prevention of child abuse last year (and the governor of New Hampshire issued a proclamation to be read at the event), it didn't make headlines. When we raised almost $3,000 this year for the same cause, I didn't see any bloggers patting us on the back for a job well done.
Last spring, when Dartmouth's eight sororities drafted a resolution that punished fraternities for ignoring assaults that involved either their brothers or their houses, there was no media firestorm. The article was picked up by a few off-campus publications, like Jezebel and the Chronicle of Higher Education, but no national news outlets were offering Panhellenic officers an exclusive interview deal. No one really wants to see houses taking a stand and combating the stereotype of Greeks as irresponsible, shallow partiers. The sensational stories, the ones that make people shake their heads and say "I told you so"--those are the stories that make headlines.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that this article is entirely wrong: the discussion about hazing is one that needs to happen. But it is not a problem that plagues only Dartmouth. It's not even one that affects just Greek houses. Hazing is a problem that is pervasive throughout our society, from adults right down to young kids. It goes hand in hand with bullying, sexual assault, hate crimes, and other acts of violence. It is one symptom of a larger problem in our society--indifference. Indifference to the feelings of others, indifference toward the consequences of one's actions, indifference even toward one's own self-worth or self-respect.
And this is perhaps one of the things that upset me the most about this article: the way it portrayed Dartmouth students. I'm not talking about the ones involved in this whole hazing scandal, or even those involved in Greek life. I'm talking about the thousands of undergraduates who weren't exclusively interviewed by Rolling Stone.
True, most of us have never struck a deal with a major media outlet to dish on our Dartmouth experiences. But just because we haven't managed this feat (yet...?) doesn't mean that we don't have anything to say. Because if I could choose one word to describe the Dartmouth student body, "apathetic" would not be it. In my nearly four years at Dartmouth, I have discussed the College's many problems in a variety of contexts: in classes, at dinner, over drinks, and even in sorority meetings. When a violent or demeaning event occurs on campus, student initiatives often spring up even before the administration can respond. This could easily be read as a damning statement on the College's administration (and maybe, in some ways, it is) but it certainly isn't a condemnation of student activism. The people I know here care. They often care even more than I do myself, and let me tell you, no one in my life would describe me as apathetic about social justice.
But the part of the article I found even more ridiculous than the alleged apathy of the student body was the needless attack on freshman trips. Dartmouth's pre-orientation program consists of (completely optional) five-day long trips into the wilderness. The trips all end up at the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge, which is owned by the College, where members of different trip groups all come together and meet each other. Pretty innocent stuff. Not if you're Rolling Stone, though:
This is a Dartmouth tradition, where students hike, kayak, mountain bike or otherwise explore the White Mountains for a few days, winding up at the Dartmouth-owned Moosilauke Ravine Lodge, or the "lodj," where they gather for a communal dinner, followed by song-and-dance routines, and they are even asked to sit on the floor and listen to ghost stories.
Wait. You're kidding me! They're EVEN ASKED TO SIT ON THE FLOOR AND LISTEN TO GHOST STORIES! The nerve! You know what else freshman are EVEN ASKED to do? They're even asked to wake up before 10 am to attend Matriculation! They're even asked to get involved in campus activities! Would you believe it, these kids are even asked to show up to class and turn in work for grades! What kind of a toxic environment is this?!
Look, my freshman trip was fun at the time. It's not the shining memory for me that it is for some people, and I'll even grant that Lohse has a point when he remarks that "[t]here is a very specific message you get on Trips...which is 'We're all your friends, you're part of this awesome new world of Dartmouth, and if you're not having the absolute best time of your life, then there's something really wrong with you.'" Yes, the tagline of Trips could be "OMG, you guys! Isn't this just SO FUN?!" but honestly, I doubt that freshman orientation activities at any other school are really any different. You're trying to get a bunch of eighteen-year-olds to bond with each other. You're going to have to play some of those awkward ice-breaker games that everyone hates, but it's a bit of a stretch to call that hazing. From the perspective of someone who's been through Trips, this unnecessary digression did nothing more than weaken the article's argument and trivialize the ACTUAL hazing issues on campus. Serving freshman a Green Eggs and Ham-themed breakfast is not a crime. Eating a "vomlet" and eating some scrambled eggs dyed with green food coloring are two completely different things. And, in the interest of setting the record straight, I ate green eggs (but no ham) two weeks ago at a Saint Patrick's Day brunch. Quick, alert the presses, I've been hazed and I want to share my exclusive and heartbreaking tale!
That last snarky sentence aside, I don't want to comment on Andrew Lohse personally. I don't know him. I can't tell you anything about him other than what I've heard from news stories or word of mouth. He might be an upstanding crusader for justice; he might be the devil himself. Experience has taught me that he, like most of us, probably falls somewhere between those two extremes. Whatever his life story, I'm not really interested in him. I'm interested in the issues he's raised--both the legitimate and the non-legitimate ones.
At the end of the day, Dartmouth has its problems. So does any other school. When I graduate in a few short months (!!!) I will not be planning my immediate return to Dartmouth. I'll never be the alum at all the football games, hanging around town, partying on Frat Row. (Yes, there are alumni that do that. It's a Dartmouth thing, I guess.) Basically, I'm done with Dartmouth. It has not been the greatest four years of my life. But despite my problems with Dartmouth (and, as you can tell, I do have a few), it would be unfair to pretend that my time here has been miserable and unproductive--quite the opposite is true, actually. The Rolling Stone article is terrible PR for Dartmouth, but what's worse is that many of its accusations and implications are largely unfounded or grossly overexaggerated.
Dartmouth used to be the Ivy no one remembered. Now it's the one that will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. And for a school that, despite its problems, has so much to offer, that's truly a shame.
