Joseph Asch at the Dartblog writes of the recent Dartmouth faculty vote to abolish Greek life, and questions why the school’s president — previously seen as a proponent of the Greek system — did not offer one word of counterargument:

And Where Was Phil?

Perhaps the most striking aspect of the faculty meeting, which included a presentation by the Moving Dartmouth Forward folks, was that not a good word was to be heard about the Greek system. The faculty’s letter contained the usual litany of sorry incidents that any researcher could scrape together from the past 30 years of The D. And from listening to the introduction before the vote, one could surmise that every social ill that afflicts the College is the sole responsibility of fraternities and sororities — ills that will evaporate in the sunlight as soon as these dark empires are banished from campus.

Not a word was to be heard in support of the notion that Dartmouth’s uniquely fierce alumni loyalty might come from its uniquely important Greek system, in which at least half of the College’s upperclassmen have always been members. (As we have noted, that figure is at an all-time high today of 67.4% of upperclassmen). Nothing was heard of camaraderie, loyalty, the bonds of friendship, charity — in short, nothing positive could be said of the Greeks.

Of course, knowing the backgrounds of the various faculty members, one can understand some of their deep prejudice against the fraternities and sororities. How many were members of Greek houses as undergrads? How many spend any time on Webster Avenue today? In short, how many have any experience with Greek life beyond the interaction with the subset of students who complain to them about the negative side of the houses — and we all know that there are negatives aplenty?


 
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Read the original article:
And Where Was Phil? (Dartblog)