University confronts Greek life

About a year ago, in a second-floor classroom in Frist Campus Center, there was a meeting that would have been unthinkable only four years earlier.

The Committee on the Freshman Experience, chaired by Dean of Undergraduate Students Kathleen Deignan, had called a meeting with representatives of the campus' fraternities and sororities.

The leaders of Greek life came reluctantly, not seeing much to gain from such a meeting and fearful they could become targets of University action.

Though the University does not recognize fraternities and sororities, about 15 percent of the student body joins them. For several years, a silent conflict had developed between proponents of Greek life and administrators worried about its impact on undergraduate life — from social division early in freshman year to hazing and alcohol abuse.

A chief concern of administrators was the timing of rush, Greek organizations' recruiting and admissions process durimg the first month of school.

At the meeting, the Committee asked fraternities and sororities to delay rush to January or February.

The fraternity and sorority leaders soundly rejected the request. The meeting went nowhere.

After this, the conflict between the groups and the administration became much sharper.

That summer, without consulting students, Deignan and Vice President for Campus Life Janet Dickerson sent a letter to incoming freshmen to discourage them from joining fraternities and sororities. The move incensed Greek leaders, though they said it had a negligible impact on membership. The administration plans to send a similar letter this summer.

"It was like they were saying, 'thanks for coming to the meeting, we're glad we talked — and screw you,' " said Evan Baehr '05, who attended last spring's meeting on behalf of a fraternity he asked not be identified.

The University's interest in minimizing the role of Greek life comes during a major revamping of the undergraduate experience. The appearance of four-year residential colleges in two years and other efforts to divert attention from the Street — some students and administrators see fraternities and sororities as feeders into selective eating clubs — emphasize the administration's desire to make undergraduate life as inclusive as possible and largely based inside the colleges.

While administrators currently do not plan to have an official policy on Greek groups, which were banned from 1855 to 1940, many students believe the University is waging an increasingly overt war against them.

The administration's interest in Greek life became public in October 2000, when Dickerson broke with the University's previous silence by announcing her intention to talk to fraternity and sorority leaders about their role on campus. "When I came to Princeton, they told me there were no Greek organizations," Dickerson said in an interview.

Five years later, it seems that little has been accomplished.

"There was no relationship" between Greek organizations and the University before last year's meeting, said a former fraternity president on the condition of anonymity. "There is still no relationship."

Speaking specifically about the letter, he said, "Typically the kids who are going to rush fraternities are not going to be swayed . . . by any kind of letter from the administration."
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The Daily Princetonian - University confronts Greek life