Statement for Dartmouth MDF Committee on Extreme Behaviors, Alex Barnett 8/8/14

Much research that informs this statement was done while serving on
the Committee on Student Life and the Committee on Organization and
Policy; I have shared this with these committees and with President
Hanlon.

The student social scene at Dartmouth is dominated, and increasingly
so, by the Greek houses, whose members devote a tremendous amount of
energy to recruiting new members and preserving traditions from a time
before coeducation.  Many of these traditions are homophobic,
psychologically damaging (in the case of hazing and other gang-like
extreme behaviors), and focus on secrecy, loyalty, hierarchy,
ritualized drinking, vomiting, and denigration of women [1]. It is
hard to think of anything more antithetical to our supposed core
values. The houses hold power because of many factors including a lack
of accountability, unregulated access to free alcohol, and a lack of
other residential community and good social/party spaces.

The research is extensive and very clear. Sorority members are three
times more likely than those in off-campus housing to be raped while
drunk [2]; fraternity men use significantly more coercive sexual
strategies [3] and in one study [4] were three times more likely to
rape than other students.  Greek membership is the strongest predictor
for alcohol abuse, with 86% binge drinkers nationally [5].  Gender
segregation and social status anxiety are strong contributors to rape
[6]; the Greek system promotes both, among an already ambitious student
body (students speak of "social capital").  Local cultural factors
play a huge role, yet the tradition-preserving mission of Greek
organizations seems designed to prevent cultural change from
within. The Greek system also maintains campus segregation by class,
race and sexual orientation, and attracts a certain kind of
reactionary student to attend the college.  Dartmouth does not have an
image problem: it has a real problem.

So, what are the priorities for change?  The Greek system must be
eliminated, or, at the very least be made non-exclusive, local, co-ed
(banning gender discrimination), and alcohol-regulated, which will
have a similar effect. This cannot be done in small measures.  If this
well-endowed private institution cannot make this change, in the
current climate, knowing what we all know, then we in fact do not care
about the safety and inclusivity of our future students.  In parallel,
a massive investment is needed in residential life clusters (eg a
house system including faculty families, and randomized housing
assignment that promotes diversity rather than self-selected
homogeneity), social programming (student-run music and party spaces,
booking big acts of interest to students not retirees), and college
bars / hang-out spaces.  Such examples that need to be multiplied
tenfold include: Friday Night Rock, Hopkins Garage, the Thugz
Institute of Science.  We also need to more aggressively and publicly
expel students for crimes such as rape, hazing, and cyber-harassment
(eg B@B), all of which remain epidemic and largely protected from the
law.  We must grow effective programs such as Mentors Against Violence
(which, unlike DBI, includes peer cultural factors), and keenly
collect and publicly release crime, health, and survey data rather
than relying on secrecy and guesswork (my attempts to get such local
data usually hit a brick wall).

[1] P. Martin and R. Hummer, "Fraternities and Rape on Campus",
Gender and Society 3(4) (1989) 457-473.

[2] M. Mohler-Kuo, G. Dowdall, M. Koss, and H. Wechsler. "Correlates
of Rape While Intoxicated in a National Sample of College Women."
J. Stud. Alcohol. 65. (2004): 37-45.

[3] K. A. Tyler, D.R. Hoyt and L.B. Whitbeck. (1998). Coercive Sexual
Strategies, Violence and Victims, 13(1), 47-61.

[4] J. Foubert, J. Newberry and J. Tatum, "Behavior Differences Seven
Months Later: Effects of a Rape Prevention Program", NASPA J. 44(4)
(2007) 728-749.

[5] H. Wechsler, H. Kuh, A. Davenport, "Fraternities, Sororities and
Binge Drinking: Results from a National Study of American Colleges,"
NASPA J. 46(3) (2009) 395-416.

[6] E. Armstrong et al, "Sexual Assault on Campus: A Multilevel,
Integrative Approach to Party Rape," Social Problems 53(4) (2006) 483-499.

The references are eye-opening reading; see other references and notes at
http://www.math.dartmouth.edu/~ahb/studentlife