Trinity Administration Seeks to Hide Greek Life

EVAN SCOLLARD ’17
SENIOR EDITOR
Trinity College’s Greek system is unusual among New England liberal arts colleges, and similarly, Trinity’s Greek Letter Organizations (GLOs) are defined and affected by the fact that this is a liberal arts college. The tight boundary of our hundred-acre plot ensures that most of us know each other by the time we all go out to rush.  But where this intimacy should inspire a vibrant Greek community, we find it publicly subdued.  However, we are easily misled to think that the GLOs reign. The Greek houses own the weekends, after all, and that seems to translate into some preeminence that fools us into disregarding the way the College has neglected its fraternities and sororities.  In many rooms here, Greek life is the elephant – acknowledged only when necessary and otherwise ignored in hopes of diminishing our presence.
In the past, this schism culminated in administrative action against Greek life – two failed co-ed mandates and an attempt to block organizations from moving to locations on campus.  But when the wealthiest fraternity and sorority alumni threatened to withhold donations, the administration balked and the battle continued as a sort of Cold War with each side remaining untrusting of the other.  So
Trinity College’s Greek system is unusual among New England liberal arts colleges, and similarly, Trinity’s Greek Letter Organizations (GLOs) are defined and affected by the fact that this is a liberal arts college. The tight boundary of our hundred-acre plot ensures that most of us know each other by the time we all go out to rush.  But where this intimacy should inspire a vibrant Greek community, we find it publicly subdued.  However, we are easily misled to think that the GLOs reign. The Greek houses own the weekends, after all, and that seems to translate into some preeminence that fools us into disregarding the way the College has neglected its fraternities and sororities.  In many rooms here, Greek life is the elephant – acknowledged only when necessary and otherwise ignored in hopes of diminishing our presence.
In the past, this schism culminated in administrative action against Greek life – two failed co-ed mandates and an attempt to block organizations from moving to locations on campus.  But when the wealthiest fraternity and sorority alumni threatened to withhold donations, the administration balked and the battle continued as a sort of Cold War with each side remaining untrusting of the other.  So we have continued on in this stalemate – the GLOs asserting their autonomy from the school and the administration pushing Greek life out of the Trinity narrative.
Prospective students browsing the College’s website will not see much about any of the GLOs, despite all of the fanfare for acapella groups, sports teams, and other recreational organizations.  The alumni reading the Trinity Reporter will see far more about obscure campus news than they will about the Greek organizations that many of them belonged to.  Greek Week goes by entirely on the back of IGC and without any attention from the faculty or staff. Affiliated students underplay their membership in the classroom for fear that they will face backlash from their professors.
 
I must concede, many of our older professors and deans have good reason to look at our GLOs critically;  they survived the recklessness of fraternity culture in the 1990s, when pledging tanked most young men’s GPAs and threatened the academic reputation of the College.  That suggests a defiant ignorance, however, if they refuse to reevaluate the current system before of their distaste for the previous one.  More likely, the College’s efforts to push Greek life out of the Trinity consciousness has left them without the evidence with which re-examine their stance against the GLOs.  They simply do not know us, so they carry on with an unfavorable impression of Greek life and accordingly push us further out of Trinity’s public face in an effort to distance themselves from what they perceive as an insidious institution.  And so the cycle continues.
Members of GLOs have a duty to challenge those false perceptions.  We own some responsibility for our poor reputation among many faculty and administrators if we do nothing to show them how wildly different our system is from that of the 1990s and early 2000s.  While they expect drunks and elitists, we must show them that student leaders and accomplished athletes comprise the Greek student body.  Not only do many of us hold positions in student government, exclusive academic programs, clubs, and historic student organizations, but also the average Greek student holds a GPA .16 points higher than the average non-Greek student.  In fact, the average fraternity man – so often the victim of caricature for academic carelessness – holds a GPA .33 points higher than his non-Greek counterpart.
Where they expect elitism, we must remind them that we have brought in GLOs specifically orientated towards minority students and are currently working to develop more opportunities for young women hoping to join Greek life.
Admittedly, some of this information has permeated the barrier separating the GLOs from the administration’s good grace.  Resentment has, in some circles, waned into apathy, and elsewhere – especially among newer faculty and staff – the Greeks have enjoyed a great deal of cooperation.  IGC functions fairly independently and GLOs have begun to be invited to public events, like the campus block party.  This progress is slow, however, and we still encounter regular resistance on issues like expansion or the private property rights of Greek houses.  But it is still progress – progress that GLOs must work diligently to advance.
In a letter that I wrote to all the Greek alumni in my capacity as the President of the Inter-Greek Council, I noted this shifting of winds and how they too must act responsibily to continue this momentum.  The administration will not come round to Greek life if our alumni continue to act antagonistically, using their potential donations as a weapon.  Of course they should expect some political sway when they are personally funding our College, but they should do so in the interest of advancing Trinity’s collective interests rather than going forward combatively, widening the schism.  If instead our Greek alumni can work in tandem with the administration to better the College they will create a more favorable view of their GLOs, along with the undergraduates now affiliated with them.
Through the combined effort of alumni reengagement and student diplomacy, the GLOs can hope to return to our place as a distinguished part of this College’s tradition – something to be celebrated rather than tolerated.