Amherst Announces Review of Fraternities; Students Express Fear Frats May Be Banned

A sweeping review of Amherst College fraternities by the school's Board of Trustees has worried students who fear that the system might be abolished.

The Trustees this fall set up a subcommittee to examine the fraternities and asked four college governance groups to submit reports by this week.

The committee is expected to report to the full board on January 15, but it remains unclear what revisions--if any--might be suggested.

The Amherst faculty last week voted 90 to 29 in a secret ballot for the abolition of the fraternities. And earlier in the year, the Alumni Board also voted to eliminate the system.

Acting President G. Armour Crag also has publicly favored banning the organizations, reported the Amherst Student, the campus newspaper.

No alternative system has been proposed for the 600 residents of the college's eight coeducational fraternities who comprise more than 33 percent of the student body.

Almost 300 students held a rally in support of the fraternities in mid-November. The rally was organized by the Inter-Fraternity Council.

Students carried signs reading "Give us the choice," and "Frats Belong at Amherst."

"The fraternities and the administration have not dealt with each other in good faith," said former Theta Delta member Warren Tolman, according to the Amherst Student's coverage of the rally. "Neither side is free from criticism. The fraternities are trying to change."

"We're pretty much put in a hopeless situation," said Amherst undergraduate Sue Furbish of the Trustee's Committee on Student Life which is filing a report. "There is still a little bit of hope, but the general atmosphere on campus is that they are going to be abolished."

The fraternities' controversial hazing system was officially abolished last year through a new series of college rules aimed at making the fraternities less selective.

The new system requires the fraternities to take at least a minimum number of those who rush. In addition, the system guarantees that if a person rushes four fraternities, entrance into at least one is guaranteed, the Amherst Student reported.

"We feel that they haven't given the system long enough to prove itself," said Delta Chi Tsi President J. Tucker Moodey.

The college may object to the fraternities because of the damage done to the buildings, which the college owns, Moodey said. Two fraternities were put on probation last year because of damage, and one, Delta Upsilon, was closed two years ago.

"We provide pretty much the only social life here," Moodey said. "There is just a lot of damage done to the fraternities."

"We basically provide free alcohol for the entire campus, and when we have parties with 800 to 1,000 people jammed in, there is going to be some damage." He added, "The responsibility is really all on our shoulders to provide a social life."

Added Furbish: "Abolishing fraternities would void student life, unless they came up with an alternative."

"We're fighting an uphill battle," Furbish said.