Whither The Frats?

"Our hope is that the trustees take the decision as seriously as we do. That's basically what we're here for."

--Brad Whitmon of Amherst's Psi Upsilon traternity explaining his organization of a fast to protest the decision to ban fraternities from Amherst College.

DEAR Skip:

I just arrived in Moscow today on my tour and have been hearing all of these terrible things about what's happening to fraternities across the country. At Colby, the Administration is throwing the frats and sororities out of their buildings ostensibly so that the university buildings can be distributed more fairly. At Penn. the administration is considering putting faculty members into the houses to maintain closer supervision. A friend sent me this awful article from the Dartmouth that quotes. Professor of Classics Edward Bradley "Fraternities and sororities used to be needed at institutions to mix students coming from totally different backgrounds," he said at their Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. "Today, however, creating homogeneous bodies is not important. Instead we need to establish a social hopper which respects diversity."

Just what is going on? Now I've heard that even at Amherst things are getting uncomfortable for the frats. Kip said something to me in Brussels yesterday about there being some hunger strike over fraternities at Amherst. What are things like there now? I hope there will still be some good parties left when I get back from my leave of absence. See you then. Love,   Muffy.

DEAR Muffy:

It's particularly appropriate that you're in the Soviet Union as I write now. You're right about Colby College. They banned fraternities officially just a while ago. Bob Ruzzo DU put it best: "History has repeated itself once again, as a Bolshevik minority has succeeded in confiscating the property of the 'haves' in order to re-distribute it and achieve an equality of mediocrity under which all will suffer. As with other revolutions, repression of familial ties [as represented by fraternities and sororities] is a key ingredient of success "What a coincidence, Muffy, is it that there is no freedom of speech in the Soviet Union, no freedom of religion, no free press--and also no fraternities?

Sure, we get drunk at fraternities, Muffy. But it's more than just a vehicle for taking advantage of economies of scale in the brewing industry. We're talking about the right of free men to choose their friends, the right to organize and associate, the sanctity of the family. What was it Judge Learned Hand said? "Liberty lives in the hearts of men and if it dies there..." Well, I don't remember the whole quote since that was the day after the big rush party.

Chuck Clarke of Colby's Alpha Tau Omega wrote another letter of support about this: "Now is the time to unite and fight to preserve our fraternal heritage and ensure that future generations shall possess and preserve the inviolate rights of freedom of speech, expression, and assembly in whatever form they choose."

What does freedom to associate mean if you can't even pick the people with whom you're going to share the intimate experience of downing a few kegs? At my sister's high school, they've had sororities, rush and selective membership for years. Now, of course, she's a little upset because she was black balled--but that's something you have to live with.

Sis seems to think it's not very family like just to keep her out of the club because one or two girls don't like her. "I don't remember pledging or rushing to get into the family," she said.

THAT'S ONE thing people forget about the Greek system. Everybody has some place in it: some are in, and some are out. It's not as if all fraternities and sororities are equal. I mean if you were a Tri Delt would you want to date a Sigma Nu? Of course not. Mixed marriages never work out. Back in Hellenic times, Aristotle noted that even a slave could contribute his best to society and not be entitled to citizenship. It's somewhat the same with frats.

But frats, like the great men that Aristotle though should be philosopher-kings, make life better for all. Parties are open, more or less, to everyone and make the college a better place to live. Mrs. Frederick Goodrich tells me about the changes at Williams after the frats were banned. When she first met her husband at Williams in 1946, "The campus was a wonderful place to live; fraternity and non-fraternity, the students were an enthusiastic bunch who enjoyed everything about college life." What a change now. "Our oldest son went to Williams in 1969, long after the end of the fraternity system, and when we spent some time there at various events, we found the change obvious and distressing. The college had become a think tank, grades were everything, and worst of all the students appered to be a joyless lot indeed."

Aside from their purely social function, fraternities also traditionally have been an outlet for excess tension and anxiety. Some people like to call these things pranks but they're really just activities like making tie-dye shirts and ashtrays and wallets when you were a kid at camp. Probably that kid went a little far last year who stood naked in front of the Amherst President's house: the president's wife answered the door. But what's a little toilet paper here and there? At Florida State University last week, one fraternity brother fired a shot into the neck of the president of the Interfraternity Council: but maybe he, too, was just mad to the point of insanity over all of the attacks on fraternities.

Now over at Dartmouth the Judiciary Committee of the Intrafraternity Council brought Sigma Nu in for a hearing just because of "its snow sculpture, which depicted a sword embedded in a woman's breast."

Admittedly, some of all this may be a problem at other colleges, but Amherst frats behave differently. For one thing, we are coed now. We have tried to talk with the Administration and they have largely ignored us until the meeting of the Board of Trustees last week. Maybe it seems silly to strike for frats, but what kind of college needs a hunger strike to get the attention of the administration? "In some fraternities," Amherst President G. A. Craig told the Boston Globe last month, "you'll see several hundred people standing wall to wall drinking beer and inhaling God knows what chemicals." If Craig doesn't know what chemicals they are, then what business does he have being a college president?

"Fraternity men and sorority women built Colby," Clark wrote. "Colby may not want fraternities and sororities any longer. Colby may desire to get rid of fraternities, but fraternities may not want to be rid of Colby."

But now that Amherst Trustees have voted to end the fraternities, we have only one choice left. We'll just have to ban the college.   Love,   Skip