<p>Coureur, I give up. You must be right. Despite not having gone to Dartmouth and having no first hand knowledge of what goes on, you must know more than the thousands of Dartmouth greek alumni. 18 articles over an 11 year period. Over that time Dartmouth would have graduated about 7,500 greek alumni. Believe me, those 7,500 are functional members of society now. </p>
<p>Obviously, the greek scene attracts the people who like to party more than those who do not like to party. With that is likely to come some brushes with trouble. That doesn’t mean that the greeks are a bunch of wild lawless hooligans bent on destroying civilized society. They are just college students. Work hard, play hard. My pledge class of 16 includes 4 lawyers, 3 doctors, 2 environmental biologists, 1 elected official, 1 college professor, 2 software engineers, 1 small business owner, 1 hedge fund manager and one guy who made so much money that he retired before the age of 30. We are married (6 to Dartmouth women), we have kids, we are successful in the world. We have our own reunions, we talk about the dumb things we did years ago and how much fun we had. </p>
<p>Most of the articles you posted are about keg violations or underage drinking. In case you were not aware, college students like to drink, they like to cut loose, they like to misbehave from time to time. This is true at every college in the world. Maybe Dartmouth students like to drink more, but I don’t think so. Thankfully for Dartmouth, students mostly like to drink beer, as opposed to so many other colleges where they drink more hard alcohol in rooms and off campus apartments. One of the great things about drinking at Dartmouth is how social it is. Fraternities are open to anybody and everybody all the time, affiliated or not (even though some students don’t realize that). 60%+ of the Dartmouth student body is greek. Virtually 100% of the social scene on weekends is in the greek houses. With that will naturally come most of the “trouble”. Eliminate the greek system and you think Dartmouth students will stop drinking? You think nobody will ever get in trouble for anything ever again? That is silly. </p>
<p>I know that I’m not going to convince you of anything and frankly, I’m a little bit embarrassed to have hijacked this thread into a personal argument between the two of us. But for those parents and prospective students out there who are on this site to consider Dartmouth, I hope you will not be swayed by Coureur’s negativity. Dartmouth is a wonderful place. All college’s have flaws, but by-and-large, Dartmouth gives you a great education, both inside and outside of the classroom. You graduate prepared for the rigors of the world and ready to face the next chapter in your life. Dartmouth has one of the most supportive and active group of alumni in the country, which I hope would tell you that most people who graduate from Dartmouth loved the experience. Coureur would like Dartmouth to be something else, he is in the minority. The vast majority of Dartmouth graduates love Dartmouth.</p>
<p>BTW, I was on campus when Beta was derecognized and I can’t say that I blame the administration for that decision. The system needs to discipline those who get out of control and they were out of control. Although it could be argued that doing away with the Football team would have done more good than doing away with Beta because when Beta closed, the football team moved on to Gamma Delt and had similar problems. The current Beta, which Rick Perry visited, is a FAR cry from the old Beta.</p>