Animal House and the Real World

Like its peer schools, Dartmouth is famous for a number of different things, and in particular: its liberal arts tradition and undergraduate focus; its active alumni body (and their financial success - tops in the country); its idyllic location; its unique academic calendar; its championship ski teams; and, as I've discovered through conducting a number of student forums, Animal House.

For those of you unfamiliar with the film, it's a 1978 National Lampoon's Comedy co-written by Chris Miller, class of 1963, and is based on his experiences as a brother of Alpha Delta Phi (now Alpha Delta, or AD). Starring John Belushi and Tim Matheson (and featuring Kevin Bacon in his cinematic debut), the film centers around the antics and degenerate members of Delta Tau Chi at a fictional college in Pennsylvania. You can check out a plot summary here.

For better or for worse (I and most others would argue for better), the Dartmouth Greek system no longer resembles (if in fact it ever did), the system portrayed in Animal House. But before I offer my take on it, some facts about the Dartmouth Fraternity, Sorority, and Coed (Greek) system.

Dartmouth currently recognizes 16 fraternities, 9 sororities, and 3 coed houses. There are also two undergraduate societies that are not a part of the Greek system. About 60% of eligible students do join a house. Eligible students are sophomores, juniors and seniors; freshmen cannot pledge, or join, a house. There are a number of implications of this policy, all of them positive. First, it gives Dartmouth students who think they may join a house their entire freshman year to scope out the organizations and see where they feel the most comfortable. More importantly, it means that students' social networks here are determined more by the friends they make during freshman year and through the organizations they're in more than the house they're in. If a student decides to pledge, his affiliation is usually just one more thing that he does on campus. Both of my fellow full-time interns are affiliated, but you'll never hear Madhavi introduce herself as a KDE or Jeff as an Alpha-Theta. Jeff, in fact, had thought I was in a fraternity until we did a forum together and the question came up. And while organizations' memberships may be as high as 150, each house only has about 20-25 beds and no dining facilities. Thus, most affiliated students live and eat on campus like everyone else, and there's little delineation between those who are in houses and those who are not.

One more reason for this lack of clear distinction is that the Greek system at Dartmouth is really inclusive: parties are usually open to the entire campus regardless of students' affiliations, and they're usually pretty fun. Most houses on campus are known for one particular party they'll throw about once a term. My favorite is the early 80's party at Sigma Nu, but I went for the first time to Sig Ep's Foam Party this past weekend and had a really fun time. Not sure I'll do that one again, but it was definitely worth the experience of standing waste-deep (or higher) in bubbles.

All that said, I am, as I mentioned, unaffiliated. For me, there just didn't seem to be a compelling enough reason to join a house. I'd already found my "fraternity" in my a cappella group, and I've been involved in so many different activities with such a wide range of students that I didn't really need to add another social network (or the accompanying time commitment). And while a majority of students do pledge, there's a large minority (40%) of eligible students who do not. While the Greek system does provide a lot of entertainment here, it is not the be all and end all of the social scene at Dartmouth, and while the College would be a lot different without it, there are students who go 4 years here without setting foot in a Greek house and are no worse off for it. But because of the large number of organizations, we're lucky to have a lot of variation between our houses, and there are a number of students who come to Dartmouth thinking there's no way they'd ever want to be a part of the Greek system (perhaps they'd seen Animal House?) but end up pledging sophomore fall. For me, with everything else there is to do here, I just didn't think it was necessary. But when you visit colleges, and wherever you end up going, I encourage you all to keep an open mind about all the options available to you. College can be a bit (or a lot) overwhelming at first, but in time, everyone finds his/her place. If you have any questions about the place that I've found, I'd be happy to answer them.