College President Wants to Emphasize Positive Aspects of Greek Life
 

The new president of Dartmouth wants to improve public perception of Greek life there, according to a recent article:

http://thedartmouth.com/2009/09/23/news/greek/

Excerpt from longer article:

College President Jim Yong Kim said in an interview with The Dartmouth this week that he will focus on improving the public perception of the College’s Greek system, noting that the disparity between prospective students’ perception of the College’s Greek system and Dartmouth students’ own experience is evidence of a “public relations problem” at the College.

Kim said he hopes to improve the image of the Greek system among prospective students and the general public through his role as “chief advocacy officer.” . . .


Elsewhere in the article it's noted that apparently a fairly large percentage of those considering applying to Dartmouth are wary of Greek life to some degree.

That an interesting change from the usual trend that administration have against Greek Life. Is he Greek himself?

No, he's not Greek.

I think for this guy, perhaps he is a bit more open-minded, thanks to the emergence of the trend of social networking in general. The more bonds you forge with people through going Greek, being involved in stuff, whatever.... it can pay off later on. It's all about allying yourself with "Centres of Influence" and all that good stuff (with nods to Malcolm Gladwell).

I would hope that most people have moved beyond the infantile "but you're paying for your friends" argument. Hell, everything in life costs fees, you pay to go to kindergarten via your parents paying taxes. It's nice to see a university administration being willing to be more of an advocate; it sounds like he is willing to work together with students to improve things. Hopefully, it will not be a squandered opportunity by the students, in the form of acting like idiots.

I know the greek community was very pleased with President Kim's openness to the greek system on campus. Dartmouth has had administrators who were not so supportive in the past, but they tended to be unsuccessful because at Dartmouth all of our major alumni donors are greek and strongly support the greek system on campus. When President Kim was announced as president elect, there were some concerns within the greek community that he might not be our biggest ally because of his unfamiliarity with greek life, but he has really made an effort. He's met with lots of chapter presidents and greek leaders, toured houses, even (somewhat in jest) asked our student body president to explain the Dartmouth-specific rules for beer pong.

I hope all continues to go well. Dartmouth greeks have a rare advantage in that the majority of eligible (we have deferred recruitment) students on campus are affiliated (I think it's approaching 70% at least for women). It's harder to be anti-greek when you're fighting that strong a majority.

The college from which I graduated (a little late) was not Greek then but is now. At a small meeting with the president, he stated that alumni gifts from Greeks were significantly above those from non-Greeks and this applied to almost all colleges.

That's definitely true for most schools. I didn't mean to imply that only at Dartmouth were Greek alumni big spender. I was just referencing a recent anti-greek movement that was tabled shortly after numerous generous alumni withdrew donations.