Occasionally, chapter officers may fine a member. “The day I left, I said goodbye to a guy I thought was one of my best friends, and told him I had a problem,” Lohse recalls. It was MD 20/20, known as Mad Dog, the toxic beverage whose high alcohol content – 13 percent – and cheapness has made it popular with homeless men and hard-partying college boys everywhere. But at the last minute, Lohse backed off. He says some fraternities would remove an intoxicated person from their house before making a “Good Sam” call to campus security to inform them that the person may have alcohol poisoning. At a college where two-thirds of the upperclassmen are members of Greek houses, fraternities essentially control the social life on campus. The first such society at Dartmouth, the Social Friends, was formed in 1783. Unlike many schools, Dartmouth students don't rush until Sophomore year. In the dining room, his Macbook sits on a table surrounded by legal pads, newspapers and books by Noam Chomsky, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Jay McInerney. “But he was still drinking and smoking weed, still actively pursuing all the things that had gotten him in trouble to begin with.” To some, Lohse still seemed furious by what had happened to him. Now a financial manager, Sjogren played football and baseball at Dartmouth and was a brother at the now-defunct Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. The local campus group of a fraternity or sorority. This leaves the fraternities, whose parties are open to all. “One of the few dependable ways into the one percent is via these elite feeder systems, like Dartmouth,” says David Rothkopf, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the author of Power Inc., which examines the influence wielded by multinational corporations in the global era. Request Help; Reunions Home. National dues — paid to the national HQ. Alarmed by the skyrocketing rate of binge drinking, which studies show is nearly twice as high among fraternity residents, a growing number of colleges have opted to kick frats off campus or do away with them altogether. “Some of the stuff we do is really disturbing and unnecessary, and we do need to put an end to it. On the advice of Professor Bronski, who had written for The Village Voice, Lohse even tried to set up meetings with reporters from The Boston Globe and The New York Times. “The fraternities here have a tremendous sense of entitlement – a different entitlement than you find at Harvard or other Ivy League schools,” says Michael Bronski, a Dartmouth professor of women’s and gender studies. You don’t lose. Lohse was grossed out. After being diagnosed with uterine sarcoma two years ago, Maia and her husband, Clark Youmans, orchestrated their Orcas Island (WA) wedding, Class Webmaster; 03.01.2007; In Memoriam; Read more Karen Avenoso. Lohse looked around as 10 sophomores scribbled down on paper why they deserved to be chosen. This did not go over well. Then a brother handed each of them a bottle of Boone’s Farm Blue Hawaiian – a Windex-colored cohort of Mad Dog – and told them that whoever drank it the fastest got to remain. Last spring, Yale became the subject of a federal Title IX investigation after a group of 16 current and former students accused the school of creating a “hostile environment” for women, citing a prank in which the pledges of Delta Kappa Epsilon, the same fraternity that boasted both Bush presidents as members, paraded outside the Yale campus chanting, “No means yes! This is not the first time that SAE has come under fire for hazing abuses, or the first time the house has closed ranks against an attack: In 2009, a member of the Dartmouth faculty accused the fraternity of making pledges chug milk and vinegar until they threw up. That fall, he enrolled at Dartmouth, where he had wanted to go for as long as he could remember. The pledges were driven to a remote spot across the Vermont border, where they were marched up a wooded trail and into a clearing. In a strange abdication of authority, Kim even professes to have little influence over the fraternities. Financial obligations differ among individual chapters, as well as whether you live in or out of a chapter house. brian.joyce@Dartmouth.edu 603 646 9007 Program Coordinator Jessica.C.Barloga jessica.c.bargloa@dartmouth.edu 603 646 0467 Office Manager Laura LaMontagne Laura.V.LaMontagne@dartmouth.edu 603 646 2399 Associate Director of Residential Operations Bernard Haskell bernard.w.haskell@dartmouth… 2 talking about this. The question is, given how the school has treated Lohse, will anyone ever come forward and speak truthfully about the culture of abuse and degradation perpetrated by the fraternity system? Wright declined to elaborate on the conflict, other than to tell me there was “push back” from both alumni and fraternities over his proposal; by July 1999, he had backed off. Students residing in Greek chapters houses are required to purchase a meal plan. Students who receive financial aid are asked to meet with their Financial Aid Counselor to review their individual situation and options. Chapters may also charge social dues. “I was standing under this dripping pipe, looking at people drinking this watery Keystone Light beer, and I felt cheated,” he says. Sjogren resides in the Hanover area, where, in his spare time, he counsels students with substance-abuse issues. “We were told they needed a few more guys to piss and boot in it.”, Such rituals were not restricted to SAE. But it wasn’t really me. Two weeks passed without word from anyone at Dartmouth. As with all fraternities, drugs were by no means uncommon at SAE, but coke had a particular cachet; one of the seniors most fond of the drug would promote it to his brothers as a sign of one’s elitism. “Their members are secure that they have bright futures, and they just don’t care.