Skip This Item, Just Go Rent “The Skulls”
Shocking news out of Hanover yesterday, as the “Phrygian” secret society is outed on the front page of The Dartmouth. Names! Photos! Internal memoranda! In a reporter’s wet dream of a news story (“according to documents obtained” … “shell corporation” … “sources close to the society” … “declined to confirm or deny” … “vowed that he would work to ensure that The Dartmouth, its editor-in-chief and this reporter are punished”), William Schpero ‘10 tells all, and it’s every bit as juicy as you dare to dream: an all-male group of politically conservative seniors meeting clandestinely to pursue calligraphy, the “Lone Pine Revolution” and support Stephen Smith ‘88 in the upcoming trustee election. Extra, extra!
Naturally, our first, startled reaction was: Dartmouth has secret societies?
Our Hanover bureau chief IMed the basics. Dartmouth has two major, all-male secret societies — Dragon and Sphinx — plus a third, Gryphon, that’s co-ed. Then there are “a whole slew that are uber-lame,” below which, presumably, Phrygian ranks. “Newer=lamer,” we are told. Looking into this further seems laborious, and y’all can Wikipedia as well as we can.
All we care about is fallout on campus — or the lack thereof. Secret societies (usually, that is, their memberships) are actually outed all the time, and it’s only the people currently inside them who freak out. Not group alumni, not incoming taps, not the student body at large beyond the second day. And as satisfying as it must be for an outsider to puncture the secrety types’ sanctum, you have to realize you’re playing right into their hands. Publicly, they’re outraged; privately, they are intensely, quiveringly thrilled that the world is paying attention to their little club. So, props, Schpero, enjoy your scoop. And don’t worry about it hurting your chances of getting tapped in two years — nobody will remember.
(Also: We found this great piece of satire on a Counter-Secret-Society Society while googling. Enjoy.)
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March 8th, 2007 at 11:39 am
I’m told that this issue was published on the last day of classes, so the campus is in exams right now, and then on spring break. The fallout won’t be clear for a while.
Though some of the alums are already harrumphing about it.
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/016974.php
and the undergrad blogs have noticed.
http://thelittlegreenblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/lord-of-decoder-rings.html
http://www.dartblog.com/data/2007/03/007046.php
There are lots of hilarious gems in the D story, such as contacting some guy “in the Caribbean” who refused comment, driving half an hour to knock on some door, and, well, read the whole thing.
March 8th, 2007 at 11:41 am
Who ever heard of Gryphon? When was it founded, like 1995? What about Cobra and Phoenix, which are 30 years old? Cobra even has a house where the secret goings-on go on.
March 8th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
ivygate and everyone who writes for it, you really have your heads up your collective ass. believe it or not, dartmouth is as much an ivy league school as whichever cambridge or new haven school you happened to attend. in fact, the only reason you feel like you can puff out your chest and act like a snobby schmuck is because of the reputation earned by your grad schools. dartmouth is a school known for the care placed on its undergraduate students, frankly i can’t envision a professor down in princeton making half the effort that even my worst prof makes here.
yes, we have secret societies. and yes, we’re better than you.
March 8th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
That powerlineblog link above is amazing. I guess they were going for the look of a middle school boy’s blog– rocket! elephant! penis envy! It makes it seem pretty likely their secret society involved a tree house and comic books.
March 8th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
I walked by Sphinx one night during an obvious tap session, some douche was like, “Don’t fucking look up here, I said DON’T LOOK!”
March 8th, 2007 at 8:35 pm
reminds me of the “isis crisis”
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=509327
March 9th, 2007 at 1:48 am
I’m just gonna put this out there, it’s by the same author of the “isis” article…
“They’ve got an inferior football team and a lower U.S. News ranking, but Yalies are beating their Cantab counterparts in at least one category: endowment returns. In the 12-month period ending June 30, the New Haven safety school’s endowment-return rate topped Harvard’s by 6.2 percentage points—the second straight year that the Elis’ investors have bested the Crimson’s team.”
NO WONDER everyone hates Harvard; that’s some pretty douche writing. Not only Yale, but Dartmouth and Princeton both smashed the Crimson’s endowment return.
March 9th, 2007 at 10:41 am
YV
March 9th, 2007 at 6:00 pm
Yea Verily.
March 11th, 2007 at 3:47 am
From what I know about the issues behind the so-called clementis in deserti movement, they are legitimate, especially from a conservative standpoint. If this society was organized around the movement, then it gains legitimacy imho in comparison to any other new society merely organized around being sore losers who didnt get taps.
BTW, why cant the Bee tap into its alumna network and raise some funds at least for an apartment by now?
March 11th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Wow. I thought Columbia’s secret societies were lame. Vindication?
March 11th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
What is this YV / Yea Verily stuff all about?
March 12th, 2007 at 3:21 am
Somebody call Alexandra Robbins, we have new material for another expose book!
June 1st, 2007 at 9:31 pm
YV = YV krewe , each new set of taps is a new “krewe’ for sphinx, like mardi gras krewes