D’mouth Sorority Accuses Frat of Harassment; Earth Continues to Rotate on Axis
Dartmouth in the summer must be a lonely, spooky place. According to Hampshire lore, when a heat wave breaks through Hanover, the sycamores and oaks of the forest speak these words to obnoxious frat boys: "Harass Kappa Kappa Gamma... Call them bitches and whores... Beware... Beware!"
Last Wednesday night, the brothers of Theta Delta Chi heeded Ancient Master Oak's advice. Quoth The Dartmouth:
Wednesday night around 9:30 p.m., a group of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority members going to Theta Delta Chi fraternity were met at the back door of the fraternity by its members shouting slurs and throwing items in their direction from the windows above them. The Kappa members were on their way to a prearranged, private function they were to hold in Theta Delt's basement.
In an e-mail to five of the other six Dartmouth sorority presidents, Kappa President Amanda Young '09 described the scene and called for a Theta Delt boycott for the term:
We arrived at TDX tonight at 9:30, the time we had agreed upon to arrive, and were treated worse than I could have ever imagined. We all walked up and boys came pouring out of the windows, the doors, the woods, yelling obscenities at us. We are women. We deserve to be treated with more respect. The words, "bitch" and "whore" were yelled in every sentence. These are guys who we thought were friends of ours. We were proven wrong. Following the screaming, they proceeded on to trash their basement and tip over all pong tables. The state that the basement was in when we entered was atrocious.
Young told The Dartmouth that she was "pleased with Theta Delt's behavior" the next day; the two might learn to love again, she said, but it "depends on the continued response."
Theta Delt, which has a recent history of harassment issues, wants the Greek community to know their side of the story. Frat President Ben Beisswenger '09, after covering his own ass by saying he "was in his room and did not personally witness the events in question," attributes his frat's behavior to the tense meetings they had held beforehand:
"The guys were all hyped-up and very testosterone-filled," [Beisswenger] said. "It was an atmosphere before any of this happened and a lot of guys didn't even know [the girls] were there."
Hmm... At least it's better than "Those Kappa sluts must all be on their periods and shit."
After the jump, Amanda Young's full letter to other sorority heads.
Hey!!
I just wanted to take the time to blitz all of you women and discuss a series of events that took place tonight. As you are all aware of, KKG can't have alcohol in its physical plant. This obviously posed a problem for our house tourney for masters. Our social chairs, Nell Beattie and Kimmy Harris, asked around for a place to play and TDX (after some negotiations) agreed to let us use their basement while they were at their joint meetings with GDX and AD.
We arrived at TDX tonight at 9:30, the time we had agreed upon to arrive, and were treated worse than I could have ever imagined. We all walked up and boys came pouring out of the windows, the doors, the woods, yelling obscenities at us. We are women. We deserve to be treated with more respect. The words, "bitch" and "whore" were yelled in every sentence. These are guys who we thought were friends of ours. We were proven wrong. Following the screaming, they proceeded on to trash their basement and tip over all pong tables. The state that the basement was in when we entered was atrocious.
As a result of the way that theta delta chi treated my house tonight...we are not going to step foot in theta delt for the rest of the term (if not longer). The fact that we were disrespected to the degree that we were...is simply not okay. We are women and we deserve to be treated as such.
This is an excerpt from a blitz that was sent out to our house in response to how we were treated tonight:
" I dont believe that we as women should ever EVER be treated how we were tonight. ESPECIALLY not from our friends... i think it would make a statement and prove to the guys that there are repercussions for their actions and that being an asshole and treating girls like shit will eventually catch up with them. I know I will not go there again for a long time, and i think if we all agree... and we all take a "vow" with each other not to step foot in that house for the rest of the summer, they would be taught a very very valuable lesson. It is absolutely your decisions, but as a sister and a friend i am asking you to please please seriously consider taking this "vow" or making the agreement with each other to follow through with this plan of action. "
I wanted to let you all be aware of the actions that were taken against my house tonight. Those actions, whether they were drunken or not, are not okay. The fact that I had women in my sorority in tears because they were treated the way that they were can't happen again. I hope that you, and your houses, understand where Kappa Kappa Gamma is coming from and will support us on our decision to stand up for what we believe in as women. We DESERVE to be treated better.
Thank you very much for reading this blitz. I, and the rest of my house, truly appreciate the support of the other women on this campus.
Thanks,
Amanda Young
Anyone else witness Dartmouth's finest Wednesday night? E-mail ivygate.guest@gmail.com and tell us all about it.
--JIM NEWELL
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August 6th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
“Following the screaming, they proceeded on to trash their basement and tip over all pong tables. The state that the basement was in when we entered was atrocious.”
Sounds like TI on any Thursday or Saturday. What’s the big deal?
August 6th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
Agreed. Bringing up allegation of verbal harassment is one thing… complaining about the basement of a frat house (or eating club or anywhere there are a lot of guys and/or booze) is just dumb.
August 6th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
theta delts being tools? who would have thought…
August 6th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
Kappas sure seem to love it when they’re being treated like infantilized subhumans in almost every other circumstance; I’m surprised that they’re so upset by this one.
August 6th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
I don’t understand…at the point where they were bombarded with screaming guys and insults before they went into the house, why would they ever want to enter the house after that? the trashed basement shouldn’t even be an issue because if they were so insulted by that treatment they should’ve left immediately. I’m not blaming the kappas for anything, but sheesh, maybe they should’ve got the idea that they weren’t welcome anymore?
August 6th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
But, like, TDX is where major facetime occurs. Duh! They should totally be boycotted for at least a week, after which the fine sisters of KKG can get over having bottles chucked at them and resume sucking cock for a sense of self-worth.
August 6th, 2007 at 9:44 pm
Wow, am feeling a sense of deja vu…I believe last time this happened, it was at Psi U
I love how they refer to theta delts as “our friends.” Morons. Sorry to break it to you kappas, but playing pong and having blackout sex does not make a friendship. I am not condoning what happened, but it kills me every time that this friendship nonsense comes up.
Though good lord, I almost buy the testosterone excuse…joint meetings between TDX, AD and GDX must be insane
August 6th, 2007 at 10:22 pm
having little experience with dartmouth frats, i can only imagine that anything involving AD and GDX together would be insane. AD is a rough chapter of ADP, which is the basis for Animal House and had a bust on a whole slew of drug violations last fall. I went to visit a friend at GDX last fall, and thought I would be killed in the pit that is their sub basement. I am lucky to be alive. from what I know of the other two, TDX seems to fit right in.
August 6th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
“TDX, AD and GDX must be insane”
Lotsa buttsecks.
August 7th, 2007 at 12:03 am
Refrain, if you will, from shortening Dartmouth to D’mouth. We don’t say, “P’ton.”
August 7th, 2007 at 12:22 am
ADP and AD at dartmouth had their falling out a while ago.
The guys were all “hyped-up”, yeah I think I know what that means too… people sometimes get rage when they do a lot of hype.
August 7th, 2007 at 1:29 am
Refrain, you bombastic tool, from soiling the page with whatever inanities pop into your little head.
Oh, and I have seen people posting under “P’ton”
August 7th, 2007 at 8:12 am
A boycott! For the REST of the SUMMER! Harsh. That’s like, what?, 20 days? 6 Friday and Saturday nights? I received tougher penalties for forgetting to walk the dog.
August 7th, 2007 at 9:49 am
jail fucking sucks.
August 7th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
I see this boycott going just like Prohibition; actually lasts for 3 days, then is ’secretly’ broken all the time until it is so rampant it is dropped.
August 7th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
the first kappas already slinked back to the tdx basement a few days ago… yet one of their sorority sisters is still contemplating blitzing out a campus-wide petition in which one pledges not to go to theta delt all of this fall! hilarity.
August 7th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
And Kappas wonder why people think that they’re dumb and worthless trust-fund babies. Hopefully they’ll marry rich dudes and sport black eyes for the rest of their lives.
August 9th, 2007 at 11:38 am
I can’t believe there are people criticizing Kappa here. Whatever you might think of them normally, they are doing something admirable - standing up for themselves. Mind you, it’s not the worst punishment, but it is something (and TDX is actually quite afraid right now). But instead of anonymously hating on the victims, maybe people should be showing some support.
As for the campus reaction, there was a forum on Tuesday night with a huge turnout of students, faculty, and even alums. In true form, nothing really came out of it, but it has sparked serious conversation on campus about gender relations as well as prompted workshops about gender issues - things Dartmouth is long overdue on.
I honestly don’t get how a group of students who are said to be among “the best and brightest” can’t understand why yelling “bitch”, “whore”, or “slut” is offensive.
And as for the basement issue, take it as a further sign of disrepect. The story goes that Kappa was supposed to clean the basement after they were done to thank TDX for letting them use their space. So instead of nicely offering their basement as they were supposed to, they trashed it as a further sign of disrespect. A “you wanna use our basement? Fine. We’ll trash it so you have to fix it before you play. And then you still have to clean up our mess after.” Maybe they shouldn’t have gone down there, but either way they still didn’t deserve that.
August 9th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
Are you kidding? They’re not standing up for anybody.
August 10th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
It’s amazing how “strong” a brotherhood like TDX claims to be but whenever one of them is in trouble (often) they then blame that one brother and side up with the accusser or some other idiotic excuse. (This isn’t the first time) Great, but at some point you have to address the issues that make your members feel that such actions that the house claims to “condone” are ok to continually perpetuate under the guise of “testosterone” “alcohol” or “the dartmouth male.” if you condone it so much, why are the same problems continually seen in your brotherhood? Or, more so, on any brotherhood at dartmouth?
August 10th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
If you condone something, then you allow it to happen. I found the TDX president’s article in The Dartmouth to be laughable. It was defensive and unapologetic. You’re right–these things wouldn’t be happening if they weren’t considered acceptable. There is a culture of mysogyny in the Greek system that really needs to be addressed. I say this as a “Dartmouth man” and as a Greek.
August 10th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
yeah right, some dartmouth man you are. what are you, a phi tau or a tabard or a panarchist or something? does it really surprise you so much that tdx treated the kappas the way they did? just because most of us don’t yell “bitch” “slut” or “whore” at those girls doesn’t mean we don’t think it - kappas are pretty much wastes of life. the only useful thing they do, really, is entertain burly frat boys. they’ve spent their entire college career demeaning themselves and being the biggest sluts on campus so that they can be popular - and now they’re getting upset that someone finally says it to them?
sweetheart, if you project and image of yourself as a bitch, a slut, and a whore all the time, don’t be so fucking offended if someone takes your hint and decides to treat you the same way you treat yourself.
August 10th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
@d: don’t get me wrong, please. Kappas are vapid zombies. But that doesn’t change my point at all.