dartmouth σδ's "raw deal" indicative of broken process, says editor

The Dartmouth of Dartmouth College continues its long tradition of thoughful but incendiary editorial coverage with an engrossing story detailing the travails of sorority Sigma Delta. Due to a misunderstanding over responsibilities, they left the rented rooms for their formal in some disarray, and soon enough the proprietor came knocking, looking for $1500. If they didn't pay up, he said, he would tattle on them to the Dean. (If this sounds vaguely infantile, it's because it is.) Nonplussed by such a blatant attempt at extortion and mindful of their contract terms which limited their liability to more like $600, Sigma Delta asked to see a bill itemizing the $1500, a document which never materialized. But the proprietor did make good on his threat to tattle, and Sigma Delta was summoned apace to answer for their crimes.

Evidently their protestations of innocence fell on deaf ears, because a probation ensued, along with an order to pay up. (If the lodge proprietor is the loan-shark here, then the Dean would be the shady knee-breaking character.) Sigma Delta, bravely holding the courage of their convictions, still demanded some kind of documentation of the charges—after all, only loan sharks demand money without proof. After some delay, a bill finally emerged. . . . for $562.50, about the amount the sorority had originally offered—and no mention of any damages. Sigma Delta trotted back to the Dean to clear up the error and probation, only to be shown a new and slightly different bill specially drawn up for the greek office, indicating a paltry sum ($37.50) attributed to damages. The two Jacksons, apparently, were enough to sustain the disciplinary measures. The fact that the total summed to a suspiciously neat $600 exactly is not explained.

Editor Christian Reilly relates the squallid tale of blackmail, official connivance, and Kafkaesque helplessness in the face of bureaucratic malevolence with considerable gusto, and concludes with an exhortation to reform the greek judicial process. It has evidently been brought to bear in similarly irrational situations against Sigma Phi Epsilon and Delta Delta Delta, while a recent Alpha Chi Delta booze-laced debacle replete with over thirty police citations and at least one guest hospitalized went unexamined. Such arbitrary and disproportionate application of rules—not to mention abetting of ill-disguised extortion—cannot be allowed to stand, says Reilly. If his account is at all accurate, he's absolutely right.

The Dartmouth