“Diversity”
was the theme of President Hull's remarks at the
College's opening convocation this fall, and it is a word
that can be applied to the news that accompanied the
start of our 204th year:
— Workers hustled to finish Schaffer
Library, the F.W. Olin Center, and a handful of other
campus projects;
— A freshman class of 545 (along with
39 transfer students) settled in, the result of the most
successful admissions recruiting year ever;
— The New York State Education
Department approved the College's new Leadership in
Medicine Program — the first joint-degree program in the
country designed to produce physicians educated to meet
the challenges of managed care;
— The books closed on the most
successful fundraising year ever, with totals of nearly
$27 million in gifts (a record) and $4 million in the
Annual Fund (also a record);
— Word arrived that the National
Science Foundation has made a $500,000 grant to Union —
national recognition of the College's efforts to
integrate teaching and research;
— Conversations continued — and a
major proposal was made — about the future of the Greek
system at Union.
Reforming the Greek system
The proposal about the Greek system
came from a “committee on sophomore rush”
appointed by President Hull. Its recommendations, which
were distributed on campus during the first week of
classes, include:
— Beginning with the Class of 2004,
first-year students should not participate in the rush or
pledging process;
— The president should appoint a
committee “to anticipate the effects of sophomore
rush and to set forth the accommodations we will need to
make the transition without harming current fraternities
and sororities ….”
The committee also should propose a set
of reforms “that would preserve the traditions of
Greek life that are consistent with an academic community
that values open inquiry, seriousness of purpose,
diversity of opinion, and a broad and equitable choice of
residential and social options;”
— The reform experiment should be
given a period of five years (including 1998-99) to
demonstrate results. At the end of that period, the
College should evaluate the success of the reform efforts
and determine whether it will continue to support the
Greek system.
— 1999-2000 should be a transitional
year; the committee will determine specifics, which might
include postponing freshman rush to late winter, limiting
pledging to five or six weeks, and implementing a trial
run of sophomore rush.
— The faculty, administration, and
alumni should commit to supporting the Greek system
through the period of reform.
The recommendations were the result of
a conversation about the Greek system that began last
spring, when the faculty voted 119-2 to postpone Greek
rush until the sophomore year, and the student-dominated
Student Affairs Council rejected that proposal.
There were several open meetings during
the spring, and several themes reoccurred.
Proponents of a change said that
students need more time to explore the College as a whole
before making a commitment to a fraternity or a sorority,
and that pledging and rush practices had a deleterious
effect on academic performance. Faculty teaching freshman
courses frequently cited examples of students whose
attendance dropped, who fell asleep in class, who were
unprepared, or who arrived unkempt and smelling of
alcohol.
Those opposed to sophomore rush said
that such a system would diminish an opportunity that
many students recognize as a valuable component of their
college experience and would deprive them of a valuable
support system. They expressed fear that postponing rush
would create problems for groups that need to meet strict
occupancy requirements and that it would undermine the
Greek system.
President Hull, to resolve the matter,
appointed a nine-member committee that represented the
views of faculty, students, alumni, and administrators.
The committee began by identifying
three alternatives:
— continue the current Greek system
without change;
— abolish Greek organizations on
campus, or progressively weaken them through policy
decisions that react to individual problems;
— make a commitment to creating a
social life that includes a reformed Greek system and a
strong non-Greek social life, dealing with the problems
identified in the current system without abolishing it.
The committee unanimously endorsed the
third option and said the entire Union community should
work to create a “Greek system for the twenty-first
century, one which can be a model for how Greek
organizations can be a productive part of an excellent
liberal arts college.”
Concurrently, the committee said, the
College needs to create a wider campus social life that
includes, but does not center on, Greek life.
The committee said its recommendations
are “strong medicine, but we believe they are
necessary and call for sacrifice and commitment from all
quarters of the community.”
For the Greek societies, the committee
said, the changes mean not only moving to sophomore rush
but also “abandoning regressive traditions
associated with initiation such as hazing, rituals of
dominance and subjugation, excessive emphasis and time
spent on pledging, excessive drinking, and juvenile
pranks.”
The administration must commit to
finding the necessary resources to make the required
changes and to support the Greek societies during and
after the transition, the committee said. Sophomore rush
might require the College to relax the occupancy
regulations for Greek houses, for example, and new
approaches and spaces will be required to accommodate new
forms and venues for social life.
The committee said the faculty must
become ready to compromise in both attitude and action.
Faculty members must take an active role in the
development of campus life and “suspend their
skepticism concerning the ability of the Greek system to
reform itself and be willing to recognize success when
they see it.”
Finally, the committee said, alumni
must support the Greek system “with their advice,
their wisdom, their time, and their money. If Greek life
is to continue for the next generations of Union
students, then alumni will need to determine which
traditions are still appropriate for a college that has a
diverse and coeducational student body and that is poised
to reclaim its place among the vanguard of national
liberal arts colleges.”
The sophomore rush committee said that
its report was only making suggestions, and that
specifics will be determined by the committee to be
appointed by the president.
In its conclusion, the sophomore rush
committee said, “Union is a more diverse community
than it was when fraternities were in their prime; we
need to become even more diverse if we are going to
remain competitive and engage in today's global society.
As Union evolves, so must the fraternities and sororities
if they are to continue into the twenty-first
century.”
Committee members included Fred Alford,
dean of students; Suzanne Benack, professor of
psychology; Jamie Drown '99, president of the
Interfraternity Council; Deborah Leif '99, president of
the Panhellenic Council; Therese McCarty, associate
professor of economics; Christina Sorum, professor of
classics and dean of arts and sciences; John Vero '96,
member of the Alumni Council; Anton Warde '64, professor
of German; and Beth Wierzbieniec '99, president of the
Student Forum.
College, AD reach accord
In other news involving the Greek
system, the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity has agreed to
relocate to Fero House after the current academic year.
The Admissions Office will then move to the building at 3
Library Lane.
President Hull said the agreement
between the College and the fraternity will provide an
Admissions Office that will enable the College to compete
effectively in the future and will enable the fraternity
to build on its long history. He said that the process,
“like most that involve significant change, was
often difficult,” and he thanked Dave Eddy '69,
Steve Stadtmauer '90, and Bob Wilder '86 for representing
Alpha Delta Phi.
Wilder, president of the fraternity's
alumni association, said, “I am confident that our
association can move forward from this settlement and
secure its position on campus for many years to come. It
will take time to get used to Fero House, but I'm very
hopeful we'll create new traditions.”
The College will complete necessary
building modifications to accommodate the residential and
social needs of the fraternity, which include expanded
kitchen and dining facilities. Alpha Delta Phi will
assume the costs associated with relocating select
historic artifacts and fixtures and will provide funding
for a chapter room.
The proposal to relocate admissions was
part of a report issued by a Campus Planning Advisory
Committee, which worked with the planning firm of Dober
Lidsky Craig and Associates for two years to examine ways
to improve the College's academic, athletic, residential,
social, and administrative facilities.
The Board of Trustees approved the
committee's campus enhancement recommendations at its
meeting last June. Other projects approved were the
upgrading of Old Chapel for student social space; the
development of an administrative office and theme house
in the College's Lenox Road properties; and improvements
to Achilles Rink.
Affirming diversity
In his remarks at the opening
convocation, President Hull said that “part and
parcel of any conversation about community today is the
need for diversity.”
He noted that last spring a four-week
series of conversations about race on campus was held.
Nearly thirty dialogues and more than thirty follow-up
activities occurred, and several helpful suggestions
emerged. Concurrent with these discussions, the faculty
and the president had meetings to talk about initiatives
that could be taken to hire more faculty of color.
“We decided to pursue a
multi-pronged approach that, for want of a better name, I
have labelled an 'affirmative affirmative action plan,'
” the president said. Under the plan, the following
initiatives will be implemented:
— a program of incentives for Union
students of color who return to the College to teach;
— a minority fellows program (the
College has hired the first of those fellows in the
English Department);
— the meeting of the market
financially for black and Hispanic faculty (the College
has made its first hire under this program);
— four additional tenure-track lines
for under-represented minorities (the first individual
has been hired under this program).
The president also reported that a
committee dealing with gender equity issued a report with
several recommendations to reach the goal of equity in
the men's and women's athletic programs within three
years. To achieve that, he said, crew has become a
varsity sport, women's ice hockey will reach varsity
status in the academic year 2000-2001, all women's teams
now have a head coach who is not the head coach of
another sport, and significant funds will be infused into
recruiting women athletes.
At the convocation, Alan D. Taylor, the
Marie Louise Bailey Professor of Mathematics, received
the Stillman Prize for Excellence in Teaching. Sophomore
Tania Magoon received the Phi Beta Kappa Prize for
outstanding achievement in general education in her first
year, with Carin Litani '01 receiving honorable mention.
Charity McManaman '99 was awarded the Phi Beta Kappa
senior travel award.