Edition: U.S. / Global

Campus Life: Middlebury; Broad Revision In Social Structure Is Recommended

Published: December 3, 1989

If the Middlebury College Board of Trustees makes changes proposed by a college-appointed task force, the fraternity system here will be swept away as part of a broad revision in the college's social structure.

In the ''Report of the Task Force on Student Social Life,'' issued to the college community last week, the task force stated that ''the narrowly defined, fraternity-dominated social life on campus is incompatible with our vision of the future.''It recommended that the Greek system be abolished by next May 30.

In its place, the task force suggested that the college consider a ''cluster'' system, in which all students would be assigned to a cluster of residence halls and houses in their first year. Fraternity houses would be redistributed to clusters ''for use as social and party spaces.''

In an open forum held by the task force last Monday, however, Middlebury's fraternity members voiced strong opposition to the recommendations. Others argued that students were underrepresented on the task force - five of the 18 members - and that the student body did not have enough time to consider the recommendations. Part of Self-Study

Middlebury is home to six fraternities: Chi Psi, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Delta Upsilon, Kappa Delta Rho, Sigma Phi Epsilon and Zeta Psi. With the exception of the Kappa Delta Epsilon house, which is owned by the fraternity, the college owns the fraternity houses.

Middlebury's president, Olin Robison, appointed the task force on student social life as part of a self-study for Middlebury's coming reaccreditation.

The chairwoman of the task force, Ann Craig Hanson, who is dean of the college, said the task force made other recommendations, including the development of student leadership training programs, establishment of a campus pub serving beer and wine and creation of an alcohol-free residence. Students' Reaction

About 400 students, largely from Middlebury's fraternities, attended last Monday's forum. With the report issued only 12 hours before, many students complained that the short notice precluded intelligent discussion of the report.

Robert A. Skiff, a senior majoring in history from South Burlington, Vt., said the administration's handling of the report's release was ''symptomatic of how the administration, faculty and staff are dealing with the student body.''

Others said the task force did not consider student sentiments fairly. ''Were your conclusions decided upon before or after the surveys went out?'' asked George N. Beckwith, vice president of Kappa Delta Rho, referring to the 400 surveys the task force distributed to various students last spring.

Mr. Beckwith, who is a senior from Pittsburgh majoring in political science, said the statistics presented in the report did not support the task force's charges that fraternities are centers of sexism, racism and alcohol abuse. He labeled the task force effort ''an exercise in going in there and knowing what you wanted to find and disregarding what didn't go along with your thesis.'' Concern About Alternatives

Fraternities at Middlebury have been increasingly examined and criticized since May 1988 when a battered female mannequin was suspended at the annual Delta Upsilon toga party. The mannequin, covered with red paint and bearing a sexist epithet, hung for a day until college officials demanded that it be removed. Delta Upsilon was suspended for a year. After the incident, faculty members voted almost unanimously to recommend the termination of the Greek system at Middlebury.

''Obviously, there are problems of sexism at fraternities,'' said Jean Berghaus, a sophomore from Maplewood, N.J., majoring in psychology. ''Because frats are run by men, social life at Middlebury is controlled by men.''

She added, though, that ''there are not enough alternatives to fraternities, and abolishing them will only lead to more dorm damage.''

Amy Hillier, a senior from North Hampton, N.H., majoring in history, endorsed the cluster idea as an effective way to create such alternatives. ''There are so few social and housing options now that anything that creates new options is exciting,'' she said.

''I would like to have my fraternity next year,'' said Patrick Berry a junior major from of Silver Spring, Md., majoring in psychology and a member of Delta Upsilon. ''But maybe it's a time in the 20th century that fraternities are a thing of the past.'' Still, he said, ''They should have asked students for more input.''

The Middlebury College Board of Trustees will meet with a core group from the task force in New York on Thursday to set a preliminary timetable for discussing the report.