Down with Fraternities

At well-bred Williams College, freshmen once studied fraternity bids a lot harder than books. But last week Williams (1,134 men) was out to stop the Greeks. A little pamphlet mailed to all the "Williams family" squarely stated the problem: "Fraternities at Williams have come to exercise a disproportionate role in undergraduate life." It urged Williams to take "complete responsibility" for feeding and housing students. This would cut the fraternities off at the knees.

A product of eight months' study by a committee of nine alumni and two seniors, the report wheeled up a potent weapon of attack: money. Last year 94% of the school's 830 upperclassmen ate in the fraternity houses, and nearly half lived there as well. This brought in some $500,000 to run Williams' 15 stately houses. By slashing that income, the college would reduce fraternities to little more than social clubs.

The committee aimed at just that. For years, Williams has tried to reform fraternities with piecemeal measures. The college cut out freshman rushing, worked to eliminate racial discrimination clauses, launched a "total opportunity" system giving every student a crack at some fraternity. But none of this, said the committee, cured the "inherent defect" of "the abdication by the College of part of its own responsibility."

The committee wants the college to set up its own houses and eating halls among the lovely, shaded streets of Williamstown, Mass. It cannily figures that many of the fraternities will be forced either to sell or rent their $100,000 houses to the college. The aim: "A campus where education, in its broadest sense, would take place everywhere and at all times."

At week's end Williams braced for angry alumni protest. But first reactions were encouragingly mild, for it turned out that many a Williams graduate agreed that reform was needed. Said one old grad, who had planned on another college for his son: "Now I think I'll change my mind."

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