General Information:

Title: Fraternity Ban

Form of Folklore: Customary/Ritual (Freshman Tradition)

Language: English

Place of Origin: Hanover, NH, United States

Informant: TB’23

Date Collected: November 7th, 2021

Informant Data: TB is 21 years old and a junior at Dartmouth College. He is originally from Chicago, Illinois and played baseball growing up. At Dartmouth, TB is involved in Greek Life and continues to play baseball through the club baseball team. 

Contextual Data: 

– Social Context: Unlike many other schools, freshmen at Dartmouth are coming from a variety of national and international locations and come with many different experiences. The frat ban allows these students of many backgrounds to get to know one another though they might not have been inclined to get to know each other with the presence of Greek life. 

– Cultural Context:  Freshman fall is an important time in the eyes of Dartmouth’s Administration. They want to make this as inclusive and welcoming as possible in order to form bonds between students in the incoming class. Dartmouth also has a large Greek life presence on campus which can sometimes be exclusive. To ensure that members of the freshman class spend as much time together during the first semester as possible, the College instituted a frat ban. This is a six week long period in which freshmen are not allowed to enter the fraternities on campus. Though this limits the things that freshmen can do on the weekends, many look back on the frat ban as a time that allowed them to get closer to their class and meet people that they wouldn’t have otherwise.

Item: Dartmouth Freshmen are subject to the Frat Ban which is a six week period in which they are not allowed to enter fraternities on campus. This is instituted by the College and is upheld by the fraternities and the Department of Safety and Security. Freshmen stay in their dormitories and form bonds with either their roommate(s) or fellow freshmen in the dorm.

Associated File (courtesy of The Dartmouth Review, pictured is the Choates dorms, one of the Freshman Dorms for Allen House where freshman congregate during the Frat Ban)

Transcript:

Collector: “What was your experience with the frat ban and how did it affect your freshman fall and did it promote cohesion within your class and or the people in your dorm?”

Informant: “My perception of the frat ban going into college was that it would be a barrier to having fun and meeting people, but I think it did exactly what it’s intended to do which is get you to meet people more organically that in a fraternity setting. Since joining Psi U I’ve spent the vast majority of my time with the brothers, and I think had it not been for the frat ban I would have a far smaller pool of friends because I wouldn’t have had the kind of forced opportunity to branch out in the way that I did. I’m still really tight with some of the people on the floor of my freshman year dorm, and generally feel that I met a ton of great people who I might otherwise not have if they lack interest in the fraternity scene.”

Collector Comment: It is interesting to hear the perspective of someone who actually went through the Frat Ban while fraternities were operating at full capacity. I went through more of an organic Frat Ban as the result of frats being shut down and the only thing to do on the weekends was to interact with the other people on my floor and in my dorm. 

Collected by:

Nick Hepburn 20

Hampton, NH

Hanover, NH

Dartmouth College

RUSS 013