Violating the Greek Ban

Title: Violating the Greek Ban

General Information: 

  • Verbal: Legend
  • Customary: Superstition
  • English
  • USA

Informant Data: 

James Goldszer was born in Rye, New York on October 22, 1994. He is a 21-year-old male and currently a senior at Dartmouth College. He is an executive member of a Greek organization on campus and currently resides within that fraternity. As a freshman, he had a broad and diverse social network on campus, and thus often participated in gossip regarding freshman activities.

Contextual Data:

During his freshman year at Dartmouth College, the informant and the rest of his class was not allowed to enter any Greek house on campus until after the 6th weekend of the fall. Should a student enter the Greek house, engage in drinking alcohol and be caught, he or she would be punished. This punishment would disable the student from being able to enter Greek houses for a suspended amount of time. Sometimes, if the punishment is bad enough, the student can be banned from entering a Greek house for up to a year – often times disabling the student from becoming a member of a Greek house. This type of verbal lore is well known amongst the students of Dartmouth College. Houses refuse to let freshman in before the freshmen ban is uplifted, as they would also get in trouble. Violating the fraternity ban is a type of verbal lore that students fear.

Item/Transcript:  

“My freshman year was the first year that the six week frat ban for freshmen was implemented. I remember one kid who I am still friends with today. His whole sports team allowed the freshman class into his fraternity. It was supposed to be kept very quiet, but Safety and Security did come, and everyone made it out, did not get caught except for this one guy and I’m not sure what the ramifications were for the fraternity, but he was technically not allowed to rush sophomore year like most people do. He still went through the rushing motions that year but wasn’t technically a part of his fraternity until his junior year and I have a brother who is a freshman now and I know that resemblances of this story are passed around and that’s why you don’t see people trying to violate the frat band, just because of stories like that existing.”

Associated File:

James Goldszer Video Interview 

Informant’s Comments: 

The informant felt that this legend was extremely prevalent in the lives of Dartmouth students. The informant was persistent in noting that not only does this superstition live amongst freshmen, but also amongst seniors living in Greek houses who are scared of getting in trouble.

Collector’s Comments: 

This is a very popular legend amongst Dartmouth students. It is one that will exist for ages. The ability of this lore to impact the lives of so many proves it to be prevalent.

Collector’s Name: John McCormick

Tags/Keywords: 

Verbal Lore, Urban Legend; Customary Lore, Superstition

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