collegealum314

I am sure that many of the faculty in the administration and outside of it didn't think much of the frat system. Two of my advisors said so without my prompting them. However, despite these misgivings, I am quite sure there was no "plan" put forward to put freshmen on campus before 1997 because everyone would have already known that it would be rejected by students and alumni. I don't know whether there was any internal discussion in the early 1990s when they made that report. Until recently, they were unwilling to spend money on dorms, so that was a factor.

You are right. Students and alumni were opposed to the Freshmen on Campus plan, even after the 1997 death. It's complicated, though. A large chunk of the student body is indoctrinated into a system, and then, big surprise, they are opposed to changing it.

UMTYMP student

It appears that housing all first-year students in dorms was proposed in 1989 FHC says all freshmen should live in dormities - The Tech but the proposal didn't go anywhere because of student opposition Chushingura and Catastrophe | Inside Higher Ed.

collegealum314

Wow. I'm not sure how I feel about that. They seem to have been able to eloquently diagnose what the problems were, but then they did nothing. Ultimately, the buck stops with the administration, regardless of anticipated student/alumni resistance. Other college administrations have actually removed their frat systems (Williams is an example) in the face of a lot of resistance. If you can't move Rush to sophomore year for fear of student complaints, that is a sign of weak leadership.