Zete sex papers not a new tradition.
House was derecognized in 1987 for similar offenses, but tradition reemerged.

On a warm, bright day in April, 1987, Dartmouth awoke to news that one of the College's fraternities was in trouble. Already on social probation for alcohol violations, Zeta Psi fraternity, The Dartmouth reported, was under investigation for a newsletter distributed at meetings that depicted the alleged sexual exploits of a house member.

The publication showed a personified hog asking to be sexually abused by a member of the fraternity. "The newsletter shows a woman being raped and acting as if she wanted to be raped," a woman who had seen the publication told The Dartmouth.

A College investigation was launched, top administrators made statements deploring the newsletter, opinions raged in the opinion pages of The Dartmouth and the fraternity's porch was littered one night with tampons covered with mock blood.

Less than a week after the initial revelations, the College announced that Zeta Psi would face a year of derecognition.

Todd Zywicki, a former Zeta Psi member who graduated in 1988, says many of the college's Greek alumni are outraged over what he describes as the administration's decades-long campaign against the Greek system.

"The sex newsletters were clearly disgusting, but the college's response was completely disproportionate," says Mr. Zywicki, who is now a law professor at George Mason University and one of many Dartmouth graduates to have criticized the administration in the college's alumni magazine recently. "To permanently de-recognize an entire fraternity on the basis of speech is an inappropriate and irrational punishment that can only be a pretense for a larger goal."