 The fraternities of Dartmouth College were directly involved in the African @-@ American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s . In 1952 , the Dartmouth chapter of Theta Chi was derecognized by its national over a dispute regarding minority membership . The Dartmouth chapter reorganized as a local fraternity named Alpha Theta . A campus @-@ wide referendum held in 1954 on the issue of desegregation of fraternities resulted in a majority in favor of requiring fraternities on campus to eliminate racially discriminatory membership policies by the year 1960 , and to secede from national groups that retained such policies in their charters . This became a binding obligation imposed on the fraternities by the college administration , and several fraternities at Dartmouth dissociated from their national organizations , including the chapters of Phi Sigma Kappa ( 1956 ) , Delta Tau Delta ( 1960 ) , Phi Delta Theta ( 1960 ) , Sigma Chi ( 1960 ) , and Sigma Nu ( 1963 ) . 
