The Tabard (fraternity)
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The Tabard, a coeducational fraternity at Dartmouth College, was founded in 1857 as a local fraternity named Phi Zeta Mu.
In 1893, the house sought to associate itself with a national fraternity and was granted a charter as the Eta Eta chapter of Sigma Chi national fraternity.
The fraternity dissociated from the national fraternity organization in 1960 when the national fraternity membership policies continued to discriminate against minorities. The house again became a local fraternity (The Tabard), with the intentions of possessing (According to the current President): "the exact opposite values [exclusion and closed-mindedness] held by Sigma Chi."
The Tabard, like some other houses at Dartmouth, decided to become coeducational and admit women pledges when the College began admitting women students in 1972.
In 1997, the Tabard approved new membership policies that affirmed their policies of non-disrimination on the basis of race, gender, or sexual orientation and further removed self-selection from the pledging process.
The Tabard as an organzation has been a strong source of leadership for progressive political change at Dartmouth, most especially the drive for abolition of single-sex "Greek" houses, which have shown themselves to promote racism, elitism and (in particular) distorted and unhealthy male-female relationships, at Dartmouth as elsewhere.
On the social front, The Tabard is famous for live concerts featuring alternative bands, as well as its "Disco Inferno" party, held on the "big weekend" of every term (Winter Carnival, Green Key, Tubestock and Homecoming). This party was first held in 1989.
The organization was named after the The Tabard, a London inn described in the opening lines of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. The founding members felt it was appropriate to express the spirit of the place as a gathering point before great adventures begin, contrasting the wide-spread feeling of finality and arrival which many other Greek organizations strive for.
Motto: "The Tabard is the ultimate in sweetness; no other frorority is as sweet."
The Tabard is famous for its rush posters.[citation needed]
