Wesleyan Mandates Residential Fraternities Become Co-Ed

[mystikchick]

Greek life at Wesleyan has been under a microscope for some time now. A few years ago, the administration mandated that fraternity houses open up their residential living to women, which Psi U and DKE did. More recently, Beta Theta Pi has been under scrutiny for a sexual assault lawsuit and a student falling out of a window while intoxicated.

I just opened my email and saw this letter concerning the future of Greek life from President Michael Roth (himself an alum of Alpha Delta Phi, which at Wesleyan is a co-ed literary fraternity), and the head of the Board of Trustees. If I'm reading this correctly (as a non-Greek), won't this mean either de-recognition from the school or from the national organization? Or they have to give up their houses (DKE and Psi U's are beautiful)?

To the Wesleyan community:
As you may know, we have been considering the future role of Greek life at Wesleyan, and over the summer a great many Wesleyan alumni, students and faculty offered their views. Some have urged that we preserve the status quo; others have argued for the elimination of all exclusive social societies. The trustees and administration recognize that residential fraternities have contributed greatly to Wesleyan over a long period of time, but we also believe they must change to continue to benefit their members and the larger campus community. With equity and inclusion in mind, we have decided that residential fraternities must become fully co-educational over the next three years. If the organizations are to continue to be recognized as offering housing and social spaces for Wesleyan students, women as well as men must be full members and well-represented in the body and leadership of the organization.
This change is something that Wesleyan and the fraternities have been contemplating for many years, and now the time has come. The University looks forward to receiving plans from the residential fraternities to co-educate, after which it will work closely with them to make the transition as smooth as possible.
Our residential Greek organizations inspire loyalty, community and independence. That's why all our students should be eligible to join them. Although this change does not affect nonresidential organizations, we are hopeful that groups across the University will continue to work together to create a more inclusive, equitable and safer campus. We look forward to working with all campus constituencies to improve the residential experience of Wesleyan students now and for generations to come.
Joshua Boger '73, P'06, P'09
Chair, Board of Trustees
Michael S. Roth '78
President

[ZetaPhi708.20]

Originally Posted by mystikchick

Greek life at Wesleyan has been under a microscope for some time now. A few years ago, the administration mandated that fraternity houses open up their residential living to women, which Psi U and DKE did. More recently, Beta Theta Pi has been under scrutiny for a sexual assault lawsuit and a student falling out of a window while intoxicated.

I just opened my email and saw this letter concerning the future of Greek life from President Michael Roth (himself an alum of Alpha Delta Phi, which at Wesleyan is a co-ed literary fraternity), and the head of the Board of Trustees. If I'm reading this correctly (as a non-Greek), won't this mean either de-recognition from the school or from the national organization? Or they have to give up their houses (DKE and Psi U's are beautiful)?

It's that one line right here, from the citation provided: "women as well as men must be full members and well-represented in the body and leadership of the organization."

IMO, that line implies that all men's GLOs must initiate women as a part of their organizations to keep on-campus residential housing for their organization. Am I interpreting that correctly?

[33girl]

This is stupid and I can't believe DKE went along with it.

My question is, do the sororities have comparable housing? If not, wouldn't a better solution be to GET the sororities comparable housing, rather than having women join groups that don't really want them and having them live in a fraternity house? Many women are NOT comfortable with that, let alone their parents.

[pinksequins]

There are no longer NPC sororities at Wesleyan.

[pinksequins]

Isn't Trinity treading similar water?

[33girl]

Originally Posted by pinksequins

There are no longer NPC sororities at Wesleyan.

Do they have local groups? If not, isn't that another issue? "You can be in a fraternity that's forced to take you, but God forbid you have a group of your own"?

The fact that they allow NPHC groups with apparently nary a peep is unbelievably condescending. These are the same jackasses who thought school integration was about black people wanting to socialize with white people.

[Sen's Revenge]

[thetalady]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Do they have local groups? If not, isn't that another issue? "You can be in a fraternity that's forced to take you, but God forbid you have a group of your own"?

The fact that they allow NPHC groups with apparently nary a peep is unbelievably condescending. These are the same jackasses who thought school integration was about black people wanting to socialize with white people.

Do the NPHC groups have housing on campus?

[Low D Flat]

I know this campus well. The culture is such that single-sex houses are more of an anomaly that co-ed houses. DKE, at least, has had female residents since 2004. Some groups may choose to be unhoused rather than operate a coed house.

There is one local sorority as well as NPHC groups: http://rhoepsilonpi.com The NPHC groups do not have housing, and as far as I know, they have never sought it.

[PersistentDST]

I know for Delta and AKA (and I'm sure Zeta & SGRho), those are "city-wide" chapters, so housing wouldn't be necessary or worth the time. A line may come through and not have any members from that university, but from others in the service area of the chapter. I've heard of city-wide chapters having different rules as far as being recognized by the universities.

[mystikchick]

When I was there from 2004-08, there were pledge classes for many of the NPHC groups - I know for certain there were lines for AKA, Zeta Phi Beta, Alpha Phi Alpha and I want to say Kappa? But to the best of my knowledge, those are chapters centered in Hartford, and there are no residences. There was also another multicultural sorority at the time that folded after a year or two, and my senior year a Latina sorority had a line, but I can't recall the name. Kappa Alpha Theta was the last NPC on campus, house-less, and they disbanded in 2004-05.

The three fraternities are the only remaining national, single-sex fraternities on campus. DKE and Psi U have played along with the university's rules until now, but Roth has had it out for the fraternities since he took office. Eclectic and Alpha Delta Phi are both co-ed.

[QUOTE=mystikchick;2293286]When I was there from 2004-08, there were pledge classes for many of the NPHC groups - I know for certain there were lines for AKA, Zeta Phi Beta, Alpha Phi Alpha and I want to say Kappa? But to the best of my knowledge, those are chapters centered in Hartford, and there are no residences. There was also another multicultural sorority at the time that folded after a year or two, and my senior year a Latina sorority had a line, but I can't recall the name. Kappa Alpha Theta was the last NPC on campus, house-less, and they disbanded in 2004-05.

ETA: Reading the website for the local, I think the timeline matches up with when I posted here about how there were girls who thought it would be as simple as just contacting Theta and boom, chapter reinstated. There were a lot of women interested, but I don't see the administration backing a sorority of any stripe officially on campus. It's a pity, because Wesleyan had a rich sorority life with some of the first women who were admitted to campus in the late 1800s - as I recall, there were particularly strong links with the founders of AGD. These three fraternities are the last remnants of an extensive fraternity life on campus - most of the former houses are now administrative buildings and one is a program house.

[Psi U MC Vito]

It'll be interesting to see if the Psi U chapter goes co-ed or not. It's not a catch-22 for them like it would be for DKE though.

[BadCat25]

This development shouldn't surprise anyone. While Wesleyan always was and still is an elite LAC it is also widely mocked for its oppressive political correctness.

[AGDCanada11]

This article indicates towards the end that this has already happened on other campuses (I was surprised!)

I don't understand ho a school can get away with requiring co-ed membership.

http://benswann.com/colleges-forcing...nder-equality/

[naraht]

Originally Posted by AGDCanada11

This article indicates towards the end that this has already happened on other campuses (I was surprised!)

I don't understand ho a school can get away with requiring co-ed membership.

http://benswann.com/colleges-forcing...nder-equality/

Look at it this way, the organization is a guest on their campus. As far as I know, the only court cases which have allowed an override of the school rules are based on religion. (Christian Fraternities suing to force school to allow bylaws to require that officers fit a specific set of Christian practices including not being Homosexual, etc.)