December
20, 2004
Wesleyan Fraternities Face Pressure to House Women
By STACEY STOWE
 IDDLETOWN,
Conn. - Fraternity brothers are scarce here at Wesleyan, a small liberal
arts college whose nickname is "Diversity University" and
where students can board at off-campus houses like the "Womanist"
and "Malcolm X," which are approved by the university.
Now, the fraternity brothers say they will be forced into virtual
inactivity next fall if they do not comply with the administration's
newly enforced nondiscrimination policy and allow women to live at the
fraternity houses.
"They talk about breaking barriers
down," said Michael Barbera, a sophomore who is president of Delta
Kappa Epsilon, one of four fraternities that offer housing at Wesleyan.
"But what the university is saying is, 'We'll just be prejudiced
against white middle-class men who play sports.' "
His fraternity recently voted to allow
women to live there, but many members said they did so reluctantly.
Lashing out at the administration is practically a course requirement
at Wesleyan, with 2,200 undergraduates and a strong history of political
activism. Campus security was summoned on Dec. 7 when 120 students
cornered the university's president, Douglas J. Bennet, to strongly
protest everything from the new abbreviated hours for the campus bus
service to the lack of housing for transgender students. Two years ago,
an uproar ensued when "chalking," a popular form of
communication that colored the school's walkways and parking lots, was
banned.
The fraternity controversy has bubbled up recently because new
dormitories, with a total of 200 beds, are expected to open in September
to address a longstanding housing shortage.
The university requires all undergraduates to live either in a
dormitory or in "program housing," a residence that meets
basic standards of safety, cleanliness and conduct, and features a
program contributing to the "social, cultural and academic
needs" of the university or the Middletown community. Living in an
apartment or a fraternity house that is not part of program housing
requires explicit permission from the university.
When housing stock was scarce, such permission was easy to obtain.
But with the 200 new beds on campus, the university will not be as quick
to grant permission for students to live in nonprogram housing, said
Justin Harmon, the director of university communications.
And students who want to live in a fraternity house that violates the
university's nondiscrimination policy by refusing to admit female
residents will have to essentially pay twice: about $5,000 to the
university in housing fees, which would no longer be waived, and $3,500
to the fraternity, Mr. Harmon said. At present, no fraternity member is
in this situation, but the prospect of paying twice would make
fraternity living impractical.
Like most colleges and universities, Wesleyan struggles with the
problems of underage and binge drinking. Sometimes, Mr. Harmon said,
when a fraternity "asserts the right of free association," it
is code for such drinking.
"They want to live how they want to live and get drunk when they
want to get drunk," he said, adding that if the fraternities were
going to receive rent that would otherwise go to the university, they
must comply with university standards on everything, including
discrimination and alcohol consumption. Wesleyan bans discrimination
based on gender and forbids alcohol consumption by anyone younger than
21.
On Dec. 2, Mr. Bennet wrote to alumni of three of the four
fraternities that offer housing - Delta
Kappa Epsilon, Psi Upsilon and Beta Theta Pi - in an
effort to counter claims that the administration wants to shut down the
fraternities. (The fourth, Alpha Delta Phi, has had female residents for
many years.)
"For all-male fraternities this means including women as equal
partners in their residential programs," the letter said. Mr.
Bennet also suggested that the fraternities could admit women to their
programs and residences without having to grant them membership in the
fraternity.
Sororities also exist at Wesleyan, where tuition, room and board is
$40,124 a year, but none offers housing.
|
