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February 25, 2005

Tapping into fraternity culture at Yale
Legacy of mixed relations with Administration colors campus resurgence.

BY JEREL BRYANT

omplete with candlelight, red robes, and chanting, the initiation of Yale's 13th fraternity, Psi Upsilon (Psi U), seemed to fit every Animal House viewer's idea of a Greek life ritual—albeit without the paddling. Yet when the 13 would-be brothers traveled to Wesleyan University to appear in front of the national executive of the organization on Sun., Feb. 20, they certainly had no comedic intentions. "We wanted to create something that would last beyond our years at Yale," Psi U president Jose Garza, BK '07, said. "We decided to start the fraternity because we didn't feel as though we fit into any other clique on campus."

Although Garza's comments look hopefully to the future, they also illuminate present problems with the fraternity system at Yale. By creating separate communities outside of the residential college system, which is the bedrock of undergraduate life, Yale's fraternities seem to threaten a campus cohesion that the Administration has worked so tirelessly to maintain. Throughout their rocky history at Yale, fraternities may have done as much to pull students apart as they have to bring them together.

FROM 1825 UNTIL 1933, fraternities were the locus of academic, extra-curricular, and social activity outside of the classroom at Yale. Indeed, membership in a fraternity was a requisite for recognition and social mobility on campus. More important, fraternities provided a forum for newly arrived freshmen to meet upperclassmen, ingratiate themselves in a novel atmosphere, and discuss contemporary political issues. According to Loomis Havemeyer, author of Go to Your Room, the most comprehensive study of fraternities at Yale before 1960, "One of the advantages of these old societies—the only reason they should not cease to exist—was that they gave the newly arrived members of the college an excellent opportunity to become acquainted and lay the foundations for that class fellowship which is the characteristic feature of Yale life." The first fraternities were more in line with scholarly societies than they were with the beer-guzzling ilk of the present. During chapter meetings, academics were often discussed and only cold water and lemonade were served. Smoking and dancing were prohibited. Despite past fraternities' model behavior, their brotherhood would soon be challenged by the University's expansion.

In the fall of 1933, when President James Rowland Angell instated the residential college system, the future of fraternities appeared bleak. As soon as Angel announced the new college system, he received a barrage of urgent telegrams from wealthy alumni demanding an audience with the President to discuss the threat of the system to their alma-mater fraternities. After a year of residential college life, the Yale Literary Magazine declared "Fraternities are doomed."

Ironically, the newly-formed Council of Master's was concurrently dealing with an opposite fear—that fraternities would pose an insurmountable challenge to the cohesiveness sought by the college system. They formed a special sub-committee to investigate this threat, tackling such issues as whether fraternity members should even be assigned a college or, if assigned, whether they should be forced to eat a certain amount of meals in their colleges. As one master posited, the fraternity members should not be able to "have their cake and eat it, too."

In part, the University had created the residential college system to establish an alternative to frat life. As confirmed by Pierson Master Harvey Gold-blatt, the mission of the residential college remains largely the same today. "The purpose of the residential college is to provide aspects of fraternity life to all students," he said

The problem with residential colleges is that, just like fraternities, they don't appeal to everyone. "I joined my fraternity because I felt comfortable around the guys. [They] reminded me of my friends back at home," Delta Kappa Epsilon (DKE) President Anson Frericks, JE '07, said. "Residential college life is too academic, too intense. I wanted to get way from it."

In this way, fraternities have continued to offer a more familiar community to those who wish to join them. Like-minded Yalies from all different residential colleges have used the fraternity system to live together off-campus; the fact that many members of fraternities are also varsity athletes especially challenges the residential college system. "I see my teammates who are in frats in class and in the dining hall. But would I say they are active in their colleges? Probably not," football player Brandon Etheridge, BK' 07, said.

Administrators are also concerned about these rifts in the college community. Goldblatt explained, "One can't generalize, but separation from the residential community is always a possibility."

Zac Bradley, CC, '06, a baseball player and a member of DKE, lives in "The Barn" on Park Street with other athletes. He notes that fraternity life and participation in a residential college are not mutually exclusive but admits that he spends most of his time off-campus. "I understand that the residential college offers a great deal, but separation from it can be beneficial," he said. "I really like the people I live with, and the residential college can't always offer the social aspect. It's easy for athletes to drift away from the student body."

With all the hours spent at practice, reviewing film, and going on road trips, many athletes feel that joining a fraternity with or without one's teammates may be overdoing it.

"Being on a team is a brotherhood," Etheridge said of the tight-knit communities that athletics naturally foster. "I didn't feel the need to join a fraternity as well."

THE CENTRAL FIXTURE OF YALE FRATERNITIES has always been the fraternity house; however, over the years, Greek organizations have struggled to find a home in New Haven.

In the 1800s, the original fraternities, including the first one on campus, Phi Beta Kappa, were all closed organizations, resembling today's senior societies more than current fraternities. The two fraternities that garnered the most attention and perennially attracted the largest pledge classes were Psi U and DKE. DKE, which was started on Yale's campus in 1844, built its tomb in 1861 on York Street. By the 1920s, DKE, as well as Psi U and Zeta Psi, were all pressured to leave their tomb dwellings as the University prepared to make room for more buildings, including the Harkness Quadrangle and Sterling Memorial Library. Psi U eventually settled into the building which is currently the Fence Club, and DKE into what is now Rose Alumni Hall.

The move from their original tombs to these houses along Park and York streets revolutionized social life on campus, as it allowed for non-members to attend gatherings at the houses. Well into the '50s, fraternities survived rising New Haven rental fees, but found themselves at odds with the Yale Administration as their behavior deteriorated. Neighborhood complaints soon became commonplace, with reports of DKE members drinking, dancing, and disturbing locals engaging the Administration.

It wasn't until 1958 that administrators were forced to step in. That year, College Dean Richard C. Carroll banned the pledge process after a series of events that called into question the reputation of the University and the safety of students. Most notably, DKE pledges had blindfolded and handcuffed their pledge master on a joy ride to New London. In the same year, the DKE pledge process had been criticized after would-be brothers were forced to attend class in loin cloths, sucking their thumbs. "I hope the fraternities will shed those aspects of fraternity life which are juvenile in character," Carroll said. Soon after, the Interfraternity Council and the Council of Masters decided to reform pledge procedures

Fraternities soon faced a new challenge when, in the '70s, the University instituted a mandatory four-year meal plan for all students. The new requirements made it increasingly difficult to convince fraternity members to live off-campus. The subsequent loss of revenue is considered the primary reason why most fraternities shut down during that period, with the University quickly buying up these properties as more and more fraternities fell into debt. To this day, many angry DKE alumni, upon entering the Rose Alumni Hall, rehash the accusation that the University purposely instituted the mandatory meal plan to undermine fraternities. In fact, once the Fence Club was lost, Psi U quickly disappeared. DKE was able to remain a force on campus only by conducting chapter meetings in Timothy Dwight College.

This wary attitude toward the administration continued through to the fraternities' resurgence onto the campus social scene in the '80s. "My sense is that alcohol was one of the overriding factors behind the reemergence of fraternities—when the drinking age changed from 18 to 21 in the '80s," Dean of Student Affairs Betty Trachtenberg, who began her tenure in 1983, said. The year of 1985 brought the inception of Sigma Nu and Sigma Chi; from that year on, fraternity participation has been steadily rising. "When the Sigma Chi national chapter heard that Sigma Nu or DKE was becoming stronger at Yale, all of a sudden they wanted a chapter at Yale," former president of Sigma Nu, Jack Calloway, BK '88, said. "The more frats that start lead to even more wanting to come." The proliferation of fraternities over the past two decades is a result of the dialogue between eager students and national fraternities hoping to expand and raise revenues.

THOUGH THE INTENSE RESENTMENT from the regulated pledge process and mandatory meal plans has subsided, many fraternities still feel a tension with the Yale administration. Last spring, during the Bulldog Days Bazaar, Trachtenberg reportedly demanded that DKE relinquish its table and leave the premises. "I was shocked. I didn't even know who she was," Frericks said. "There is still tension, but I think much of it has to do with registration."

Of the more than 300 student organizations at Yale, almost all have formally registered with the Student Affairs office. Registered fraternities, on the other hand, are in the minority. While the dean's office encourages fraternity registration, most Greek organizations are reluctant to do so on the assumption that an unregistered fraternity can avoid the jurisdiction of undergraduate regulations. The pervasive attitude is unlikely to change, even though the rewards from registration include formal recognition from the University, potential funding from the UOFC, the capacity to reserve buildings on campus, and participation in student-run bazaars.

"Frats think that if they don't register, they won't be bound by undergraduate regulations," Trachtenberg said. "They are then surprised when they are called in front of the Executive Committee for a violation."

Although the University rarely seeks disciplinary action, the threat of possible retribution has been enough to stifle most fraternity-administration interaction. In recent years, however, registration has been the linchpin to a healthy relationship between the two groups. "We needed to prove to the administration in 2002, when we started here, that we were going to be different than other frats," Sigma Phi Epsilon president Dave Berv, DC '06, said. "Registration was a key step to administrative support."

Alpha Epsilon Pi President Ricky Leiter, PC '06, concurs. "There was never a doubt. We were going to register," he said. "The Dean's office has never had a problem with us. We have even invited administrative people to chapter meetings."

Psi U has also decided to register, albeit apprehensively. "I could see the Administration pegging us for minor offenses in the near future," Psi U treasurer Christos Mangos, PC '07, said. "It's detrimental to our growth."

Assistant Dean of Student Affairs and self-proclaimed "Dean of Greek Life" Edgar Letriz, contends that the administration is not at all opposed to the nine fraternities with houses near campus. Letriz insists that he has attempted incessantly since 1997, when his tenure began, to foment a greater connection between the University and the fraternities. "There is general sentiment among fraternities that the Administration does not support fraternity and sorority life," Letriz, an alumnus of the Kappa Sigma chapter of Union College, said. "My experience in the Yale College Dean's Office and—by extension—my own efforts on behalf of these organizations indicate otherwise. Any statements to the contrary would be misleading and false."

"Fraternities choose to function independently of Yale College," he added. "It is regrettable that historical perceptions from a long gone era—when a strained relationship existed between the Administration and fraternities—not only still prevail today, but also inform the level and nature of their relationship with the College."

ALTHOUGH TENSIONS WITH THE YALE ADMIN-istration may linger, many brothers have been able to resolve the historical tension between being a member of a fraternity and a member of a residential college. Trachtenberg points to a year-long study conducted several years ago which concluded that "people in fraternities were also active outside of them. Membership in one did not preclude active participation in the residential college."

Apha Delti Phi member and former Pierson College Council President Dan Bernstein, PC '05, concurred. "Being active in a fraternity and on campus are not mutually exclusive," Bernstein said, citing fraternity brothers who were also freshman counselors or involved in political organizations as evidence of limitless fraternity members. "I never felt restricted by fraternity life. I think it depends on the person, but it's pretty easy to mix both."

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