DKE Alumni Letter

University Suspends DKE from Program Housing with No Justification

The undergraduates and alumni of Wesleyans Gamma Phi chapter of DKE strongly condemn the University administration for violating its own promise to give the Universitys fraternities three years to fully co-educate the house and for using undergraduates as pawns while we work out the complicated mechanics of the Universitys ever-changing demands.

By denying the men of DKE the right to live in their own house next school year, by consistently moving the goalposts, and by imposing new last minute conditions that were impossible to meet, the University has clearly demonstrated that it was not acting in good faith from the beginning. The unreasonableness of their actions shows that their goal all along was to shut down the fraternities without explicitly ordering it. As a result and in order to achieve justice, members of the current undergraduate class of DKE and alumni have filed suit against the University based upon sexual discrimination, misrepresentation, and deceptive practices.

We believe it is unjust to punish the undergraduates through this transparent effort to pressure the fraternity financially and deny us rental income for necessary upkeep and improvements. If the Universitys long-term goal is to gain control of this privately owned house and property, they should understand this will never happen.

There is no justification for preventing undergraduates from living in the house. They have done everything demanded by the University and more. At the beginning of this school year, in the interest of supporting efforts to assure student safety, we agreed to grant campus security access to DKE consistent with that available to all University, despite the cogent fact that DKE is privately owned. They have voluntarily undergone awareness training on sexual assault and alcohol abuse, agreed to let campus security monitor parties, and maintained a spotless record even in the face of unfair vilification by anti-fraternity zealots who have threatened violence against them.

Despite our reservations about the feasibility of co-educating the house in a safe and fair way, we worked in good faith to meet the administrations demands. We announced our intention to partner with Rho Epsilon Pi (REP), Wesleyans sole sorority, which itself has been denied a home if its own. We met with Rho Epsilon Pi representatives at both the alumni and current undergraduate level and have begun to explore how best they could use space in the house. As an initial step in the co-education process we offered to make six beds in the southwest wing available to REP sisters. We were in the middle of productive discussions when the University unilaterally declared that no one neither DKE nor REP could live in the house next year.

The University has demanded that we commit absolutely at this point to have the house fully co-educated within 3 years a demand they know is impossible to meet. We have met with and given a walk-through to the Universitys own housing engineers in order to explore the state of the facility and they know it will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring the house to a condition that will attract women. They also know the fraternity does not currently have the resources to finance needed improvements. Further, even if we were to find the funds to pay for these improvements, there is no guarantee that women would actually want to live in our building. That is exactly what happened at Trinity, where the all-male fraternities went through the same process of turning co-ed yet were unable to attract women to their houses.

The Universitys unilateral demand that the fraternities co-educate, which was imposed in a rushed and ill-conceived manner, is a solution in search of a problem. Wesleyans own Clery statistics show that the vast majority of sexual assaults on campus occur within its own dorms. Consequently, it is not clear how moving women into the fraternities full-time is going to reduce the chances of sexual assault if these facilities are, as the University seems to assume, dangerous places for women.

Nor do we understand how gender equity is served by the Universitys continued refusal to let Rho Epsilon Pi have its own house. The University itself recognized that some students want to live with others who share the same interests, and through its community-based living programs, has even turned over its dorms to these special interest communities. Yet it now refuses to allow the Universitys original community-based organizations to exercise the same rights.

We have also included the link to our press release that was sent out today. We will continue to keep you updated and suggest that you go to Cardnialtruths.com for additional information.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/wesleyan-chapter-of-dke-sues-university-for-sexual-discrimination-misrepresentation-and-deceptive-practices-300038481.html