The Wesleyan chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and the fraternity’s alumni association are suing Wesleyan University for sexual discrimination. The lawsuit comes on the heels of Wesleyan’s new policy that mandates fraternities accept women or be shut down.
If you’re interested in reading the full lawsuit, you can do that here:
The basis of the lawsuit states that fraternities in particular are being unfairly targeted because Wesleyan welcomes other student organizations to create housing based on special-interest housing.
DKE claims that since they started to fight the policy, they’ve since been fasttracked to being kicked off campus. The Washington Post published this letter from DKE fraternity brother/hero Will Croughan.
“Upon choosing to attend Wesleyan, I was excited to be playing football. I was happy that it was only an hour and a half from home. I thought I was attending a school that practiced tolerance of varying interests and beliefs.
Unfortunately, as a member of a fraternity, I have found that this isn’t exactly the case.
Wesleyan’s own mission statement states that it seeks to build a ‘diverse’ community of students who ‘value independence of mind.’ Since coming here, I have been exposed to more different kinds of people from different walks of life than I could have imagined.
Wesleyan does an outstanding job fostering creative, thought-provoking discussion in the classroom, and, for the most part, fostering a friendly, accepting environment outside of it.
It is my belief that the wide majority of the Wesleyan student body appreciates having fraternities on campus, but certain members of the Wesleyan community have targeted us with expletives and insults on Facebook, Twitter, and multiple other social media outlets.
Their arguments attempt to portray fraternities, including the DKE house where I live, as bastions of ‘white male privilege.’
Not only is this an unproductive and unfair ad hominem attack, it is entirely inaccurate: two-thirds of our organization is on financial aid (compared to less than half of the campus as a whole) and 12 percent is African-American (as opposed to 7 percent of the entire campus).
I will admit: I am white. I am male. I was born in Westchester County, N.Y. People may call that privileged if they’d like.
But I’ve also been raised by a single mother ever since my father passed five years ago. I work two on-campus jobs to help pay for my schooling, and dedicate dozens of hours a week to the football team. And, like any other student here, I am working hard to earn my Wesleyan degree.
The argument for coeducation of all-male fraternities is one with many faces. At first, it was suggested that fraternities promote sexual assault. Yet the university’s own safety report states that 13 out of 15 forced sexual assaults in 2013 occurred in the university’s own co-ed dorms.
Subsequently, it was argued that coeducation would improve ‘gender equity’; that it would restore balance for men and women in the realm of campus living options.
Yet the administration has repeatedly ignored the efforts of our undergraduate sisters in the Wesleyan-born sorority Rho Epsilon Pi to obtain a sorority house, despite consolidated efforts from DKE alums to help fund the process. Letting Wesleyan’s only sorority have its own house would result not only in improved gender equity, but also more social space on a campus that desperately needs it.
As of now, the University has denied DKE the right to live in our own house for the 2015-2016 school year, citing an alleged failure to have already incorporated women, a mandate which we had originally been given three years to complete.
Wesleyan embraces every other student’s right to live with others based on gender, race, creed or sexual affiliation, but call it ‘brotherhood,’ and it appears that all goes out the window.”