Wesleyan student: My college discriminates against fraternities. We’re suing.

[dariomax]

Source: Washington Post

After a series of scandals at fraternities on campus, officials at Wesleyan University in Connecticut ordered frats to admit women as members — or shut down.

The move came in the midst of a national debate over Greek life on campus, with racial incidents and sexual assaults making headlines even as membership and volunteerism surges at fraternities across the country.

At Wesleyan, Delta Kappa Epsilon is fighting back. They’re saying the mandate is sexual discrimination, from a university that promotes tolerance. The local chapter and its alumni organization sued the Wesleyan administration.

At the heart of their complaint is the contention that Wesleyan not only tolerates but welcomes housing based on specific interests. Students are required to live on campus all four years and can choose single-sex dorms or special-interest housing, including the “Women of Color House,” the “Light House” for Christian students, “Turath House” for Muslim, Arab and Middle Eastern students, and the “Open House,” which describes itself as a “safe space for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Transsexual, Queer, Questioning, Flexural, Asexual, [We can't print this one!], Polyamorous, Bondage/Disciple, Dominance/ Submission, Sadism/Masochism (LGBTTQQFAGPBDSM) communities.”

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/03/25/wesleyan-student-my-college-discriminates-against-fraternities-were-suing/

[PoliticAverse]

1. Flexural? n/t

[tularetom]

2. How the hell do they get any studying done in the "Open House"?

[DetlefK]

3. They are suing because a mostly-white fraternity doesn't count as a special-interest minority?

He's mixing the prejudices other students have against frats with the university speeding up a rule-change. He's not really good at making a case against the university itself.

[Historic NY]

4. There is no right to a fraternity.......

in fact the college itself is engaged in segregation if they allow them to continue. They seem to be the bigger part of the problem with their bizarre housing plan..

[hughee99]

10. Really? A college that allows students to form their own groups is "engaged in segregation"

if they don't stop it?

[Historic NY]

14. Well they certainly aren't integrating...

everyone has its own separate cliche.

[hughee99]

17. Should the administration be required to

Force integration onto students in their own personal time? You can't control who someone chooses to associate with.

[DeSwiss]

21. Should the college aid and abet it?

- I think they should all be shut down. They're an anachronism. They're used to give unwarranted and probably illegal advantage in obtaining a job after college, simply because you're in the right clique.

All B.S.

[hughee99]

22. I'm not sure that outlawing fraternaties will fix any of this, and if you're going to outlaw them

what other student groups would you also consider outlawing? I'm willing to bet their golf team is mostly white kids too.

[NobodyHere]

5. If they can have a "Women of Color" house

Why not a "white male" house?

[LanternWaste]

6. That would be the majority of fraternities, whether they advertise it as such or not.

"Why not a "white male" house?"

That would be the vast majority of fraternities, whether they advertise it as such or not.

[Kelvin Mace]

7. (LGBTTQQFAGPBDSM)

OK, someone is just trolling now.

(LGBTTQQFAGPBDSM)

[derby378]

12. Gesundheit!

Talk about alphabet soup...

[Dont call me Shirley]

16. Good "I Spy" Kelvin!

[tammywammy]

19. That's what Wesleyan calls it

Open House is a safe space for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Transsexual, Queer, Questioning, Flexual, Asexual, Genderfuck, Polyamourous, Bondage/Disciple, Dominance/Submission, Sadism/Masochism (LGBTTQQFAGPBDSM) communities and for people of sexually or gender dissident communities. The goals of Open House include generating interest in a celebration of queer life from the social to the political to the academic. Open House works to create a Wesleyan community that appreciates the variety and vivacity of gender, sex and sexuality.

http://www.wesleyan.edu/reslife/housing/program/open_house.htm

[Larry Engels]

8. If anyone needs to get discriminated against, it's fraternities.

They are a big drag on the intellectual mission of the university.

[bigworld]

9. How about just a random house where you have to live amicably with whom chance assigns you

All this self-segregating can't be good for kids once they get out in the real world.

[jeff47]

11. I think our acronyms might be getting a bit too long. (nt)

[BobSmith4152]

13. I used to think so back in the '80s, but my last girlfriend was 4 or 5 of those

initials (at least) plus a little Asperger-y

[Chan790]

15. Geez, these kids are dumb.

You do what we did in college...we wanted a fraternity house on campus so we started a men's safe-space religious communal-living organization. (A lay-monastic community...it's a very-Catholic college; they weren't going to say no.)

As part of the approval as a "community-life organization" were given a small dorm (what they call a "house"...18 dorm-rooms with a common-area and common-kitchen). All the fraternity brothers joined the men's monastic community and suddenly we had our own dorm.

[MosheFeingold]

18. As a lawyer, it's intiguing

We are guaranteed "freedom of association" under the 1st Amendment.

By corollary, this includes "freedom of disassociation;" that is, you get to pick your members.

So, they have a legal point, assuming the college can be deemed a state actor. (This is fuzzy issue that I won't go into here.)

Doesn't mean they are not a bunch of putzes.

[24601]

20. State actor or private school? When they accept federal or state funds, does that change the rules?

[MosheFeingold]

23. All really questions

And I really don't know the answers. I worked for/with the DNC or various Democratic candidates for 30 years. Elections laws? That I can answer.

I do know that state schools are state actors in most regards, and so have to put up with stuff, whether they like it or not.

I've gotten old. If people want to be assholes, let them do whatever (providing they don't hurt people) and ignore them.