Politics of Independence for Well-off Greek Organizations

Yale makes a pitch for fraternity unity: Politics of Independence

Ask any of Yale's 12 fraternities about their relationship with the Administration and you will hear almost the same response over and over. Alpha Epsilon Pi President Andy Morris, BK '99, sums it up for the vast majority: "In my time, we've been pretty independent. " Other fraternity presidents use words like "nonexistent" and "autonomous" to characterize relations with the Administration.

Most of the fraternities at Yale are not registered undergraduate organizations, and many are sold on the independence they feel this status provides. At the same time, however, it is not uncommon to hear fraternity members complain that Yale makes them feel unwelcome. "I don't think that the University supports fraternities at all. It's frustrating, because they are such an important part of some people's lives," Sigma Nu President Dave Bercovich, ES '99, said.

It is important to remember that much of the fraternity community at Yale are made up of athletes, who while highly valued, are sometimes from backgrounds that differ from some of the student body. It is not surprising that these students jealousy guard their fraternities as their fraternities are often their best connections to campus life.


Last fall, the Administration decided to take action to show that they really supported fraternities. "We didn't have the resources until this year, or a person to act on [fraternity] requests," Trachtenberg said.


Introducing a seasoned veteran

Enter Edgar Letriz-Núñez. Appointed as an assistant dean of students in August 1997, Letriz-Núñez came to Yale from Union College, where fraternities and sororities incorporate 65 percent of men and 45 percent of women. A Union graduate and former fraternity brother himself, Letriz-Núñez was intimately connected to the school's fraternities as assistant dean. His job involved coordinating with Union's Inter-Fraternity (IFC) and Pan-Hellenic Councils on issues such as pledge education, rush coordination, and the organization of campus events.


"There really wasn't much knowledge of the number of fraternities that existed [or] their membership," he said. Seizing upon an opportunity fueled by his "own curiosity," Letriz-Núñez crafted a plan of action.


With the financial support of the Dean's Office, Letriz-Núñez invited Yale's 12 fraternity presidents to dinner early in the fall. His goals were twofold. "I wanted to get a sense of what the general concerns and issues were as members of fraternities," Letriz-Núñez said. "[And] I wanted to assist them in creating their own IFC, an IFC that would function as a vehicle of communication between University Administration and fraternities."
Since that meeting, Letriz-Núñez has become Yale's point man on fraternity issues. In his attempt to create an IFC, he has organized regular inter-fraternity meetings to lay its framework and pitch to fraternities the benefits of registering. His efforts have drawn rave reviews from fraternity members.

"Dean Letriz is a big help. He's definitely on the side of the fraternities," Keith Andrade, BR '99, president of Alpha Delta Phi, said. "It's a welcome sight to have a University administrator come to us saying `I represent the Dean's Office and I want to help you guys,'" Morris added.

United we stand?

Despite the optimism surrounding Letriz-Núñez's arrival, the road to his goals is plagued by mistrust.
Beta Theta Pi (Beta) member Ted Zarrow, BK '98, should know. As IFC President from January '96 to '97, he watched as attendance at meetings dwindled and the organization became useless. "We made it clear that we were here for them if they needed us--no one used us," he explained.

"They say all this now, but what about what they did then? The feeling is that the Administration was out to get fraternities so that they would sick the police on us. Actions speak louder than words," Ariel Otero, BK '00, Sigma Chi's IFC representative, said of general fraternity sentiment towards the Administration.

These thoughts are also articulated by Billy Mann, BR '97, GRD '03. Now a member of Letriz-Núñez's team, Mann was a member of Beta just a year ago. "There was definitely a feeling amongst the brothers that the Administration didn't look upon fraternities favorably," he said.


Signing on the dotted line

Complicating matters further is the issue of registration. Only three of Yale's fraternities--Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Sigma Chi, and Alpha Phi Alpha (Alpha)--are registered as undergraduate organizations. Without registration, Letriz-Núñez said that a fraternity union "clearly would not function as a typical IFC," and doubted that "it would be very strong."

Registration entitles fraternities access to Yale's facilities, potential Undergraduate Organization Funding Committee monies, and other University resources. For SAE, that support provided the opportunity to purchase the current High Street residence.

But this is precisely where the two sides are stalemated. Letriz-Núñez contends that fraternities will not gain much from an IFC until they register; fraternity representatives say they won't register until they see concrete benefits from an IFC.

"At this point, our organization has the feeling that we're not completely closed [to registering], but we need to see that we're going to derive some real benefit that we couldn't have otherwise." Morris said. Many of Yale's fraternities echo Morris's sentiments. Andrade said, "Our alumni as well as alumni in other fraternities are against registering."

For some fraternities, the decision is more cut and dried. Delta Kappa Epsilon President Ken Gawrelski, TC '99, put it simply: "We've been asked to register as an undergraduate organization. It's not in our plans. We want to remain as autonomous as possible."


The Administration can point to SAE, Sigma Chi, and Alpha as registration
success stories. All three are recognized as undergraduate organizations, and none complain about administrative intrusion. Alpha Phi Alpha President Rawn James, TD '98, reported "an excellent relationship with the Administration." SAE's leaders have also had smooth relations since they registered two years ago.


Comparative politics
Strong fraternity councils are the norm at some other schools. At Dartmouth, all fraternity and sorority presidents sit on the Co-ed Fraternity-Sorority Council (CFSC). The CFSC independently coordinates interfraternity relations, communicates regularly with Dartmouth's administration, and has self-punishment powers.

"What [the CFSC] provides us is one voice--you're a lot stronger collectively than you are individually," Dartmouth SAE President Paul Killebrew, Jr. '99, said. Deborah Reinders, who coordinates college-fraternity relations as assistant dean of residential life, said that communication is what makes the system successful. "The reason it works is because we make an effort to involve students in decision-making and policy making," she said. "Student leaders know that, and they trust that their thoughts and ideas are going to be taken seriously."

At Pennsylvania, where fraternity and sorority members account for approximately 30 percent of the student body, fraternities and administrators communicate through the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs. According to director Scott Reikofski his office has even stood up for Pennsylvania's local chapters in disputes with their nationals. Because Pennsylvania has strong fraternity councils, Reikofski said "[fraternities and sororities] have developed the strong leaders we've been able to really move forward with."

The state of the union

Letriz-Núñez sits and waits. "We've reached out because people have requested it--if they don't want to have these meetings any more, that's fine.... I have far too many responsibilities to spend the next couple of years trying to convince [fraternities]," he said. "By the end of the year, we will have worked with fraternities for an entire year.... I don't want to hear fraternity men say the Administration doesn't like us, doesn't work with us."

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Princeton's Fraternities Growing, Independently

The kegs of Princeton University's eating clubs used to provide the school with almost all of its weekend entertainment.

But since 1991, when the last two of the all-male eating clubs voluntarily agreed to admit women, the university's underground fraternity system has supplied more and more of the fun. Spurred by a desire to spend time with their peers in a same-sex environment, about one-third of this year's freshmen class will join a fraternity or sorority -- at a school that 10 years ago had no Greek organizations.

"I wanted to be in a fraternity so that I would be able to celebrate the righteousness of cold beer without being exasperated by women," said Stewart M. Barry, a junior history major and a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. Sigma Alpha Epsilon celebrated its 10th anniversary as a Princeton chapter with a celebration at the Greenwich Village bar Hogs and Heffers two weekends ago.

Banned by vote of the Board of Trustees, the fraternities and sororities are forbidden to use school facilities or to advertise on campus, and the official admissions brochures make no mention of them. Their intramural teams regularly take part in organized activities and their presence on T-shirts and baseball caps is unmistakable. Though the climate has changed no one at Princeton seems particularly interested in renewing official relations.

Can't Condone Everything

"We're certainly not interested in giving students a hard time about these things," said Joyce D. Clark, Princeton's associate dean of students, who deals with the university's student groups. "But there are certain aspects of Greek life that we cannot be seen as condoning, such as turning down some students and accepting others and the hazing and so forth."

The president of one of the school's more prominent fraternities, who refused to be named because his fraternity has a policy of not talking to the media, said the Greek organizations did not want to be recognized anyway.

"The setup right now is nice because we can do really whatever we want," he said. "If there was a Greek council we would have all these university officials telling us what we would have to do and all that. Now, we don't have to answer to anyone."

Members of Greek organizations stressed that their fraternity affiliations were central to their social lives at Princeton. Citing the university's two-year residential college system, which some say separates freshmen and sophomores from juniors and seniors, fraternity and sorority members alike mentioned the unifying aspect of a group that cuts across all classes.


Feeling More at Ease

Many members of sororities also emphasize that an organization that is all women helps them feel more at ease in what they described as a male-centered Princeton environment.

"I think a big deal about sororities at Princeton is getting to meet upperclass women at a male-dominated school," said Carol McLaughlin, a member of Kappa Alpha Beta and a junior Woodrow Wilson School major. "It's definitely sort of a support group, finding a core group of women with the same interests who want to do the same things."

But other women say that sense of support is only superficial.

"I'm sorry, but at age 20 and 21 to be running around singing sorority songs and planning mixers with the fraternities is lacking in substance a little," said a junior woman who was not accepted into a sorority. "

More Than Just Social

Members of the school's four Greek organizations whose members are predominantly members of racial minorities said that their organizations were meant to be more than just social groups of friends who got together to drink beer. The minority Greek organizations say they emphasize community service work, sponsoring a health awareness week, raising money for AIDS research and care, and traveling to the inner city to talk to talented teen-agers about staying in school and coming to college.

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YALE BETA DISBANDED FROM FROM NATIONAL: The Politics of Independence

The Yale chapter of Beta Theta Pi has been disbanded, though the chapter has vowed it will not shut down.
A Beta member, David Light ’09, was arrested last month for allegedly firing a handgun inside the fraternity and keeping a stockpile of weapons in his bedroom, and the organization said that arrest contributed to the fraternity’s decision to disband its Yale chapter. Still, leaders of the Yale chapter said Wednesday night that Beta will not close but will instead continue to operate this year as an independent.

“The Chapter has struggled in recent years,” the Beta Theta Pi national organization said in a statement, citing problems with the chapter’s financial management and its adherence to the organization’s policy regarding, among other things, alcohol. Beta Theta Pi is not a dry organization but has been repeatedly had parties halted by authorities because of underage drinking.


In November 2005, the chapter was placed on probation for violations of that policy and, a year later, was moved to “suspended” status for failing to meet certain financial obligations, the organization said.


“As a result of this history, coupled with the July 13, 2007 incident at the chapter house involving David Light, Yale ’09, the Chapter was reviewed … and subsequently moved to ‘Disbanded’ status on the Convention floor,” the organization said.

Brad Hann ’09, the president of Beta’s Yale chapter said members of the fraternity have discussed in recent years whether it might be best to break off from the national organization, and he said the fraternity’s decision to close its Yale chapter will not have any serious effect on the group.

“The Beta house is going to be business as usual next year,” Hann said. “People on campus know us. We’re not going to change. We’re just looking forward to a good year next year.”

If anything, the fraternity might change its name to just “Beta,” as most Yale students now know the fraternity, Hann said. In all likelihood, the fraternity will operate without any national affiliation, which should prove beneficial in the long term since Beta will no longer have to pay dues to a national organization and could instead spend more money on its own activities, he said.

Beta chapters at Princeton, Dartmouth and Columbia have also been shut down by the national organization in past years, Beta members said.


Then, this summer, a University of Connecticut student rooming at the Beta house for the summer hosted a keg party and posted photos of it on Facebook, which were uncovered by Beta officials, raising their ire. The arrest of Light, Hann said, “was just the nail in the coffin.”

Light was arrested July 16 after a visitor to the Beta house at 36 Lynwood Place reported that the Calhoun College junior, apparently under the influence of alcohol at the time, had fired a handgun into the ceiling of the fraternity's living room. Police found a cache of weapons, including two illegal assault weapons, in his bedroom.

Beta members indicated that Light’s gun collection was no secret and, if it had been locked properly in a cabinet in the fraternity’s basement, as was supposed to have been the case, they thought the guns would not have violated any of the national organization’s policies. Beta Theta Pi permits some weapons to be housed in a fraternity house as long as they are unloaded, disassembled, and locked away.

The arrest attracted national attention, and in a statement following Light’s jailing, the University quickly distanced itself from the fraternity, noting that it has no official affiliation with Yale.

David White, Beta’s founder and the president of Second Century Fund, Inc., as the Yale chapter is legally known, said he had no doubt the fraternity would prosper without the national affiliation.

“The boys have been thinking of getting out of Beta for a while,” he said. “The fraternity will go local, it will prosper. We have a huge alumni network.”

White, who owns Universal Hotel Liquidators on State Street, also founded the Beta chapter at Princeton. The Princeton chapter is now doing better than ever after being cast off by the national group, he said. He states Beta has a close relationship with the Harvard and Dartmouth chapters which are operating independently as well.


The national Beta organization said it hopes the Yale chapter’s charter, ritual books and other property will be securely stored by the parent organization. All of the fraternity’s members will be moved to “alumni” status. The dissolution of the Yale chapter does not mean Beta members who live at the house are now homeless, as Second Century Fund, Inc., not the national organization, owns Beta’s house on Lynwood Place. The organization bought the 107-year-old, 5,600-square-foot house, valued at more than $400,000, in 1992, according to the New Haven Assessor’s office.

In regard to the fraternity’s finances, Hann said Beta and the national organization had been mired in a long-running disagreement over member dues, as some Beta members refused to pay their national dues. The fraternity did not want to kick out economically-disadvantaged fraternity members as a way to get out from under that debt, Hann said, and so the debt continued year after year.

An examination of Beta’s most recent tax filings shows that the chapter lost money as recently as 2005 but did appear to be on the mend as far as its financial status was concerned.

In 2005, for instance, the chapter posted a yearlong loss of just over $3,000, leaving the fraternity with barely over $17,000 in cash on hand, according to its tax filing. But in 2006, Beta was back in the black, bringing in $28,000 more than it spent, according to its most recent Internal Revenue Service filing.


Beta Theta Pi, founded at Miami (Ohio) University in 1839, has more than 125,000 members, including 6,000 students at more than 100 colleges across the country. The fraternity’s Yale chapter went defunct in the 1968 and was resurrected by White in 1990.

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BETA GRABS HOUSE

The Dartmouth Staff
Published on Friday, January 11, 2008

Beta plans to resume occupancy of 6 Webster Avenue, which AZD has rented for the past 10 years, when the lease is terminated on June 30.

Photo: Tilman Dette/The Dartmouth Senior Staff

Alpha Xi Delta sorority must vacate its on-campus physical plant by June 30, its members were told Wednesday evening in a jarring meeting that left many of the women in tears, according to Dean of Residential Life Marty Redman. The Dartmouth alumni of Beta Theta Pi fraternity — which inhabited the Webster Ave. mansion before it was derecognized in December 1996 following a string of frequent disciplinary infractions and heavy sanctions — have taken back their house as they begin the process of getting their fraternity re-recognized by the College.

Currently, the Trustees of the Alpha Omega Chapter of Beta Theta Pi at Dartmouth, as the group is formally known, is not affiliated with the national organization of Beta Theta Pi.

AZD, which has leased the property from the alumni group for the past 10 years, will be relocated to a house on South Park Street. Alpha Phi sorority, which currently has no physical plant of its own, will be given the house next door to AZD. The College expects to spend nearly five million dollars on property and renovation for the two sororities, whose houses should be finished by the fall or January at the latest.

Beta was derecognized by the university following a series of disciplinary breaches throughout the early 1990s.

In 1991, 10 Beta members were found guilty of abducting and tormenting a Chi Gamma Epsilon member, whom they bound to a chair and doused with water. In 1996, a Beta member tackled a Sigma Nu fraternity member on the lawn of The Tabard Coed fraternity.

Beta was permanently derecognized when campus officials discovered a keg in the house after a fire alarm went off while the house was on a prolonged probation for previous offenses. The fraternity continued on without university recognition but without their house, which is on Dartmouth property.

Immediately following the organization’s separation from Dartmouth, the alumni corporation began negotiations with the College regarding the fraternity’s potential return to campus. The current agreement stems from more urgent talks that began after Dartmouth lifted its moratorium on the creation of single-sex organizations in June 2005. Beta does not meet the qualifications for re-recognition as stated by the Coed, Fraternity and Sorority Administration:

“The following recognition policies and process apply to all new or returning organizations…Returning organizations are those who 1) once existed at Dartmouth and closed for non-disciplinary reasons; or 2) once existed at Dartmouth but as the result of disciplinary action were closed for a period of time with the opportunity to return at a future date clearly articulated as part of the disciplinary action.”

Redman acknowledged that Beta did not fall under either of the categories, but explained that the safety risks posed by a house that returns to campus without College recognition were a main factor in the decision to re-recognize both Beta and Zeta Psi fraternity, which was derecognized in 2001.

An informational was held with said Scott Sipple, co-chairman of the Beta Board of Trustees.

The upperclassmen who join Beta will likely control the recruitment process, Sipple said, although alumni have not thoroughly looked into recruitment yet. The alumni discourage hazing in the pledge process, Sipple added.

“It’s a little stunning to us — this notion of hazing,” Sipple said. “There’s nothing we did where you felt forced to drink, where you felt there was this huge time commitment that would take away from your studies.”

Alumni in attendance stressed that Beta will be an organization new members can mold.

“We represent what it has been, but you’re the ones who are going to take it forward,” Sipple said. “If I was to put a sales spin on this, the attraction of our organization … is that you get to be entrepreneurial. You’re the ones who are going to get to build this.”

Steve Morris ‘11, a member of the football team who attended Friday’s session, said Beta has become his first choice for next year’s rush.

“I don’t really know how the rush process is going to work, but if I can get in, I’m definitely going to pledge Beta,” Morris said.

Some in the audience pressed the alumni about how they will ensure the membership diversity they promise. “I’m honestly a little disappointed,” Case Hathaway-Zepeda ‘09, who is not involved in sports programs and said he did not feel like he would fit in the few organizations he saw thus far said in an interview with the Dartmouth. “I see a lot of athletic allegiances coming together. I think everyone in this room is straight.”
At this time, Beta alumni have not begun to recruit undergraduate students for membership.


“When we began our work with the College, we had means that I would consider side or back door to populate the organization” said Scott Sipple.


Beta alumni will hold information sessions to boost interest in the organization among the student body throughout the Winter and Spring terms, Sipple said. During Fall term 2008, the alumni will begin conducting recruitment events. Sipple, who acknowledged that in part of Beta’s 106-year run on campus it was dominated by members of the football team, said the alumni would not be focus on recruiting members from any specific group on campus, athletic or otherwise.

“We’re looking to recruit quality individuals,” he said.

Sipple said that while an alumni group’s goal is to rejoin with Beta national, they are prepared to work with future members to determine if affiliation with a different national organization would better suit the needs of the group. It is current College policy to only allow the addition of national fraternities and sororities to campus.

Beta will enter fall fraternity recruitment as an “interest group,” according to Board co-chairman Scott Sipple ‘84. The colonization process is intended to last more than two years, although this period can be extended, Associate Director of Coeds, Fraternities and Sororities Fouad Saleet, who was present at the informational session, said.

Dartmouth Beta alumni have approached the Beta national organization to seek affiliation, although Beta national officials have told The Dartmouth that the chances of a reconciliation are “slim to none,” with a “95 percent chance” that this view would not change.

Dartmouth Beta itself seems torn between its desire to occupy its on campus housing with prime location among the fraternity and sorority row and those who would rather continue free of campus and national authority. As opposed to the Beta legacy independents at Yale, Harvard and Princeton, Dartmouth has a very large fraternity community and with most operating continuously.

AZD, in the meantime, has found itself suddenly without a house for the upcoming summer and possibly Fall 2008, which could pose problems for the sorority’s rush process.

“Although our organization has always known that Beta intended to return to campus at some point in time, the news that their return is imminent was unexpected,” said AZD in an official statement to The Dartmouth.

The executive council of AZD was officially notified that Dartmouth Beta would be returning in Fall 2008 in a meeting with ORL and Dartmouth Beta representatives Wednesday evening, according to Julia Schwartz, AZD’s public relations vice president. Redman had been in informal talks with various AZD officers since March 2007.

Today, many students associate Beta with unconfirmed hearsay about the so-called “Beta-vision,” a system purportedly installed in the house to allow members to watch other members have sex with unsuspecting partners.

Beta-vision lore may be persistent on campus, but the house was not disciplined for any such system.

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Cornell Cornucopia: Fraternity's Theft Booty

The locked room in the basement of the Sigma Phi fraternity house here was decorated with skeletons dressed as pirates, stuffed animal heads wearing blindfolds and a coffin.

But the decor was more than just a reflection of college students' eclectic tastes. The authorities said this week that it reflected more than 50 years of thievery by fraternity members, who had collected booty from various Cornell University buildings and other fraternities.

Among the 180 stolen items found when the Ithaca police executed a search warrant on Wednesday were a pair of 19th-century hands from Cornell's historic clock tower, furniture, paintings and busts, university and fraternity flags and campus street signs. Some of the items were valued at thousands of dollars.

One Sigma Phi brother said the secret room was a veritable "storehouse" of university and fraternity relics, adding that there was an annual debate over whether the tradition of robbing other fraternities and the university should continue.


Cornell Asks Who Knew

Many members of the Cornell community are speculating that prominent Sigma Phi alumni knew of the underground room, and these alumni have taken part in this annual tradition of stealing.

There have been no arrests, and Sigma Phi's president, Johan Isber, a junior, said the fraternity would do everything possible to "insure that any items not belonging to Sigma Phi are returned to their rightful owners."

The secret room was discovered after a pledge from a rival fraternity broke into the Sigma Phi chapter house
on March 21 to search for items taken from his fraternity house. He was later caught and questioned by the campus police, but on Tuesday afternoon, the same pledge showed up at the police station to describe what he had seen during the break-in, said Sgt. Edward Vallely of the Ithaca police. Acting on the pledge's information, the police obtained a search warrant from a city judge, the sergeant said.

"It was incredible -- three guys came in with two of our billiard lamps worth close to $10,000 and a plaque of our founders that had been pried off the outside of our house years ago," explained Delta Chi's president, Noel Bright. "I almost felt sorry for them," he added. "It was all in good fun though they went way overboard. We didn't know that this back and forth would accumulate this way to this." When asked if his fraternity had articles from rivals Mr. Bright replied. "No comment."

Scott C. Hamilton, senior investigator with the Cornell campus police, assisted in the search Wednesday afternoon. He said the Sigma Phi brothers were surprised but cooperative, unlocking the room's steel door for the police.

The process of returning stolen objects began early Wednesday evening when Sigma Phi brothers were escorted by the police to more than 17 Cornell fraternities with property that had been stolen as recently as last fall.

- Not for Four Years