Skim Yale's Undergraduate Regulations handbook for information on fraternal organizations and you will find the word "fraternity" exactly once: in the "offenses that are subject to disciplinary action" section under "Hazing." It is indicative, perhaps, of the tense, mutually suspicious relations that exist between the administration and Old Blue fraternities that, in its official publications, Yale only acknowledges the frats' existence within the context of an illegal act.
In this light, some fraternities are taking cautious steps to form ties and improve communication with Yale's heads. Others are trying to keep their heads above water.
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| Fraternity days past |
Beginning in 1992, though, a resurgent Inter-Fraternity Council gradually began to emerge. Now, as an undergraduate organization registered with the Office of the Dean of Student Affairs, the IFC attempts to act as an umbrella liason for Yale's twenty-odd fraternities, only two of which are also formally recognized by the Dean's office. "Right now we're trying to keep an open channel of communication with the administration," IFC President and Beta member Ted Zarrow, BK '98, said. "We can take problems or concerns that other fraternities might have and address them to [Dean Betty Trachtenberg]. They're not allowed to do that on their own. Because they're not registered, they're not in official good standing with [the Dean's office]."
Hugh Flick, the Dean of Silliman College, who met regularly with the council last semester, said "if we can strengthen the IFC, then everyone--the administration, the fraternities--will be much happier. IFC's in other schools have a lot of power to set schedules for rushing, they do a lot of self-patrolling of Greek parties...But right now our IFC only has the power to make suggestions. Hopefully, as [the members] become more active, they will gain more influence."
However, the IFC's difficulties in gaining a voice seem limited not by the personal initiative of its active members but by matters of size, money, and access. Dean Trachtenberg has never formally met with the IFC, "though I have always expressed my willingness to meet with them, or with any fraternity on a group-by-group or individual basis," she said.
More problematically, the IFC boasts virtually no power in numbers. "What I got out of it was that it was a financially strapped organization," Teddy Werner, SY '98, said. Werner acted as SAE representative to the IFC during the spring '96 term. "Without finances, they're pretty much useless. Every week four people would show up, always the same group of people." A plan to hold a pan-fraternity "Greek Olympics" was scrapped due to lack of funds, a failure that revealed an indelible Catch-22 of establishing fraternal solidarity.
"The thing is, the IFC is kind of its own organization," Werner explained. "It's not a part of the fraternities so much as apart. When the Olympics idea came up we had no resources, no money, so we really couldn't do anything. Frats have little money themselves, and if they spend it they're going to throw their own party. They're not going to donate it to the IFC so the IFC can establish itself." The IFC needs frats in order to help them, and individual brotherhoods don't seem interested in the offer.
"Nothing gets done. It's an impotent organization," Beta brother Chris Mandigo, PC '97, said. "We have [Zarrow] in charge, so I should care, but I don't. Nothing they do is relevant to us. What do they do?" However, Mandigo added, "If it could work, I'd love to see it work. But no one from the administration has approached us. Whatever they do say is so vague that it's like we're walking into a trap. I'm all for fraternities to be recognized as Yale students in Yale organizations. But I have the future of my organization to think about."
DKE Social Chair Mike DiLuna, PC '98, acknowledges that if his brotherhood formally registered as an undergraduate organization, the University could possibly help with funding for a new building--DKE currently owns an empty, once-condemned house on Lake Place and are relying on alumni to renovate it, but have no permanent quarters. But, DiLuna cautioned, "there is concern among the members that the administration would try to control us. If all our activities fell under University guidelines, there is the possibility that Tang could be restricted or limited as well as rushing."
Dean Flick calls such concerns "ridiculous. A real myth among the fraternities is that if they register they will lose their rights. But right now, at this moment, if any fraternity member was caught breaking a regulation they would be just as liable before the ExComm [Executive Committee]. Being off-campus is not a safe haven from the rules."
According to Flick, fraternities can only benefit from registering as undergraduate organizations, gaining access to University property, alumni lists, postering privileges, and the opportunity to apply for funding from the Undergraduate Organization Funding Committee. But only two brotherhoods--SX and SAE--have chosen to sign on. Tellingly, SAE has not applied for financial grants and has no plans to do so, as a way of maintaining independence from the University, one SAE member explained.
Fears that with registration comes Yale Administration members breathing down the backs of fraternity brothers are unfounded, Trachtenberg maintains. "We don't have any involvement in the day-to-day operations of any undergraduate organization. That would not be the case any more or any less with fraternities," she said. But equating fraternities with singing groups or newspapers does not take into account special circumstances of the Greek system, many brothers maintain. "The Greek system has such a long history and tradition that to dump a club designation on a fraternity is inaccurate," SAE president Scott Rogers, DC '97, said. Or, as Mandigo put it, "How many undergraduate organizations serve alcohol on a regular basis?"
Indeed, the fraternities' collective party-planning role is perceived by many administration members not just as a blatant transgression of Connecticut drinking laws, but as a threat to residential college life itself. One fraternity member who wished to remain anonymous said, "We are the providers for underage drinking at Yale. We would never expect that Yale would violate state law and alter its drinking policy for [the residential colleges]. But they could have a measure of realism and accept that kids are going to drink, and they might go to a fraternity party to do it."
The administration's endeavors to preserve the residential colleges as loci to all students expand beyond social activities, Zarrow claimed. "Dean Trachtenberg is never going to let fraternities compete with the residential college system," he said. "This is clearly evident in that sophomores are not allowed to live off-campus. There are plenty of members who want to live in the houses and are responsible enough to do so and can't. The University is almost paranoid about this point," he said.
Trachtenberg disagrees. "Fraternities don't have that many people, not a fraction that the residential colleges do," she said. "I'm not sure there is any kind of competition." A different tune is heard in many Master's offices, however. "I am partial to the prerogative and centrality of the residential colleges," one Master commented. "College life is what we're committed to. It can't be complicated by competition between colleges and fraternities...If the Yale administration likes the idea of another Fraternity Row, then there is no point in the residential college system." This Master was quick to indicate, though, that "this is all said in ignorance, because I have no idea what the hopes and plans are of the individual frats and the IFC."
The current impasse between fraternities and the administration, then, would seem to be one of shared suspicion borne of mutual ignorance. Nowhere is this more evident then among fraternity brothers residing on Lake Place, the closest Yale has to a modern Frat Row. Sigma Nu and ADPhi still have their houses there, and DKE owns, but does not occupy, one as well. Though the annexing of Payne Whitney Gymnasium on Lake Place will not affect any of the fraternity buildings, as was previously thought, ADPhi President Jon Lafferty, TC '97, still hopes that Yale "buy[s] up the buildings. If they've paid any attention they know that this neighborhood is deteriorating at high speed." Two fraternities, including SAE, relocated from Lake Place last year. As timing would have it, the Yale contingent decreased just as crime was increasing in the area.
As for the IFC, or any of Trachtenberg or Flick's hopes for liason between Yale and the Greeks, ADPhi's Dee Lawrence, CC '98, maintains that "we're all for getting fraternities back to campus. But this is our house. We own it. We're on our own. As for Yale, we're a little skeptical of what they have to offer. Fraternities have been here for a long time. If four shootings in a month, on a street where two fraternities are located, is what it takes [for Yale to take notice], then I'm skeptical." Members of ADPhi have met at City Hall with the mayor and chief of police to discuss crime and safety on Lake Place, but not with any members of their university's administration.
"I have never met with [a] fraternity or the IFC as a group; frankly, I haven't been asked," Dean Trachtenberg says. "Right now we have no interaction with the University," DKE's DiLuna says. Neither party wants to make the first move, and the IFC languishes in the middle, underfunded and understaffed--"It doesn't look like we're going to meet this year," Werner said. Is this apathy, or have years of frustration and bad blood finally come to a head?
DiLuna isn't sure. "It's bittersweet now," he said. "What happens next depends on whether or not both the fraternities and the University are willing to meet halfway." SAE's Rogers hits on a bittersweet note himself: "I still sense a sort of adversarial relationship between us. They've accepted the fact that fraternities are here to stay, and maybe they're willing to work with us. Great. I'm just not sure whether the acceptance comes from accepting that we're a good presence, or accepting that they can't get rid of us."