So Much For Sisterhood

What apparently went on at DePauw University late last year was a scene straight out of the history books: unabashed, ugly discrimination. In a scene that belied fifty years of progress on American college campuses, 23 of the 35 women of the DePauw chapter of the Delta Zeta (DZ) sorority, including every overweight member, and the only black, Vietnamese, and Korean members, were summarily uprooted from their house and effectively evicted from their chapter, by many accounts part of an image makeover mandated by adult officers of DZ’s national organization.

We use the term “adult” loosely. For the national organization’s seeming obsession with image—reminiscent of middle schoolers protective of their status in the “in crowd”—completely contradicts the bond of sisterhood they claim to uphold.

Though the remaining members of the DZ chapter issued a statement yesterday denying that “race, weight, and academic majors were used as a criteria [sic] in the membership review process” and blaming the chapter’s woes on “campus climate,” the plausibility of their excuses and denials are threadbare. Since The New York Times first wrote about DZ last weekend, a mountain of evidence has been amassed against the national organization, reinforced by a letter of reprimand sent by the President of DePauw to the sorority and a multitude of similar stories recounted to the national press by students asked to leave the DZ chapter.

The decision to evict the 23 unsuitables might well have been made because they were liabilities in the recruiting process, as DZ’s national organization claims. But we sincerely doubt that it was for lack of willingness, rather than lack of the “desirable” look. All the more damning are reports suggesting that thin, blond DZ sisters from the nearby Indiana University chapter were imported for recruiting events to replace the 23 evicted sisters. American universities should not tolerate this sort of flagrant and anachronistic behavior from any campus-affiliated organization.

We are not so naïve as to suggest that discrimination based on popularity, pedigree, or looks could ever be completely stamped out at college social organizations. Many such organizations across the country, including some at Harvard, pick their members in part based on such criteria. But the vast majority of such organizations stay true to their mission and purpose—to bring students from multifarious socioeconomic backgrounds, possessing diverse life experiences and values, into close and meaningful friendships that would otherwise never have formed. A blinding and overriding emphasis on superficial appearances—whether this emphasis comes from national organizations as in the case of DePauw’s DZ sorority or from within the groups themselves—is inimical to both the organization itself and the student body as a whole.

University administrators cannot afford to take a laissez-faire attitude towards fraternal organizations when this sort of toxic culture develops within them; their responsibility is to their students, not national offices. Colleges must be proactive about promoting the only culture acceptable at an academic institution: tolerance and acceptance for all.