On Sunday, April 13, the Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) held its third meeting to address the prevalence of sexual assault and rape culture at the University. The meeting drew approximately 80 University community members, including President Michael Roth. The agenda for the meeting was fourfold: prevention and education; reporting and adjudicating; supporting survivors; and alcohol and spaces. The conversation mainly focused on the fourth topic as a discussion about the role of all-male fraternities on campus.

Currently, two non-binding resolutions have been presented to the WSA. Resolution A was co-written by fraternity brothers and WSA members. Resolution B was written by individuals unaffiliated with Greek life and co-sponsors, including WSA President Nicole Updegrove ’14 and Vice President Andrew Trexler ’14. Both resolutions offer detailed proposals to combat sexual assault and include specific provisions about fraternities as environments that can place individuals at risk. Resolution A contains stipulations that would reform existing fraternity structures; Resolution B contains a stipulation that would de-gender fraternities, a potentially more radical change given that two of the school’s fraternities with housing, Beta Theta Pi (Beta) and Delta Kappa Epsilon (DKE), have no nationally recognized coeducational chapters.

De-gendering would require fraternities to accept women as full members of the organization and allow them to live in the fraternity houses as members. Should the resolution pass, it is expected that the process for inclusion will mirror the current rush process and that female pledges will be treated in the same manner as male pledges. A widely circulated petition outlines the rationale for de-gendering Greek houses.

“Because fraternities are male-exclusive and the possessors of some of our campus’s largest party spaces, they explicitly and implicitly cultivate a gender-based power dynamic that privileges men, the hosts, over women, who are among the guests,” the letter reads. “This power dynamic engenders sexual assault because women are institutionally encouraged to ‘repay’ men for their hospitality, often with sex, and men are institutionally provided with a control over their guests, especially women.”

As of April 14, the petition had 119 signatories, including students, alumni, faculty, and WSA members.

Alexandra Stovicek ’17, an attendee with no affiliation with either the WSA or Greek life, expressed her support for this resolution, noting that de-gendering fraternities is a good idea because a specific change can have a real, immediate impact.

“I decided to sign [the] petition to express support for very specific changes to fraternity culture at Wesleyan and beyond,” Stovicek wrote in a message to The Argus. “I am very impressed with the WSA members who have outlined specific ideas on how to lessen the extent of sexual assault on our campus. It is one thing to be an advocate for survivors and be in favor of sexual assault prevention, and another to attack the real issues at hand on our campus[…]. If we include women in these societal organizations, the spirit of camaraderie can still be achieved without having to create a power hierarchy to do so.”

Updegrove, agreeing with Stovicek, added that these fraternity houses are the only places on campus that exclude non-male students.

“It is a letter that says these spaces perpetuate rape culture and make women—not all women, but a lot of women—and trans* people feel really, really unsafe and uncomfortable,” Updegrove said. “Putting them in a program house is a way of condoning their control of the spaces and their domination of the social world at Wesleyan. So I absolutely support what the letter calls for.”

Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) President Michael Creager ’15 also stated his support for de-gendered fraternities, adding that he believes the resolutions are only the beginning of what should be a larger effort to combat sexual assault.

“I don’t think that either of the WSA resolutions will do enough,” Creager said. “That’s not to say they’re not steps in the right direction. I just believe that changes need to be made to the resolution so that they do more to truly help the entire community. Co-educated living spaces is a step in the right direction, and it may help to get rid of some of the sexual assaults on campus. However, I personally will not tell any organization what its membership should comprise.”

Many students maintained that de-gendered houses are not the solution. WSA member and Beta brother Scott Elias ’14 contended that targeting fraternities would be unfair and ineffective.

“This conversation must be cognizant that dance parties and this culture occurs at Greek houses, co-educated houses, apartments, dorm parties, and senior houses, irrespective of the gender of who actually officially lives in these spaces,” Elias said. “I don’t think co-education of all-male Greek houses is necessarily the most appropriate or effective course of action if our true objective is to take meaningful and effective action to combat incidents of sexual assault.”

Ayala Mansky ’14, who has founded an organization titled Women for Greek Life to support all-male Greek housing, similarly challenged Resolution B.

“I think that the only outspoken people with regards to fraternities have been vehemently against them thus far, and I want the school to know that there are a lot of people that support fraternities in their current form [as single-sex houses], and that the supporters are not just fraternity members,” Manksy said. “I think that [the] campus should be working together to combat rape culture and that this whole ordeal has become an unfortunate ‘us’ versus ‘them’ [conversation] that is completely counterproductive.”

Trexler called for campus unification despite the differing opinions on the topic of Greek life on campus.

“Fraternities ought to have a positive role on campus,” he said.

The discussion was at times contentious. Certain students were asked to apologize for laughing at other students’ comments, while others were booed or cut off by attendees. In an effort to maintain decorum, normal committee procedure was abridged.

Both resolutions are expected to be voted on Sunday, April 19 at the next WSA meeting.