Wespeak: Wesleyan and Its Fraternities – Who’s More Diverse Anyway?

, by Jeff Gray, Class of 1977

If anyone at Wesleyan ever engaged in ethnic profiling they’d be drummed out of the University community, but not only is socioeconomic profiling permitted, it’s inflamed by the administration itself.

In the debate on the future of Wesleyan’s fraternities, one argument that is constantly used to discredit fraternities is that they are bastions of white privilege. To listen to fraternity opponents, you’d think every brother had grown up in a mansion, owned a yacht and gone scuba diving in the Maldives. Ironically, some of those who themselves won the birth lottery are among the first to take cheap shots at fraternities.

This stereotype starts at the top. In a September 3, 2014 memo to the Trustees, Roth described fraternity members as privileged members of society who enjoy access to graduate members “ensconced in positions of power and influence in society” and to “affiliations post-graduation.” As a DKE alumnus, I can only say, “I Wish!”

The truth is that when I went to Wesleyan in the ‘70s, DKE brothers were hardly the privileged elite that their opponents claim. In fact, because we mostly came from middle and working-class families, when we surveyed the rest of the campus, what we saw were plenty of kids who came from more affluent backgrounds than we did. We certainly did not hold that against them and we were friends with many of them. But because of our modest backgrounds, fraternity life was a valuable support system that helped me and my brothers navigate the stresses of academia, social life, and finding our way.

The same is still the case today. The current DKE members are actually more economically and racially diverse than Wesleyan as a whole. About a two-thirds of current DKEs are on financial aid, compared to fewer than half of the student body. Twelve percent of current DKEs are first-generation college students, compared to seven percent of the student body, and twelve percent are black compared to nine percent of Wesleyan as a whole.

In other words, there’s more diversity at DKE than in the college itself. Without frats there’d be even less diversity because one of the reasons that working class guys agree to go to Wesleyan in the first place is because they know they can get the support they need in fraternities. More than a few of my brothers have said they would not have stayed at Wesleyan if it had not been for the support of the friends they made at DKE.

Yet the myth of privilege persists and no one seems to feel ashamed to make arguments based on outdated stereotypes. As we move forward in this debate, I hope we’ll have more intellectual honesty than we’ve had in the past. And to fraternity opponents I’d say, check your own privilege first before you start casting stones at us.

  • What is diversity?

    Comparing percentages from a pool of less than 100 male students to the university’s 2800 students make the significance of comparisons (66% to 47%, 12% to 7%, 12% to 9%) fairly low.

    • TD

      I can accept what you say statistically, but using that same logic, the fraternities are not “Less Diverse” than the University as a whole. So why pick at the fraternities that house less than 5% of the students on campus, when the University offering housing to other student interest groups?

    • k.d. lang’s mangina

      Would you be comfortable then with the assertion that the fraternities at Wesleyan are AS diverse as the student population on the whole?

      I understand the inherent problems of comparing pools of a different scale. However, that the sampling suggests a level of diversity within fraternities equal to or greater than those measured within the entire student population, can’t we at least assert that fraternity members at Wes are no less diverse (and no more “privileged”) than the rest of the students?

      Or, one could pull 50-60 students (or however many DKE brothers there are) from the campus population, and compare on a more similar scale.

    • JG

      I see. So the the percentages cited in the article are irrelevant because they don’t meet your standard of reliability. And what metric would you use to gauge fraternities’ diversity relative to the campus as a whole?

    • Not a math major but

      These numbers don’t come from a sample of fewer than 100 people, would would call their statistical reliability into question; this is an actual full census of the entire fraternity, so there is no question of statistical significance. The statement is true. DKE has a higher percentage of students on financial aid, first-generation students, and blacks than the college as a whole.

  • alum ’02

    Wesleyan’s greatest challenge has always been offering appropriate services and support systems for students on the challenging side of the socioeconomic spectrum. As a fellow alum and short-end-of-the-stick receiver, I can wholly appreciate what you are saying. Would it not be better, though, if the university were a place where all students who needed it had access to the support structure you describe? I am not referring to exclusivity of biologically-sex based exclusion of fraternities. The doors were opened many times to me, but I was always uncomfortable with the exclusivity of the Greek system, as well as with demands it would have placed upon me with which I disagreed. It would have been better for me – and, I imagine countless others for whom sex, gender, introversion, personal preference, and a host of other categories may have been barriers – for the University to cease its perpetuation of exclusionary and marginalizing tactics towards less-affluent students. Access to a caring, supportive, and diverse group of like-minded people should be the cornerstone of the university, not something available only to those willing to pledge an exclusive group.

  • JG

    While I appreciate what the author is trying to do with this article (defend fraternities against spurious, hateful accusations), ultimately he is engaged in a fool’s errand.

    The campaign against fraternities is a campaign by leftists and cultural marxists. You cannot beat the Left by trying to “out-Left” them–by taking what they say at face-value, and then using their own purported value system to defend your case. You aren’t dealing with an opponent who is fair-minded or interested in logical consistency. Ultimately, the goal is to upheave and overturn and destroy, And you’re well-meaning appeal to “diversity” will not buy you any currency with them.

  • Dkebro74

    Mr. Gray’s comments above bring forth some actual fact and reality that Wesleyan would rather ignore. President Roth’s statements regarding the relationship between the Gamma Phi chapter of DKE and “power and influence in society” can be described with one word…rubbish. His words reveal the sad truth that he should not be in a position of authority himself or in a leadership position at an elite university such as Wesleyan, supposedly known for tolerance, diversity and intellectual thought. I am sure when President Roth has his hand out soliciting donations for Wesleyan he has no issue with the powerful, wealthy or influential. It is a source of pride that many of the blue collar brothers I had the pleasure to know during an era now long ago have worked hard,achieved much and contributed greatly to society and likely Wesleyan itself.I can guarantee that not one did so by leveraging some mythical advantage or ethereal network like the one President Roth suggests fraternities provide. It seems to me President Roth’s quest is misguided and perhaps compensation for other problems his tenure faces. In response to comments by Alum ’02, why not have both…..fraternities and a university that provides social networks of like minded people. Nothing wrong with that at all but it should not mean that any group need be abolished. If anything DKE did exactly what you suggest as many of its members were not from what you might consider elite or wealthy backgrounds. Could it be that the effort to destroy DKE is really an attack on those from middle class backgrounds?

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