Walking down High Street, you have probably passed by a cobblestone house that almost always has its lights off. Owned by the University’s Delta Kappa Epsilon (DKE) chapter, the house has served as a hub for the fraternity since 1868. However, it has been off limits to its members since 2015 after a conflict between the fraternity and the University about the co-educational fraternity plan. The policy was motivated by a need to expand their equity and inclusion, as well as a push to mitigate the history of sexual assault across multiple of the University’s fraternities. Tensions escalated between the University and DKE after their house was eliminated as a program house in 2015, leading multiple parties affiliated with DKE to file a lawsuit against the University. Given this tumultuous relationship with the University and a not-so-favorable reputation among the student body, many let out a sigh of relief when the fraternity was suspended in 2021 for COVID-related violations. 

Last semester, DKE returned to campus following the end of their suspension. With the graduation of many of its former members and a period of inactivity, DKE came back with a semi-blank slate. Many current sophomores and juniors have taken the fraternity into their hands to forge a new path for the organization. The Argus sat down with DKE’s president, Colin Campbell ’25, to learn more about DKE’s efforts to implement change, its new inclusivity practices, and the future of the fraternity on campus. 

For those who are unfamiliar with the fraternity, DKE is one of four Greek societies on campus, and it is the only one that is not co-ed. Its membership leans towards the athletic side of campus, with many representatives from men’s sports teams at the University.  

“It’s really a collection of, in my eyes, good guys who want to have fun, but also want to do good in the Wesleyan community,” Campbell said.“We’re made up primarily of athletes, but we’re getting more non-athletes.”

To address the question lingering on many people’s minds, Campbell explained why the fraternity has not gone co-ed, and why its access to the house is still suspended.  

“The house and co-educating—they seem like they’re very similar topics, but I think they’re really different,” Campbell said. “If we co-educate, we will lose [relations with] the national chapter…. That means we [would] not [be] a fraternity in a sense. Delta Kappa Epsilon and the national organization would be like, ‘you’re misrepresenting us in a way.’ This is because the Delta Kappa Epsilon constitution [states that] the frat can’t be co-educated.”

Access to the house is more complex, rooted in a lawsuit that has tarnished the relationship between the University and DKE.

“In 2014, Roth said that fraternities have to co-educate all fraternity houses in order to live in them so that all people have equal access to living in them,” Campbell said. “The only way to get in the house at least 10 years ago would have been to co-educate…. The lawsuit kind of burned bridges between the school and our alumni association.” 

Campbell, a member of the varsity soccer team, explained how he initially got involved with the fraternity. 

“One of the seniors on the soccer team last spring was in DKE [and] he rushed his freshman year,” Campbell said. “He recommended I check it out [so] I went to one of the open houses. I had a blast meeting all the current brothers, and also just meeting new people I had not known before. After getting to know more and talking a little bit with the current guys on the executive board, I made the decision to go ahead and rush the fraternity and the rest is history.”

Campbell explained that rushing DKE was a way for him to branch out beyond his regular social circles, make new connections, and network beyond the University’s borders. 

“Because the soccer team in itself is really, really small and I feel like the campus itself is really, really small—I love my team to death, but at the same time I want to branch out—I wanted to know more people in different circles,” Campbell said. “I would say the alumni network is pretty vast. The Delta Kappa Epsilon is a pretty big fraternity in the country. But also the Wesleyan-specific alumni network within the fraternity is pretty great. Being more involved in the community and knowing people across teams and social groups for me was [a highlight].” 

After rushing in the spring, Campbell’s path to presidency was an unexpected but a welcomed development. 

“[Right after I rushed], it was almost the end of the school year, so we had to do executive board elections and a lot of people [in the groupchat] were kind of just wondering who [was] going to be president,” Campbell said. “Then, someone said ‘Colin,’ and many up arrowed the message. And so I was like, ‘Okay, people want me to do it.’ I never thought I was going to go to college and be the president of a fraternity, but here I am.”

Despite the unexpected turn of events, Campbell has taken it upon himself to reform DKE. He is actively working to implement changes within the fraternity, collaborate with the administration, and promote a transformation of the fraternity’s culture.

“There’s always going to be some people who aren’t fully on board with what we’re doing, who we represent, the demographic we make up, but we’re going to constantly change that,” Campbell said. “The traditional frat culture that you see in movies, from my intuition, is changing [across the country]. We are trying to follow suit—we’re trying to incorporate as many non-athletes as we can in the rushing process, we’re trying to incorporate people from all backgrounds, and all demographics.”

Campbell also discussed possibilities for the future of the DKE house, envisioning a more cooperative relationship between the fraternity and the University administration.

“My top priority right now is trying to bridge [the relationship between] us and the administration,” Campbell said. “There are plans to renovate. There are plans to have the house, at one point in the coming year, have equal access to all men and women living in it. So the house itself would be co-ed, just not the frat. You could have 15 people from the fraternity living in the house, and you could have 15 people of any gender identity living in the house.” 

In addition to reconciling with the administration, Campbell believes that it is equally important to rebuild bridges between DKE and the University’s larger student body. Campbell expanded on the specific changes he seeks to implement in relation to fostering greater diversity. The next step would be to create a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) position on the Executive Board of the fraternity.

“There’s no reason why we need two social chairs [on the executive board], in my opinion,” Campbell said. “We can sacrifice having two of them to have a DEI initiative and try to get us involved more in the community. That’s just going to be someone who’s looking for the opportunity for us to make a difference.”

In addition, Campbell is in the process of organizing workshops for the fraternity with Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Engagements and Initiatives NCAA Intern Dia Fortenberry, who works to promote DEI initiatives in the University’s athletics department. 

“In the [athletics department], we do these things called equitable encounters with sports teams,” Campbell said. “[Dia Fortenberry] runs you through workshops, and I am trying to get her to do one with [DKE]. It’s [going to be] mandatory and [the members] should be compelled to go to those workshops with Dia.”

Campbell explained that this is not only important for educating the current members of the fraternity, but for creating a more inclusive space in the long-run and bringing about lasting change.

“There’s a lot of work that we have to do,” Campbell said. “The fraternity used to be more diverse—Now, I think it’s probably the least diverse it’s ever been. For this next recruiting class, that’s one of our main priorities. We really want that to change. Last year, we had our first basketball guy ever come into the fraternity. We are trying to get as many non-athletes in, as many people of color in, and as many people from different backgrounds and demographics.” 

Campbell acknowledges that this change will not come overnight, but he hopes that the creation of a DEI position, workshops and active recruitment efforts will provide a solid start for the future. 

“If [potential recruits] don’t see people that they can relate to, that’s a really tough ask for them to dive full in and really try to assimilate to a group,” Campbell said. “We want to build awareness about that because we’re never gonna fix our diversity nor our inclusion from an outside perspective—this is a five-to-ten year process of slowly building up our space to people that really represents the Wesleyan community as a whole.”

In addition to efforts of fostering greater diversity efforts, Campbell expanded on the philanthropic work that DKE does with the Middletown community. 

“We were going to do 50/50 raffles at every single football home game,” Campbell said. “We are donating the money raised to the Middletown Amazing Grace Food Pantry. We’re going to do a hoops for troops-type 3v3 basketball tournament. Will Aaronson [’25], who is our philanthropy guy, is planning that. All the money raised will go to the Wounded Warrior Project. Then also there’s a local middle school called MacDonough Middle School [that we work with]. The Student Athletic Advisory Committee partners with them too. We help there with kids, just like an hour or two hours on Fridays during recess.”

In an effort to contend with DKE’s muddy history and the inherent institutional problems that an all-male fraternity poses, Campbell is committed to making substantive, positive changes to DKE. Only time will reveal how the fraternity will implement these efforts in the long-run. 

Eugenia Shakhnovskaya can be reached at eshakhnovska@wesleyan.edu.