Get with the program

The continual debate over the way we live and associate has once again been ignited by the Administration. They have strengthened their attempts to mold fraternities and other housing options to the rigorous standards of program housing—standards that have proven over time to be seriously flawed, as evidenced by the recent upheavals within WestCo, X House, and the Greek institutions on campus. With the denial of Psi Upsilon, the Administration has made it clear that if houses don’t conform, they will perish.

The concept of program housing has been around for less than a decade. WestCo and X House were created before most students were born; some of the fraternities existed before the Civil War was fought. WestCo is a dorm with over 100 residents; fraternities are self-selecting, privately owned institutions that are, by their very definition, exclusionary.

It was and still is a mistake to include fraternities and WestCo under the umbrella of program housing. These houses have different ideological backgrounds, different needs, and serve different roles in the greater Wesleyan community.

The most recent example of this disconnect is also the most grievous and has stunning implications for the Wesleyan community. By denying Psi U from Program Housing status, a housing issue has been used in an attempt to change some basic social constructs on campus, changes the student body has not demanded.

Had the University planned on making all of the fraternities coed, they needed to give warning, complete with a timetable, of when these changes needed to be put into effect.

It is irresponsible and fundamentally dishonest to simply enact such changes without having any form of “dialogue” that the Administration is reputed to hold in such high esteem.

Such actions are a betrayal of the values that Wesleyan lauds itself for. On the University homepage, President Bennet is quoted as saying, “We work to free our students to make choices through their lives that will allow them to be effective leaders.” To live up to this mission statement, Wesleyan needs to reevaluate the way it operates with its students.