Yale group to demand sanctions against frats for not allowing women and ‘non-binaries’

A group at Yale plans to lobby the college administration to impose sanctions against campus fraternities — because they won’t allow women and “non-binary” students to become members.

Engender, a group created “to advocate for a more inclusive social environment on campus,” had worked out an arrangement last month with the frat Sigma Phi Epsilon to allow non-males to rush. However, SigEp refused membership to them — all women — citing “national regulations.”

The Yale Daily News reports that Engender co-director Will McGrew said his group will use of Title IX and “Yale’s policies on gender discrimination” to make its case.

Title IX, however, does allow exemptions for “membership policies of certain university-based social fraternities and sororities.”

From the story:

According to co-directors of Engender, the fraternity Sigma Nu declined the request for female and nonbinary students to attend rush events by citing the right to free association for an all-male institution. Chi Psi made an explicit note that, as per the bylaws of their national organization, females are not allowed at their rush events, Engender co-directors said. …

McGrew said that for many of the fraternities they contacted, their national bylaws were likely not specific in how they define gender requirements for recruitment versus membership. For example, SigEp’s national organization notified its Yale chapter that coed rush events would be fine as long as no females received bids, he said.

Co-directors of Engender, including McGrew, anticipated that following its recent campaign, many fraternity national organizations will define their bylaws to include more explicit gender requirements for the rush process. But from the perspective of some national organizations, only people eligible to join the fraternities are actually considered to be actively rushing.

Here’s a “surprise”: Engender has no official position on whether sororities, like frats, should be gender integrated.

McGrew says this is because, “whereas fraternities deliberately cultivate themselves as social spaces, sororities tend towards intimate associations and do not affect wider social trends at Yale in the same manner.”

Of course.

McGrew’s LinkedIn page notes he is currently a research assistant working on “gender, sexuality, and labor markets,” and is a teaching assistant for the course “Work and Gender.”

He also thinks that Representative Maxine Waters’ “evidence-based takedowns” of President Trump will enable him to survive the next four years:

If I survive this administration, it will be bc of @MaxineWaters & @angela_rye's evidence-based takedowns of Trump&his cronies. #kremlinklan

— Will McGrew (@Will_McGrew) February 16, 2017