Fraternity Lawsuits against Colgate University
Highlights from the Task Force on Campus Culture
Rethinking the New Vision for Resident Education at Colgate University
DKE undergrads defend their traditions and Constitutional Rights
Interview with FACT founder Sean Devlin
Free Association for Everyone but DKE
Stalinist Russia and the Nanny-state in Hamilton
Coercive Land Grab Portends End of Greek Life
Colgate Views Involved Parents as a Problem
Practical Advice for Fraternities In Free Speech Battles on Campus
Expectations for Fraternity and Sorority members
Greek Life and the Nanny State at Colgate University
Students & Alumni for Colgate, Inc. was founded in July 2004 when the Colgate University Board of Trustees, in a blatant land grab, demanded that the fraternity and sorority alumni organizations sell their privately owned houses to the college.
In bullying fashion, they threatened that failure to do so would result in a Greek-letter chapter being banned from the school. Any student participating in a banned chapter would be suspended or expelled.
Colgate University has made made good on their threats, even though undergraduates of Delta Kappa Epsilon are living in University owned housing. Colgate University has, without due process or just cause, eliminated the DKE chapter.
FACT – Freedom of Association Coalition for Truth, a student organization, held a protest rally on campus in April 2005. 1,256 of Colgate’s 2,771 students signed a petition opposing “…Colgate University's stated willingness to violate students' First Amendment freedom of assembly rights and Colgate's blatant violation of private property rights in taking the Greek houses.” More than 200 students marched to the administration offices only to be patronized and dismissed by Colgate University’s avowedly feminist president, Rebecca Chopp.
More than 1,000 Colgate University alumni and students rallied in disgust at the New Vision for Residential Education policies. Letters were sent, media stories were published, and more than $16 million in donations to Colgate University were withheld – all falling on the deaf ears of the Colgate University Board of Trustees.
Alumni leadership worked in vain to negotiate with the college, offering extended leases and agreeing to allow campus personnel access to the Greek houses anytime for any reason. But immediate past-Chairman John Golden insisted, “It’s my way or the highway!” One fraternity alumni president described the choice as having “a gun to the head.” Finally, with many Colgate alumni believing they had no option to save their chapters, the houses were sold to the college – except for Delta Kappa Epsilon.
Subsequent lawsuits followed. Alumni members of Phi Delta Theta, and Beta Theta Pi filed separate derivative complaints against Colgate University in U.S. Supreme Court, State of New York, and County of Madison, in protest of the forced sale of their private properties under threats of economic duress by the alumni boards of directors. Colgate moved to dismiss both lawsuits and the Court agreed on the Beta case. The Court “reserved judgment” for further consideration of the Phi Delta Theta case, but ultimately determined that a decision to sell the private homes to the college met the standards for the “business judgment rule” – in spite of the coercive nature of the deal.
In DKE undergraduates v. Colgate University, a lawsuit by Delta Kappa Epsilon undergrads claims that Colgate University breached its contract with students by banning the chapter even though its members are living in university-owned housing, per the resolution of the Colgate University Board of Trustees. This case establishes an unprecedented legal principle in New York that a university, as part of its academic discretion, can condition alumni property as a term for continued recognition on campus.
A Madison County judge disputed the timing of the notice and dismissed the case. An oral argument was presented on January 16, 2007 before the five-panel appellate court. In a regrettable, but predictable decision, the appellate court agreed that the undergraduate suit was untimely, stating that the suit should have been filed by December 2004. As a result, the court did not address the compelling merits of the case. The reality is that Colgate won on a technicality. There’s no doubt DKE undergraduates would have reached a jury on the merits if it had been timely filed. The fraternity was focused instead on attempting to reach a settlement with Colgate University in November 04.
The most significant lawsuit, Mu of DKE v. Colgate University states, as a major cause of complaint, that the college violates anti-trust law by creating a monopoly on housing in Hamilton, NY. Despite numerous attempts by Colgate attorneys to kill the lawsuit, the Court accepted an appeal brief. In the meantime, the DKE house and Temple sit empty on Broad Street, a stark reminder to alumni that their opinion and loyalty mean nothing to Colgate’s most secret society – the Colgate University Board of Trustees.
As far back as 1990, in the Special Committee on Residential Life, (the so-called SCRL report to which many alumni said “nuts!”), and again in 2001 with the Task Force on Campus Culture, a self-selected and unaccountable group has quietly embraced a mission to end Greek life at Colgate.
Adam Weinberg, former dean of the college, spearheaded the effort to eliminate fraternities and sororities. He reported to the Colgate University Board of Trustees that every staff member in his office wanted to “get rid” of Greek life and said that the faculty would not engage with the system “under any circumstance” and recommended that Greek-letter organizations be phased out.
In December 2005, amidst vocal criticism from alumni and students, Adam
Weinberg unexpectedly resigned in the middle of the school year.