Yale Hands DKE a Five-Year Suspension for Being Creepy Assholes

What a day! While our attention was fixed on the criminal justice system in Ithaca, there was frat justice going on just a few hundred miles to the east in New Haven. Yale’s sexiest student, Dean Mary Miller, just laid the smackdown on Delta Kappa Epsilon, booting the fraternity off campus for five years for being monumentally stupid and skeevy. These upstanding gentlemen of Yale became the center of much media attention last fall for statements they made (and chanted, and uploaded to YouTube) on October 13. In case you’ve purged the whole episode from your memory banks, the comments included: “No means yes, yes means anal” and “My name is Jack, I’m a necrophiliac, I fuck dead women.” Which is kind of, you know…gross.

According to the Yale Daily News, the college’s Executive Committee ultimately decided that DKE had “violated undergraduate regulations by threatening and intimidating others that night.” Because the frat was already an unregistered student organization, options for punishment were apparently somewhat limited. But the ExComm did take measures “that prevent it from recruiting new members or holding any events on campus for five years.” Furthermore, they asked that the DKE national organization suspend the Yale chapter for the same period of time.

The incident came only a couple of years after Yale’s Zeta Psi landed in hot water for similar sketchiness — specifically, a photograph in which members lovingly displayed a sign that read, “WE LOVE YALE SLUTS.” And the cumulative effect of all the frat-nastiness, past and present, was manifest in a Title IX lawsuit that currently plagues Yale. So, the university was probably thrilled to dole out a little punishment.

Miller sent out an email to the Yale community today, which you can view in its entirety after the jump.

I write to inform you of the Executive Committee’s actions concerning the October 2010 DKE (Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity) incident. Although it is unusual to send a memorandum regarding a particular Executive Committee decision to the Yale community, a wide range of community members have been affected by this incident. As a result, I have decided to share the Committee’s decisions regarding this case. It is my hope that this will not only shed some light on a matter of public concern but also provide notice of the outcomes to all those who may have been affected by sexual harassment and, accordingly, educate our community. I further hope that this information may help prevent future incidents of this kind.

Let me remind you first of the process by which the Executive Committee reaches a decision. The Committee must receive a specific complaint to initiate proceedings. In this instance, Marichal Gentry, Dean of Student Affairs, brought official allegations of “sexual harassment” and “imperiling the integrity and values of the University community.” The Committee then pursued those charges. The Fact Finder for the Committee interviewed a number of individuals with knowledge of the incident, including both those who had been charged and witnesses; he then submitted a report to the Committee. The Committee carefully considered all of the attested facts and circumstances in this incident.

After a full hearing, the Committee found that the DKE chapter, as an organization, one comprised of Yale students, had threatened and intimidated others, in violation of the Undergraduate Regulations of Yale College as they pertain to “harassment, coercion or intimidation” and “imperiling the integrity and values of the University community.” The Executive Committee further found several fraternity members had also, as individuals, violated the same regulations.

The Committee issued penalties to individual fraternity members. Because of confidentiality restrictions imposed by federal privacy law and by Yale’s own policies, I cannot provide further detail about charges or decisions with regard to individuals in this email.

I can report that the Committee imposed sanctions on the DKE chapter as an organization that prohibit it from conducting any fraternity activities on campus (including recruiting) for a period of five years, prevent it from communicating with Yale students by means of Yale bulletin boards or Yale email, and severely limit its use of the Yale name in connection with the DKE organization. The Committee also has also formally requested that the DKE national organization suspend the chapter for five years. If, after five years, the DKE chapter has observed all restrictions and agrees to pursue registration as an undergraduate organization, the Committee recommends that the Yale College Dean’s Office lift these sanctions.

Every member of our community has a legal and moral right to an educational environment free from harassment and intimidation. I would like to thank the members of the Executive Committee for their diligent efforts in enforcing the Yale University Undergraduate Regulations.

  • BigGreenMonster

     Yale’s Zeta Psi landed in hot water for similar sketchiness — specifically, a photograph in which members lovingly displayed a sign that read, “WE LOVE YALE SLUTS.”

    But they call themselves that…  
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlxpJ8Y1SRI

  • Cornell11

     this is a travesty of justice

    THANKS TOKEN UGLY LESBIAN MARY MILLES

    • Cornell11

       oh i meant “miller.” my point still stands

  • Anonymous

    I have decided to share the Committe’s decisions regarding this case. It is my hope that this won’t only shed some light on a matter of public

    Roll-up Doors

  • SGT

    Jesus, this is so bush league its sad.

    “No means yes, yes means anal” is a phrase making fun of the constant creepiness of administrators by posting “no means no” everywhere.

    The “no means no” signs are seen as symbol of a “reeducation” (Yale’s word, not mine) campaign regarding sexual issues, and massive overreaction to allegations of sexual misconduct. Do you not get that they’re making fun of you for doing exactly what you just did?

    This bizarre obsession is claimed to be an effort to address an epidemic of sexual assault. There have been an average of five complaints of sexual assault per year at Harvard, Princeton, and Yale over the past five years. That’s not only lower than nearly all other universities, but lower than
    most residential towns with comparable populations of young people.

    All statistics say this claimed epidemic simply does not exist.  That is a simple numerical fact.

    This is just an example of an age old cultural phenomenon known as rape hysteria. Its brought on by fathers sending their daughters off into the world alone for the first time. It is common in cultures from Papau New Guinea to California (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_care_sex_abuse_hysteria)

    Over the past few years, this has collided with administrators with a very slanted view on gender issues in which males are perceived as universally out of control and aggressive.

    Many of these people came of age during a time when the Ivy League truly did discriminate on the basis of gender. They are still fighting the battles of the last generation.

    These Orwellian actions do nothing to protect women. They alienate men by
    portraying them as one bud light away from raping the nearest chick. It
    shows a complete inability to distinguish between reality and adolescent
    puerile humor.

    This absurdity serves only to distract from real issues of sexual
    harassment, faculty gender disparity, and honest to god rape. We’re not falling for it.

  • Anonymous

    There have been an average of complaints of sexual assault per year at Harvard, Princeton, & Yale over the past years.

    ISO 9001

  • Anonymous

    The Committee also formally asked the national organization DKE s

    Property for Sale

  • Anonymous

    Serves these idiots right. They can keep their disgusting chants at home, where I’m sure their mothers and sisters would be thrilled to listen to them. Honestly, these filthy little boys strutting around outside the windows of 18 year old women and mouthing that kind of potty talk deserve to have their mouths washed out with soap.
    BTW – this was Bush snr & Bush jnrs frat. Is anyone surprised?

  • harvardBAE

    Harvard, Yale, and Princeton may each have under five reported sexual assualts per year, but that is in no way indicative of the actual number of sexual assualts on any of these campuses. Since you seem partial to statistical facts, it has been statistically shown multiple times that women (and men in particular) are unlikely to report a sexual assualt or rape due to stigma, embarrassment, or fear. The number of sexual assualts that occur on college campuses are much much higher than the reported numbers at any institution (even for women’s colleges such as Wellesley and Bryn Mawr).

    Also, while I think these guys were mainly just being silly frat boys (which is the norm on college campuses), by saying things of this nature in public, they put themselves up to the scrutiny of the college and its administrators who are worried about the implications of the statements made and the way women might feel about them. I was amused when I heard about what they said, because they’re dudes being dudes at a fraternity event, but if I were a Yale woman, I probably wouldn’t find it amusing at all. Rather, it would make me feel uncomfortable in my own space. While the actions of the administration are harsh, the boys opened themselves up to it by behaving like this in public. They are a well known fraternity on campus with famous alumni, and thus a part of Yale’s image. It is perfectly logical that the college took action.