On Tuesday afternooon, Yale University’s chapter of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity announced that it would dissociate from its national organization and would henceforth be known as “Leo,” reports the Yale Daily News.
In an email sent to the national organization, president Grant Mueller explained that it had made plans to disaffiliate even before the chapter was beset by claims of racism and sexism—instead, the group felt that the college could provide various resources better than SAE’s national headquarters.
“The incidents were definitely one of the focal points at the start of the conversation, but they were not a determining factor,” Mueller said, according to the Daily News.
The main incident in question involved several SAE brothers allegedly barring black female students from entering a party, claiming that admittance was on a “white girls only basis.” The fraternity is also subject to a number of campus sanctions after it was found to have violated the university’s policies on sexual misconduct—two students allegedly made inappropriate comments about a female students at a chapter event. These sanctions will remain in effect until August 2016.
According to the Daily News, the disaffiliation will mean the establishment of an alumni board and lower dues for members.
SAE has earned a reputation nationwide for numerous upsetting incidents—the chapter at the University of Oklahoma was swiftly shut down after video surfaced of its members chanting a racist chant (“There’ll never be a nigger at SAE”); Clemson’s chapter (which notably lacks a single black member) was suspended for hosting a “Clemson Cripmas” Christmas party; former Dartmouth student Andrew Lohse detailed his school’s horrific pledge traditions famously involving pledges eating omelets made of vomit; Bloomberg once labeled the frat the “deadliest” of all.
“Yale and our alumni base offer services and advice that are a lot more personalized to the needs of our organization than what we get from the national chapter,” Mueller said of the chapter’s independence. “This decision was not contested at all within the chapter, and while it reached its fruition now, it has been a really long conversation that has more or less consisted since I joined the fraternity.”
Image of Yale University via Getty.
GET JEZEBEL RIGHT IN YOUR INBOX
Still here. Still without airbrushing. Still with teeth.
