NEW HAVEN — Several fraternity chapters at Yale University have postponed recruiting events amid a push by student activists to make the social organizations open to both men and women.
North-American Interfraternity Conference spokeswoman Heather Matthews Kirk said Monday that chapters put off the rush events this weekend when students ineligible for membership indicated they planned to attend.
Yale senior associate dean Howard Burgwell urged fraternity leaders in a letter Thursday to keep rush events open to all students, regardless of gender, while being clear about their organizations’ membership criteria. He wrote that the New Haven, Connecticut, university has no interest in dictating to student organizations who they select.
A student group called Engender has been working on the Ivy League campus to end what it describes as sex discrimination by all-male fraternities.
