The Sigma Alpha Epsilon house on WashU’s Fraternity Row. Photo by Curran Neenan | Student Life

Of over 400 student groups at Washington University in St. Louis, only one type of organization has their own set of houses: Interfraternity Council fraternities. While fraternity men, who are disproportionately wealthy and white, have access to nine houses on campus, students from marginalized communities have little to no space to build community. On campus, the Women’s Building, Sakeenah and Hamsini House are among the only spaces allocated for students of historically marginalized backgrounds to build community. That’s why we are calling on WashU to terminate their housing contracts with fraternities and designate current fraternity houses as affinity houses instead.

Research has shown that fraternity housing is responsible for so many of the harms that Greek Life perpetuates on WashU’s campus, including alcoholism, hazing and sexual assault. By granting a small group of men exclusive access to a residential space for their members at a central location on campus, paired with little to no accountability for interpersonal violence or conduct violations, fraternity houses enable toxic masculinity, rape culture and violence to fester. A paper by Lehigh University professors found that fraternity houses were dangerous places for women; in 2018, a student survey of sexual violence amongst sorority sisters corroborated these findings, reporting that a sixth had experienced unwanted sexual contact or interpersonal violence by fraternity members. The author of the survey concluded: “There are no safe fraternities.”

Furthermore, fraternities have done nothing to earn the space they occupy. If student groups like cultural organizations or a cappella groups don’t have housing for their members, there is no reason why fraternities deserve special status as student groups. On the contrary, when fraternity houses were first built and given to fraternities, WashU had still not yet admitted Black students in all its programs, fraternities nationwide enforced rigid exclusion of racial minorities, and “Aryan clauses” in fraternity constitutions barred Jewish (and other non-Christian, non-white) students from joining. The University has failed to make an affirmative case for why fraternities are more deserving of this housing than any of the other over 400 groups on campus. Continuing to enable fraternities to occupy these houses only sends the message that the University accepts and endorses unequal treatment of its students, giving special favor to disproportionately white, wealthy and straight men. 

In contrast, affinity housing has been shown to offer immense benefits to college campuses, especially for the most marginalized students. They create space for students from diverse identities to explore their identities, build community and be surrounded by peers who have shared lived experiences. Establishing these houses means that we can create spaces where LGBTQIA+ students won’t have to worry about homophobic or transphobic roommates; where students of color can connect with our cultural and historical backgrounds, at an institution that is predominantly white; and where religious students can explore their faith, pray and live together. These spaces help students feel more welcome on their campuses, provide beneficial events and programming to the student body, and offer a strong residential support system to lean on and speak with when encountering racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, antisemitism or discrimination on campus. 

We are calling for Washington University to terminate their housing contracts with IFC fraternities, and publicly commit to reallocating fraternity houses as affinity space for Black, Latinx, Asian, Indigenous, MENA, low-income, international, LGBTQIA+, female, Muslim, Jewish and differently-abled students. Students from diverse backgrounds have long been tokenized by WashU, without receiving the necessary material institutional support to ensure our voices are uplifted. The Hamsini House replacing Phi Delta Theta and transfer housing replacing Beta Theta Pi are only the first steps in creating long-lasting change in the pursuit of equity: For too long, fraternities have occupied too much undeserved space on campus. This step is necessary in creating a more equal and just community, where all students will feel and know that they belong.

Signed,

Tinuola B. Adebukola, President of WashU’s Women & Non-Binary Multi-cultural Association

Maurice Wang, Mandy Feenstra, and Ranen Miao, co-presidents of the Asian Multicultural Council

Amadi MuseMorris, President of the Association of Black Students

Christian Monzon, President of the Association of Latin American Students

Trey Davis, President of the Black Men’s Coalition

Alexandra Khalil, President of the Middle Eastern and North African Association

Alec Fields, President of the Jewish Students Association

Briana Garil, President of the Hillel Leadership Council

Sabrina Lozada and Alex Herrera, Carnaval Directors

Bryanna Mendez and Carlos Cepeda, Latinxpresión Directors

Jessica Huang and Ally Sun, co-executive directors of LNYF

Nayana Vuppala, Co-President of Ashoka, Garba, & Former Member of Alpha Phi

Audrey Pilgrim, President of WashU Pride Alliance

Lane Bohrer, Facilitator with Transcending Gender

Onyi Onyeador, President of Teaching Racial Understanding Through Honesty

Helen Webley-Brown, President of European Horizons at WashU

Mandy Feenstra, President of the Vietnamese Students Association

Drew Perkoski, Acting Vice President of Social Programming for Hillel Leadership Council

Lauren Blaydon, Speaker of the Congress of the South 40

Angela Gormley, President of Reflections

Sandhya Thomas, Group Coordinator of Sur Taal Laya A Cappella

Dakotah Jennifer and Jihoun Im, Group Coordinators of Sensasians Acappella

Alice Na and Uma Kocherlakota, Co-Presidents of PL4Y 

Emily Angstreich and Lily Swenson, Co-Presidents of Uncle Joe’s Peer Counseling and Resource Center

Cam Lind, President of KWUR

Hannah Grimes and Kiana Angela Macharia, Co-Presidents of WU-Slam

Emma Singh, President of WashU College Democrats and Roosevelt Network

Ethan Shen, President of YoWU

Frances Wu, President of WashU Pre-Law Society

Lawton Blanchard, President of Burning Kumquat

Sarah Rosen, Secretary of Planned Parenthood Generation Action

Meenu Bhooshanan, member of Ekta

Michelle Perez, President of Alpha Psi Lambda 

Philip Keisler, President of Phi Delta Phi Honor Society

Izzy Jefferis, Former President of Lambda Q and member of Pi Beta Phi

John Harry Wagner, Ex-Social Chair and Brotherhood Chair of Beta Theta Pi

Dora Tabachnick, President of WashU Save a Child’s Heart 

Layna Paraboschi, President of Alpha Phi Omega

Maya Gregory, President of WashU Children’s Project and Former Member of Chi Omega

Emily Regan, Former President of the Women’s Panhellenic Association

President of MeToo Washu

Matthew Berman, Former Director of Social Justice for Washington University Interfraternity Council

Jaclyn Liu, Co-President of Partners in East St. Louis & Former Member of Alpha Omicron Pi

Emma Platt, SU Senate Diversity and Inclusion Committee Chair

Braxton Sizemore, Speaker of SU Senate

Nkemjika Emenike, Former Speaker of SU Senate 

Miri Goodman, Student Body Vice President of Programming and President of the Social Programming Board

Miriam Silberman, Student Body Executive Vice President

Ranen Miao, Student Body President