University of Virginia Library

Fraternity Disgrace

Dean Alan Williams is strangely
unaware of the laws against discrimination.
The Fourteenth
Amendment prohibits any state
from discriminating against anyone
on the ground of race. The
University of Virginia is an arm of
the state, being financed by (and
considered a part of the state by)
the state.

The fraternities at the University
are not officially parts of the
University, but a strong argument
can be made that, under the
Fourteenth Amendment, they are
to be considered as such. They
house students, and the University
claims the right to regulate all
student housing. Students eat there.
Leaders of the fraternities are
considered by the University to be
student leaders merely because of
their fraternity offices, and University
committees and other groups
contain fraternity officers merely
because of their offices. The intramural
program (sponsored by the
University) is run solely on the
basis of fraternity groupings. The
grade-point averages published
twice a year in The Cavalier Daily
emphasize the "standing" of the
fraternities. The University regulates
other aspects of fraternity life
(as fraternity members sometimes
find to their embarrassment) and
the University has never
relinquished its claim to a large
residual area of potential control of
the fraternities and the fraternity
system. I would conclude that
fraternities are part of the University;
and I would be that, for
purposes of prohibiting racial discrimination
at least, the Supreme
Court is just itching to tell us so.

I hope that Dean Williams
realizes the legal situation and
exercises some of the gentle coercion
for which Dean Runk was
beloved, to force fraternities to
integrate before the federal courts
do. The existence of racial discrimination
by any group or organization
formally recognized and encouraged
by the University is a
disgrace.