Yale just handed down a pretty stiff penalty to the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, whose pledges were caught chanting "no means yes, yes means anal!" on the Ivy's Old Campus last October. Saying that the incident violated Undergraduate Regulations by threatening and intimidating others, the Yale College Executive Committee has asked the national DKE organization to suspend the chapter for five years, effectively banning any and all activities on campus. The fraternity — once home to both President Bush's — has also been barred from using the Yale bulletin board and e-mail from communicating with students, as well as using the Yale name in association with the chapter. A representative at Nationals has called the suspension "excessive" and vows to appeal.
Back in October, we at BroBible strongly condemned the language used in the chanting — and we of course still do. As Waffles McButter wrote, "To be clear, we certainly are of the opinion that rape or sexual assault of any kind is absolutely despicable. When it comes to sex, no always means no."
Just hours after the punishment was very publicly announced via campus-wide email, however, many are already asking whether it is in fact too excessive. Nationals contend that the chapter was already suspended in the fall — for six weeks — and that should be enough. Some Yale community members say that this penalty is an overreaction to a recent Title IX complaint filed by students with the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights against Yale over the incident. Others point out that DKE, and all fraternities at Yale for that matter, aren't officially recognized by the university, and that recruiting and the frat's activities will simply move underground.
And yet if you asked a random sampling of students on campus today, many would likely tell you that the punishment very much fits the crime, and that this is the only way to convince fraternity members, and other men on campus, that sexual harassment and assault pose serious threats to women and will always be met with the strongest of penalties. They'd probably also hail the fact that for once the punishment, at least the fraternity-wide one, was publicly announced, in contrast to how such issues are typically handled — internally and very quietly.
What do you guys think? Is Yale's punishment of DKE excessive? Sound Off in the comments.
