Alumnus pushes for Greek advocacy

A University alumnus and member of Beta Theta Pi is seeking to generate interest for an advocacy group on behalf of Greek organizations on campus. William Robinson ’51 met with eight members of the campus’s fraternities at the Nassau Club of Princeton on Sunday evening to discuss the creation of the group.

The eight undergraduates present at the meeting expressed support for the formation of the group, which Robinson suggested would be called the “Council for Interest in Greek Letter Societies.” Several of the undergraduates said they would support a move to advocate altering the administration’s existing freshman rush ban to allow students to rush Greek organizations in the spring semester of freshman year.

The ban on freshman rush, which went into effect this fall, prohibits freshmen from joining Greek organizations and prohibits Greek organizations from recruiting freshmen. Both are punishable with a suspension of one year from the University. University officials have justified the policy by saying that fraternities and sororities encourage “social exclusivity and socioeconomic stratification,” citing the “feeder” relationship that certain Greek organizations are said to have with particular bicker clubs.

Robinson said that he had not invited freshmen to the meeting. According to University Vice President and Secretary Robert Durkee ’69, the Administration has not yet decided whether freshmen will be allowed to join the advocacy group.

Durkee said that the possibility of allowing freshmen to rush Greek organizations during the spring semester had already been considered at length by the working group on campus social and residential life.

“The working group’s recommendation was not to permit engagement at any time during freshman year,” Durkee said. “So it’s a topic that’s been discussed. If anyone wants to continue to discuss the topic, of course they’re free to do so. But that’s an idea that was thoroughly considered and not adopted,” he added.

Robinson said he felt that holding rush during sophomore year would only reinforce the feeder system by requiring students to join Greek organizations and eating clubs in the same year, thus strengthening the relationship between Greek affiliation and eating club affiliation. However, if University officials refused to allow freshman spring rush, Robinson said the group would not continue to argue for it and would instead advocate official recognition of Greek organizations.

While about 15 Greek letter organizations are active at the University, they are not officially recognized student groups. The proposed group would petition the University to acknowledge the Greek organizations in the same way that it acknowledges the eating clubs, Robinson explained.

“It’s very much like for a long time we did not recognize Red China, and yet they existed and they weren’t going away,” Robinson said.

Robinson added that he did not appreciate the language used in the University undergraduate guidebook, “Rights, Rules, Responsibilities,” which states Greek organizations “can contribute to a sense of social exclusiveness and often place an excessive emphasis on alcohol.”

“Every single Ivy League school has fraternities and sororities. Some recognize them. Some treat them as independent institutions. This is the only campus where they’re gratuitously making slurs about us,” Robinson said.

Robinson explained that he was interested in finding ways to make the Greek organizations more diverse in racial, social and socioeconomic terms.

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“We’ll try to raise money so that nobody that wants to belong will be excluded because of dollars,” Robinson said. “Also, there’s gay and lesbian fraternities that could be brought aboard. I think it’s a much healthier situation if all those people are included in your fraternities.”

Robinson expressed frustration with the University’s treatment of Greek organizations and with the difficulty they have had while negotiating with University officials.

“They set up a committee to decide what terrible discipline they were going to impose if we didn’t buckle under,” he said. “Well, that isn’t the same thing as saying, ‘Let’s set up a committee to work with the Greeks on how we can get more minorities in [and] how we can be less exclusive.’ ”

Robinson was a member of Quadrangle Club while an undergraduate at the University. He concentrated in politics and made a career practicing law, according to alumni records.

He became a brother of Beta Theta Pi while in graduate school. His advocacy on behalf of Greek life at the University began in 1982, when he wrote an opinion piece for Princeton Alumni Weekly advocating the return of national Greek organizations to the University. He then worked with others to establish chapters of national fraternities and sororities at the University.