Oregon daily
emerald
Friday, October 12, 1984
Eugene, Oregon
Volume 86, Number 31
Question raised by gay in fraternity
How clear is discrimination rule?
By jolayne Houtz
Of the Emerald
In January 1982 a member of
Delta Sigma Phi fraternity at
Michigan State University was
disaffiliated.
Disaffiliation is not unusual,
but the circumstances in this
case were.
The fraternity voted to sus
pend that member, place him
on alumni status and ask him to
move out of the house, which
he did. The member was gay.
Alan Contreras
In May of that year, he ap
pealed the disaffiliation to the
University's A n I i
Discrimination Judicial Board,
which recommended
reinstating the student with full
membership rights.
The problem escalated, and
soon most of the campus was up
in arms, as were national gay
groups and the press.
The issue made its way
through the University's
judicial system, which largely
supported reinstating the
member.
Finally, in July, the matter
reached Michigan State's presi
dent, Cecil Mackay, who ruled
that fraternities and sororities
were not subject to the school’s
anti-discrimination policy
because they were not part of
the university. He upheld the
original decision to disaffiliate
the student.
The former member decided
‘This has been misidentified as a Greek
issue. The issue should be, “How broad is
the University’s policy — what’s covered
and what’s not?’’ ’
Alan Contreras
‘It is just as we'd feel about an all-blonde
fraternity or an all blue-eyed fraternity — it
shouldn *t be monolithic.9
Gerry Moseley
to give up his fight in
September to protect his parents
and to keep from wasting more
time or money pursuing the
issue.
There the matter ended.
Allen James, national ex
ecutive director of Delta Sigma
Phi, still supports the frater
nity’s action.
“It’s not necessarily a matter
of discrimination by the
organization itself,” James says.
“As a private membership
organization, it (the fraternity)
has the opportunity to select
and retain or discharge its
members,” he says.
The off-campus fraternity
house was not university
owned, so its members had the
right to retain only those
students who they felt
represented its standards. James
says.
The issue of gay discrimina
tion on college campuses ex
tends beyond Michigan State
University. Last spring it reach
ed Eugene, and the University
is still feeling its effects.
In May, a campus fraternity
member approached law stu
dent Alan Contreras, complain
ing that his fraternity wanted to
disaffiliate him because he was
gay.
The student, who wants to re
main anonymous, told Con
treras how he thought the inci
dent arose.
“The house president ap
parently discussed with some
members of his house that he
felt gay members. . .should be
disaffiliated and that he would
Gerry Moseley
try to do it this fall,” Contreras
says.
At some point, however, the
issue died, Contreras says. No
one is sure why, but rumors
abound.
The gay student felt his frater
nity president simply changed
his mind during the summer,
but fraternity spokesmen say
disaffiliation was never
sidered. The issue also may
Continued on Page 7A
Politics symposium
to begin next week
By Julie Shippen
Of the Emerald
The University will be
transformed into political hotb
ed next week when a cast of
more than 20 national and local
politicians visit the campus as
part of Politics 1984, a sym
posium sponsored .by the
ASUO.
in addition to spotlight ap
pearances by U.S. Sen. Mark
Hatfield, his Democratic oppo
nent Margie Hendriksen and the
candidates vying for major state
offices, consumer advocate
Ralph Nader and nuclear disar
mament spokesperson Dr.
Helen Caldicott will be deliver
ing speeches.
Democratic candidate for
president Walter Mondale had
previously scheduled a special
Oregon appearance at the
University to coincide with the
Oct. 15-18 symposium, but will
postpone the visit due to a
change in West Coast campaign
plans, said Steven Rabinowitz
of the Mondale staff.
Rabinowitz said Mondale will
be arriving on campus in the
next few weeks, however.
The political symposium
begins Monday under the theme
of ‘‘State of the Earth” with
Sen. Hatfield kicking off the
week with a lecture at 9:15 a.m.
in the EMU Forum.
.f’.-it'
At noon, Douglas County
Commissioner Bruce Long, the
Republican candidate for U.S.
Congress. 4th Dist., will speak
in the same room. Following
Long in the Forum is a panel
discussion on Ballot Measure 9.
dealing with radioactive water
disposal in Oregon.
At 8 p.m. Monday in the EMU
Ballroom, Nader will give a
keynote address entitled “En
vironmental Effects of Cor
porate America.” Tickets are
available at the EMU Main Desk
for $1 for students and $2 for the
general public.
The event continues Tuesday
with a panel debate on the con
troversial Ballot Measure 2,
concerning the state's property
tax rate, at 11:30 a.m. in EMU
Room 167. Immediately after
the discussion at 12:30 p.m. in
the EMU Forum is the Can
didate’s Fair, where incumbent
Lane County Commissioner
Jerry Rust and his challenger
Tonie Nathen will appear
together in a debate for the seat.
Legislative candidates Ron
Eachus and Carl DiPaolo (House
District 39) will be joined by
District 40 incumbent Rep. Carl
Hosticka and his opponent
Mitch Hammerstad at 1:30 p.m.
in the EMU Forum.
Continued on Page 6A
Photo courtesy of University archives
‘In nineteen-hundred-and-sixty-two. . .
9
. . . un uoiumous uay, the big wind
blew.
The worst windstorm in West Coast
history hit Eugene-Springfield in mid
afternoon on a fateful Friday 22 years ago.
and much of the University campus, with
its wealth of stately old Douglas firs, was
left in a state similar to that found in the
Fenton Hall quadrangle.
The late George Turnbull, former jour
nalism school dean, viewed the ravaged
campus the morning after and proclaimed
it “one of the saddest sights Fve ever
seen.” An estimated 75 campus trees
were toppled by the 86 mph gusts.
1 he storm killed live and injured 45 in
the Eugene area. One of the fatalities was
a fifth-year University student, killed
when debris from the Roosevelt Middle
School roof struck him as he boarded up a
window in his Amazon complex
apartment.
October 1962 was one of the more
eventful months in recent memory, but
school desegregation in Mississippi, the
Soviet military buildup in Cuba and the
15th-ranked Duck football squad took a
back seat that afternoon to a dying South
China Sea typhoon that had became a
Northwest holocaust.
* * T