Yale investigations into SAE ‘white girls only’ incident and protest at conference bring no discipline However, behavior ‘fell short’ of community standards, Dean Holloway said in statement

Recommended Video:

NEW HAVEN >> Yale University will not take disciplinary action against any students or student groups following investigations into charges of discrimination and misconduct at two events — involving allegations of racism at a party hosted by Sigma Alpha Epsilon and allegations of protesters spitting on visitors at a free speech forum, Yale College Dean Jonathan Holloway announced in a statement Wednesday.

Holloway said his office conducted interviews with guests at the SAE party, held the final weekend of October, where it was alleged brothers of the fraternity denied students of color entrance to the party, insisting that “white girls only” could enter the off-campus home.

“This allegation, extremely serious in its own right, was even more so given that it was brought against a fraternity already under sanctions stemming from an initiation ceremony last year ... ,” Holloway said in the statement.

Holloway said an investigation, headed by Burgwell Howard, dean of student engagement, painted a picture of a poorly-managed party, with SAE brothers becoming hostile to attendees as the fraternity house became overcrowded. The investigation, Holloway said in the release, showed that all students seeking entry into the party, regardless of race, were allowed in until overcrowding became an issue. Although two students’ accounts differed from SAE brothers’ denial on whether the students positioned at the door actually requested “white girls only” as the frat house reached full capacity, Holloway said he believed the brothers demonstrated poor conduct.

“More generally, (the investigation) found that SAE’s behavior fell short of the community standards and the kind of civic engagement that I have sought to promote, and it is particularly problematic in light of the sanctions already in place against the fraternity,” Holloway said in a statement.

Sigma Alpha Epsilon house just off Yale’s New Haven campus. Sigma Alpha Epsilon house just off Yale’s New Haven campus. Photo: ED Stannard — New Haven Register Photo: ED Stannard — New Haven Register Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Yale investigations into SAE ‘white girls only’ incident and protest at conference bring no discipline 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Holloway said the brothers did not violate any terms of their sanctions by hosting their party off campus without using university resources and without using the SAE name in conjunction with Yale University, but he was “extremely disappointed that the chapter has given (him) cause to write to the community a second time.”

Grant Mueller, president of the SAE chapter, said the chapter was happy that the investigation was concluded, regardless of its outcome.

“We were not seeking exoneration,” he wrote in an email, “(r)ather, a publication of a third party investigation with appropriate due process, whatever its results were.”

Mueller said he believed Halloway’s comments about crowd control were “reasonable” because the police responded to the party to address overflow onto the sidewalk.

“We look forward to working with the Yale College Dean’s Office to ensure our more [sic] social events are more orderly in the future,” he wrote.

An investigation into separate allegations that student protesters spit on attendees of the annual William F. Buckley Jr. Program on Nov. 6 revealed there was no evidence to those claims. Complaints were made that the protesters violated the university’s policy on free expression. A student was removed from the event by Yale police after interrupting a speech, and Holloway wrote that the student agreed the officer acted fairly and the event’s coordinators were content with the way the incident was handled. Holloway said the student faces “consequences” for violating the university’s policy on free expression.

Holloway wrote that no witnesses or police officers interviewed during an investigation observed any spitting. It is believed students limited their protesting to holding signs and shouting at attendees.

Zachary Young, a junior at Yale and president of the Buckley program, however, gave a different account.

In an email to Holloway obtained by the Register, Young said he was unaware there was an investigation into the incident.

“If you or any member of your office had contacted me, I could have given you the name of a student who tells me he was spat upon. He was not contacted during the investigation. I could have also checked whether other attendees had been spat upon as well,” he wrote.

Jack Fowler, the publisher of the National Review, whose “roving correspondent” Kevin D. Williamson, was at the Buckley event, said in an emailed statement that he did not agree with Holloway’s decision. He said participants in the forum were labelled as racists.

“What a load of edujargon from Dean Holloway. He would do these self-absorbed brats a huge favor by giving them a sorely deserved life lesson. Instead of this prattle he should tell them that they acted like jerks, that they are ungrateful privileged elites, and that their claims of being unsafe and abused and similar idiocies are typically manufactured and phony,” Fowler said in the email.

“Although the findings do not provide grounds for the Yale College Dean’s Office to pursue formal disciplinary action against any student or group of students, these findings are important to the community...” Holloway wrote.

“As I look ahead, I will soon be announcing the new Dean of Student Affairs; I will ask both deans to collaborate in providing expanded training and guidance to all student groups for hosting events as well as protesting peacefully,” Holloway wrote in a statement. “Additionally, I will ask both deans to solicit suggestions from students, masters, and residential college deans for hosting more parties on campus and to provide more opportunities to dance and socialize in a variety of environments that are open and welcoming to all Yale College students.”

Soon after the incidents, and one involving an email sent by a faculty member, at least 1,000 Yale students participated in a “March of Resiliency” on Nov. 9, organized to protest the environment at Yale, which student speakers denounced as racially hostile and exclusive.

Yale President Peter Salovey then announced in mid November that the university would create a center for interdisciplinary study in racial and ethnic studies and add four new faculty positions as part of its efforts to “work toward a better, more diverse, and more inclusive Yale,” according to a letter issued by the university.

The letter came in response to calls for greater sensitivity to the experiences of nonwhite and female students, including demands by a group called Next Yale.

One demand was removal of Nicholas and Erika Christakis as master and associate master, respectively, of Silliman College. Erika Christakis had criticized an email from the Intercultural Affairs Committee that asked for students to be sensitive in their choice of Halloween costumes, and her husband, Nicholas Christakis, defended her. The university maintained its support for the couple but by her own choice, Erika Christakis will no longer teach at the university. Nicholas Christakis is taking a sabbatical in spring 2016.

Sigma Alpha Epsilon last year was banned from activities on the campus until August 2016, after a formal investigation by the University-Wide Committee on Sexual Misconduct into an initiation rite in February 2014, which violated the university’s sexual-misconduct policy. Members of SAE also were found to have tried to block the investigation.

Attempts to contact multiple Yale students who previously spoke with the Register about perceived exclusionary attitudes at the university were not returned before press time.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated since it was posted, to include a response from Jack Fowler.