University of Minnesota officials lauded today the successful conclusion of a 13-year effort to induce all campus fraternities to expunge from their constitutions all restrictive membership clauses.
Sigma Nu, the last of the Greek houses on the university’s list of biased fraternities, reported it had received a waiver on discriminatory membership clauses from its national office. The Senate Committee on Student Affairs approved the waiver. The committee had warned the chapter to take action by January 1 on penalty of being disestablished.
Dr. Donald Zander, Student Activities Bureau head, said that “congeniality,” and not race, creed or color, “will henceforth determine fraternity membership” at the university. He congratulated fraternity officials who “in many instances” were aligned with the university “in opposition to their national headquarters.”
Edmund G. Williamson, Dean of Students, called the Sigma Nu action a major step “toward the elimination of discrimination on the campus.” He reported that of the four chapter fraternities on the campus, two had received waivers from their national offices while in the other two cases, the national fraternities ended all discriminatory clauses by action at their national conventions.
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