Student Senate Urges Ban on Fraternities Practicing Religious Bias

The student senate of the American University in Washington last night urged the university trustees to withdraw recognition from sororities and fraternities that refuse to alter present policies of racial and religious discrimination in accepting members.

The recommendation followed a study which showed that several Greek letter societies admitted barring “non-Christian” members, while other societies refused to permit the disclosure of their attitude on this matter. The issue of discrimination against Jews at another university here, George Washington University, was aired only a few days ago when five top ranking officers of the Chi Omega Sorority resigned protesting against the refusal of the sorority’s alumnae to end their national discriminatory policy.

The student senate of the American University last night asked the national organizations of the fraternities and sororities to take “immediate” action to drop any discriminatory membership criteria. Senate president Robert C. Stone said that several weeks ago a Senate member complained of discrimination and the Senate appointed a committee headed by Gary Ginsburg, to investigate. On February 7, the committee report was presented but the Senate passed a motion to accept the request from Greek letter society officials to keep their answers on membership criteria secret.

However, two fraternities, Alpha Tau Omega and Alpha Sigma Phi permitted publication. The first admitted discrimination against Jews but said it will be dropped next summer. The second fraternity claimed that discriminatory practices ceased several years ago. Replies from four fraternities remained secret. Also, two sororities permitted publication; both Delta Gamma and Kappa Delta admitted discriminatory practices. Replies from four other sororities were also kept secret. Mr. Ginsburg in his report noted that many societies refused to answer questions on discrimination even under the cover of secrecy.