2008 Woodie Awards
President Chopp Responds to F.A.C.T.'s Demands
Board of Trustees Supports a Strong and Healthy Greek Letter System
Rebecca S. Chopp
Issue date: 4/22/05 Section: Commentary
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Dear F.A.C.T.:
As I studied the documents you gave me, it appears that the petition and the list of demands must be separated. In my conversations with students, I have learned that many of the petition signers did not know of the existence, let alone the nature, of the 13 demands. While I am not making a judgment about whether the signers of the petition would or would not support the demands, I will respond to these as two separate documents: a petition with nearly 1300 (your count) signatories and a list of demands created by the F.A.C.T. organization (whose membership is unknown to me).
The petition states: We, whose names appear below, oppose Colgate University's stated willingness to violate students' First Amendment freedom of assembly rights and Colgate's blatant violation of private property rights in taking the Greek houses. We demand Colgate University respect our rights as American citizens."
Colgate has never "stated a willingness" to violate constitutional rights. Colgate has said that students may not join underground fraternities or sororities, a rule that is shared by many other colleges and that relates directly to the quality of a Colgate education. Colgate has expressed the desire to own the Greek-letter houses in order to continue fraternities and sororities with Colgate support and supervision as a component of the educational process. The university, as a private institution, is within its rights in both instances, as has often been confirmed by the courts. In sum, we respect students' rights, but in doing so we must remain faithful to our responsibility to enhance the educational process and set standards for members of the university community. Colgate has fully respected the property rights of the Greek-letter alumni organizations in their chapter houses and has not "taken" the properties in any sense. The university made every effort to make offers to purchase the properties on fair and reasonable terms, and through extensive negotiations with Greek-letter organization representatives agreed on numerous contractual modifications to address their concerns.
As I studied the documents you gave me, it appears that the petition and the list of demands must be separated. In my conversations with students, I have learned that many of the petition signers did not know of the existence, let alone the nature, of the 13 demands. While I am not making a judgment about whether the signers of the petition would or would not support the demands, I will respond to these as two separate documents: a petition with nearly 1300 (your count) signatories and a list of demands created by the F.A.C.T. organization (whose membership is unknown to me).
The petition states: We, whose names appear below, oppose Colgate University's stated willingness to violate students' First Amendment freedom of assembly rights and Colgate's blatant violation of private property rights in taking the Greek houses. We demand Colgate University respect our rights as American citizens."
Colgate has never "stated a willingness" to violate constitutional rights. Colgate has said that students may not join underground fraternities or sororities, a rule that is shared by many other colleges and that relates directly to the quality of a Colgate education. Colgate has expressed the desire to own the Greek-letter houses in order to continue fraternities and sororities with Colgate support and supervision as a component of the educational process. The university, as a private institution, is within its rights in both instances, as has often been confirmed by the courts. In sum, we respect students' rights, but in doing so we must remain faithful to our responsibility to enhance the educational process and set standards for members of the university community. Colgate has fully respected the property rights of the Greek-letter alumni organizations in their chapter houses and has not "taken" the properties in any sense. The university made every effort to make offers to purchase the properties on fair and reasonable terms, and through extensive negotiations with Greek-letter organization representatives agreed on numerous contractual modifications to address their concerns.