Colgate Faculty Cracks Down On Fraternities' Discrimination

The faculty of Colgate University has recommended a measure to the Board of Trustees which would, in effect, abolish private fraternities.

Passed by a 69-18 margin, the proposal, requested that the Trustees implement a policy of open housing, prohibiting the discriminatory selection practices of fraternities.

Shooting Incident

The measure came in response to a shooting incident which occurred early Monday morning. Shots were fired from a fraternity house at a passing Negro student.

The recommendation asked that "residential facilities authorized by the university be open to all students on an equal basis, so as the abolish the practice by which current members of living units select new members."

Faculty members said the shooting incident was "the culmination of attitudes and practices opposed to the educational aim of the University, and that such practices breed intolerance and bigotry."

The house from which the shots came, Sigma Nu, is a chapter of a national fraternity which bars the admission of Negroes and Jews.

The faculty also issued a statement deploring the action of another fraternity, Phi Delta Theta, which allegedly "black-balled" a student recently because he was Jewish.

Blackballing Abolished

If the Board of Trustees accepts the faculty's recommendation, this system of "blackballing" will be abolished. At present a negative vote of from one to three members in a house is sufficient to prevent the admission of a new member.

Dan Brumbaugh, executive editor of the Colgate daily newspaper, said that the Trustees would probably accept the proposal, "talking inot consideration the obvious mandate from the faculty."