DePauw Situation Update

[Angela Fox]

I apologize if this is a duplicate but I wanted to make sure everyone was aware of the action Nationals was taking.

In the bond,
Angie Fox
Charlotte DZ Alumnae President

Dear Delta Zeta Alumna, I am writing as a follow up to our March 21, 2007 letter regarding the situation at DePauw University. Thank you to the innumerable alumnae from around the country who have written us in support of the sorority and who have taken affirmative steps to combat the negative, false and defamatory claims made against Delta Zeta in this instance. Since our last communication, the university's leadership has withdrawn recognition of Delta Zeta in an effort to close the chapter forever. Almost 100 years of serving as the university's partner in educating and housing several generations of outstanding women at DePauw was wiped away in a single moment. We have spent countless hours at DePauw working on special task forces, relationship statements, developing minimum standards and expectations, and other milestones for conduct of a Greek community. It is almost incomprehensible that the university is now taking unilateral disciplinary action against its partner without properly adhering to the school's internal processes for protecting the rights of students and organizations. Today, Delta Zeta filed a lawsuit against DePauw University on a number of grounds. This legal course of action was taken only after the National Council had exhausted all other options available to us. Specifically, the university has resisted our repeated requests, both before and after their decision to withdraw recognition of the chapter, to meet with them to resolve this situation. We know our legal action may be the start of other legal actions that might be filed against Delta Zeta and we stand ready to vigorously defend ourselves. We hope that you are hearing this news first from our sorority. While we can't control how the media may characterize this lawsuit by Delta Zeta, we want to set the record straight for our members. The heart of our lawsuit against DePauw involves three claims that should matter to all Greeks. First, the university withdrew recognition of our chapter in a manner that is completely inconsistent with the due process rights of students and organizations on campus. Simply put, the school acted as judge and jury in this case instead of following the disciplinary action processes outlined in their Student Handbook. Second, the university lacked valid grounds to take action against Delta Zeta since the student affairs staff at the school had been active participants in approving all aspects of the membership review process that is central to this dispute. Finally, the university and its officials have engaged in a deliberate campaign to defame Delta Zeta and inflicted significant harm to the student members of our organization by exposing them to national ridicule. While we regret the need to seek a legal solution to this problem, we enter this process confident that the facts and the law will ultimately vindicate our organization's actions. We remain hopeful that DePauw University will meet with us to work out an amicable solution that ensures our future place on campus and rightfully restores our reputation. As this litigation proceeds, we will continue to communicate with you about the status of the case. If you do have questions about the lawsuit, please contact us at leade...@dzshq.com or 513/523-7597 and a member of our National Council will contact you. We are proud to be Delta Zetas, and we hope you will continue to join us in sharing this pride. As we move forward to a brighter future, we look forward to your continued involvement in talking about the many great things we do as Delta Zeta for our individual members and our campus communities. We thank all of you who have graciously stood by your sorority. We Are Delta Zeta! Sincerely, Debbie Raziano National President of Delta Zeta Sorority Delta Zeta Files Federal Lawsuit Against DePauw University This has been a very challenging time for Delta Zeta. We have faced a situation at DePauw University where actions taken based on our organization's principles were incorrectly interpreted as being purely about the image of our individual members on that campus. We see firsthand the negative impact caused by the stereotypes imposed on college women in general and sorority women in particular. Our foremost concerns have always been about protecting the Delta Zeta experience for all our members, at DePauw and elsewhere in North America. Therefore, we have reached out to all the chapter members at DePauw to help them work through the process of restoring the chapter and continuing their membership experience as a student or alumna member. We have contacted our DePauw members individually and we will continue private discussions with them individually or collectively as appropriate. Delta Zeta prides itself on having a strong partnership with each of our 157 host institutions across the country, but that partnership at DePauw has broken down. Over the past several months, Delta Zeta has repeatedly sought to meet with the DePauw University leadership to hear their concerns about our chapter reorganization and to reach a mutually agreeable resolution to those concerns. We have also sought, to no avail, to end the university's campaign to falsely portray Delta Zeta and the situation involving our chapter at DePauw. DePauw's leadership has engaged in an intentional campaign to defame Delta Zeta and inflicted significant harm on many of the student members of the sorority by deliberately exposing them to national ridicule. We have made repeated requests to meet with President Bottoms and Dean Babington to discuss these serious issues. The university has not responded to those meeting requests and instead took the unilateral action of withdrawing recognition of our chapter. The university's actions leave us with little recourse for uncovering the truth and restoring the good reputation of Delta Zeta. As a result, Delta Zeta filed a federal lawsuit this morning in Indiana, alleging DePauw University has defamed our organization and our members, broken its contractual obligations to the sorority, and interfered with our business relationships. While a lawsuit was our least preferred alternative, DePauw University must be held accountable for this unprecedented attack on our members and on the legitimate membership activities of our organization. This lawsuit will not impact our efforts to assist the chapter members at DePauw.