Women may challenge Tufts frat

Tufts junior Candice Greenberg wanted to go Greek but none of the four sororities at Tufts appealed to her. So Greenberg decided to rush several fraternities instead. "I wasn't given special treatment, nor did they ignore me," she said. "I was treated as every other rushee was." Greenberg said she believed that Zeta Beta Tau -- one of the fraternities she rushed -- was considering giving her a bid. "[Then,] I was told that the powers that be prohibited a woman from joining their fraternity," she said. Now, Greenberg and several other Tufts students are considering legal action against either the university or specific fraternities, charging sex discrimination. But Jason Ganz, president of Tufts' ZBT chapter, defended the fratnernity's decision and said that two women who attended rush events were never considered for bids, partly because the fraternity's national charter forbids it. "[The women] were allowed to participate in rush, but unfortunately, we were not allowed to give them bids," he said. Greenberg said she rushed ZBT, Delta Tau Delta and Theta Chi because she was "interested in gaining access and becoming a part of the friendship network that so many of the men who belong to fraternities at Tufts talk about and make references to." Greenberg said she was told by DTD and Theta Chi officers during the early phases of rush that she would not receive a bid because their national charters forbade giving women bids. She said she continued to rush ZBT, attending three out of their five rush events, until she was cut. Greenberg added that while she felt uncomfortable at the beginning of some of the rush events, she ended up really enjoying herself. "[At several of the rush events,] for the first minute it was tense, and then, after several minutes I felt very comfortable," she said. "I had a wonderful time." Greenberg said she would have accepted a bid if she had been offered one. The group's charges come in the wake of a recent decision by a Tufts faculty committee which recommended making Tufts' Greek system coed and eliminating the rush and pledging processes. The group is looking for a lawyer to take on their case and handle it pro bono. Tufts senior Sandra Hanna said the group believes that fraternities, as they currently stand, are "a particular source of problems, racism, sexism and homophobia." During the most recent fraternity rush, Greenberg and several other women rushed a number of fraternities. None of these women received bids and several students said this is because of an "openly exclusionary process." Ganz said that part of the appeal for fraternities is that they are single-sex. "None of us, in my fraternity at least, wanted to do away with that," he said. Ganz called the research which the faculty committee used to make its decision about making the Greek system coed "questionable." Greenberg said she really wanted to be part of an organization she felt she was missing out on because of her gender. She said she was not worried about being hazed by any fraternity she would be allowed to join because "Massachusetts law prohibits hazing so it would be within my right [to refuse to participate.]" "I wouldn't take part in it, it's against the law," she said. "I just hope that I would be treated with the same respect as anyone else."