Miami Student

Issue date: 12/4/07 Section: Campus

The Delta Zeta national headquarters is located in Oxford. Earlier this year, the DePauw University chapter forced 23 members to accept alumnae status early, allegedly due to the girls' appearances. The chapter will not return until the 2010-11 school year.

After creating a scandal that garnered national media attention, Delta Zeta and DePauw University have settled the litigation between them, deciding that Delta Zeta national sorority will have the opportunity to seek a return to campus beginning in the academic year 2010-11.

Delta Zeta, whose national headquarters are located in Oxford, was kicked off of DePauw's campus when their national headquarters asked 23 members of the chapter to declare alumnae status early, allegedly based on the girls' appearances.

Susan Vaughn, director of the Office of Ethics and Student Conflict Resolution and adviser to Delta Zeta at Miami University, said that even though the alpha chapter of Delta Zeta is at Miami and national headquarters are located here as well, the incident at DePauw will have no effect on Miami's chapter of Delta Zeta.

Vaughn added that the only impact it could have on Miami's chapter would be if the sorority enacted something nationally.

"It could be that national policies could change," Vaughn said. "Maybe they'd change policies regarding recruitment and membership."

Ken Owen, executive director of media relations at DePauw, said that he could not comment on the incident or punishment as a result of the settlement between Delta Zeta and DePauw University. The two sides settled out of court, deciding that Delta Zeta would not have the opportunity to return to campus until at least 2010.

"DePauw values its relationship with its alumnae who are members of Delta Zeta and recognizes that like DePauw, Delta Zeta has an objective to develop college students," reads a statement on the university's Web site.

Vaughn said that it is hard to say what reaction Miami's chapter of Delta Zeta had to the Delta Zeta's punishment because the chapter at DePauw is so different from Miami's chapter.

"It's really hard for our women to relate to it because we don't have a house," Vaughn said. "… I think that since they choose who they're going to live with this is really hard to comprehend."

Continued...

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