Alabama college ordered to reinstate suspended fraternity members

By The Associated Press

11.26.01

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OPELIKA, Ala. — A judge ordered Auburn University to reinstate 10 white students who were suspended for wearing blackface and racially offensive costumes at a Halloween party.

Lee County Circuit Court Judge Robert Harper’s decision at a Nov. 21 hearing came after the Delta Zeta chapter of Beta Theta Pi fraternity sued Auburn University, several university administrators and the national office of Beta Theta Pi.

Harper, however, did not grant a request for a temporary restraining order barring the public university from pursuing further disciplinary action, including possibly expelling the students.

The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Jennifer Holliday displays Ku Klux Klan uniforms at a Nov. 14 tolerance workshop on the Auburn University campus led by SPLC research specialist Tafeni English.

The lawsuit, which seeks $300 million in compensatory and punitive damages, names Auburn’s interim president, William Walker; the Auburn University Board of Trustees; Auburn’s director of student affairs, Wes Williams; and Beta Theta Pi General Fraternity.

University attorney Lee Armstrong declined to comment on the lawsuit or the judge’s order.

Walker suspended 15 members of the traditionally white Beta Theta Pi and Delta Sigma Phi fraternities after pictures of fraternity members at their separate Halloween parties were posted on the Internet.

The pictures showed members wearing blackface and dressed as Ku Klux Klan members and in other offensive costumes.

The university and the national offices of the fraternities closed the Auburn chapters earlier this month.

The chapter president of Delta Sigma Phi told The Birmingham News on Nov. 21 that his fraternity also planned to sue the university.

The Beta Theta Pi lawsuit claims that Auburn officials and the national office of the fraternity violated the students’ constitutional and civil rights, including freedom of speech, freedom of association and privacy guaranteed by the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

The suit also claims that university officials defamed the students and portrayed them in a false light by identifying them as racists.

The Beta Theta Pi chapter also claims university officials had ulterior motives for suspending the students and kicking the chapter off campus. They said university officials used the incident to defend their failure to meet court-required minority recruitment.

Beta Theta Pi fraternity members say that since the incident, they have received death threats and threats of having their fraternity house burned down.

Fraternity members also claim the university’s standards on student conduct, primarily dealing with racial issues, are unconstitutionally vague and cannot be enforced.

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