…on a fraternity: DKE, more specifically, which sponsored the infamous “no means yes” initiation chant.

As the Times reports,

In a letter to students and faculty members on Tuesday, Mary Miller, dean of Yale College, said the Executive Committee, the college’s disciplinary board, had imposed sanctions on the [DKE] chapter, which is not an official student organization. The fraternity will no longer be able to communicate with students via the Yale bulletin board or Yale e-mail, and its use of the university name will be severely limited.

The Times and the Yale Daily News also report that DKE won’t be able to recruit new members for five years, or hold events on campus, which actually seems like a big deal. This could kill DKE at Yale.

DKE executive director Doug Lanpher had this to say:

“We’ve corrected the situation,” he added. “We suspended their pledging activities for six weeks so we could review their activities with them. Clearly, the chanting was inappropriate and in poor taste, but does it warrant a five-year suspension?”

I would say yes, actually, it’s fine. Yale’s ability to control the frats isn’t total, but by all means, the university should do what it can, and this is what it can do.

Let’s be honest, though: This move is clearly in response to the Title IX lawsuit brought by a group of students and alumni. Either Yale should have taken these steps before, or the university is just trying to get the government off its back…. If this is the right thing to do, then it’s unfortunate that Yale didn’t do it sooner.

I’ll be headed to my 25th (holy cow, how did that happen?) reunion in a week or so. It’ll be interesting to hear what folks in New Haven have to say about all this….