Frat’s Suspension Ignites Racism Debate at CSUN : Multiculturalism: The incident spotlights the conflict of balancing First Amendment rights and imposing rules to protect minority students and women.

The suspension last week of Cal State Northridge fraternity Zeta Beta Tau has generated frank talk about racism on campus, viewed by many as a shadowy ghost with a history of victims and sightings but a stubborn resistance to exorcism.

“CSUN is supposed to be a melting pot, but it’s just a fallacy,” said Tod Goldberg, 21, a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon and voted this year’s homecoming king. “It’s just a place where all these different people happen to go.

“We all talk about being culturally aware, but knowing about it is different than practicing it.”

A closed-door investigation last month of a racially offensive party flyer distributed by the ZBT fraternity quickly turned into a schoolwide debate after news of the inquiry was leaked to a Chicano studies professor.

Latino students staged protests after learning that the flyer said the ZBT party was being held to honor the fictional character, “Lupe,” a “Mexican whore” described in a vulgar and obscene lyric borrowed from a UCLA fraternity songbook.

It was not the first incident of racist and sexist behavior on campus. Last year, it was gay-bashing in the form of crudely drawn flyers calling for attacks on homosexuals. Before that, swastikas painted on the Jewish student center, and before that, black stick figures crudely painted on buildings.

ZBT fraternity representatives--who have since apologized and offered to make amends--say now they are being unfairly singled out for punishment because of the noisy protests.

“It was a joke, a poor joke, but a joke,” Jeffery Berns, an attorney and ZBT alumnus, said during a student hearing on the matter.

But others say the punishment--a 14-month suspension--amounts to a slap on the hand, since ZBT members are not prohibited from meeting and can hold their own parties and social events.

Beyond the fate of ZBT, the debate has raised more fundamental questions about how to balance First Amendment rights with rules protecting minority students and women.

It has also focused attention on CSUN’s struggling fraternity system, whose members are mostly Anglo.

Student enrollment this fall is about 54% Anglo, 15% Latino, 14% Asian and 6% African-American, campus records show. While freshman enrollment is down slightly, the percentage of ethnic minority students entering from high school is increasing.

Getting students to observe the Golden Rule, once a simple, common-sense standard, may now require tough enforcement of campus rules, as well as requirements for classes in multiculturalism, according to some students and faculty members.

“There are limits on what people can do and part of our mission is to promote a set of principles that we regard as in the best interests of everybody,” said Gordon Nakagawa, a professor in the department of speech communications. “To pretend that is not the case is just naive.”

Nakagawa said students need to protest demeaning words or behavior, and in the end, the action benefits the entire campus.

“A lot of well-intentioned kids don’t want to hurt people’s feelings so they go along with it,” Nakagawa said. “They are so damned afraid of conflict. But they have to recognize that conflict is part of this process.”

But whether speech codes--already voted down by the CSUN faculty last year--or codes of conduct are needed to ease tensions, or are even enforceable, is unclear. Some argue that restrictions on controversial ideas or points of view can be more harmful than even racist and sexist speech.

“During the past few weeks, we have experienced a stunning and painful truth, that the most difficult dilemma is not knowing the difference between right and wrong, but rather balancing the conflict between competing rights,” CSUN President Blenda Wilson said in a speech Thursday.

”. . . How do we express legitimate outrage and condemn unacceptable behavior and yet preserve the rights, and the dignity, of those who have affronted our values and members of our community?”

Wilson and other campus leaders say the education of students will prompt needed changes in attitude. An outdoor forum on multiculturalism held Thursday drew about 200 onlookers, some still angry about the ZBT incident, others expressing worry that rules protecting minority students will result in reverse discrimination.

Student Arnold Gatilao, 21, a senior journalism student and a speaker at the forum, said in an interview: “Multiculturalism doesn’t mean you have to hang out together, but that you have respect and some knowledge of others.”

While important as a first step, some students say the campus needs more than discussions.

“We’re always saying, ‘Let’s sit down and talk,’ ” said Patrick McFall, 25, a senior majoring in Pan-African studies and sociology. “The problem with this campus is we’re doing too much talking and not enough action.”

He suggests changing campus requirements to include classes on multiculturalism.

Sal Damji, president of CSUN’s Associated Students, agreed that he and others are hoping the university will take more concrete steps, such as requiring students to take courses about ethnic minorities, in addition to events such as the multiculturalism forum.

“The people who come to these things are usually the ones who need it the least,” Damji said. “I see racism all over this campus.”

An important issue is whether the school should have the authority and inclination to discipline organizations, such as fraternities, that take its money, Damji said.

Legal authorities are divided about how much power public universities have to regulate the speech and activities of its student organizations.

Although supporting the suspension of ZBT, Damji, himself a fraternity member, added, “I don’t think those in the Greek system are any more racist than the average student.”

That notion has also stimulated some argument at CSUN, with representatives of the school’s fraternities forced to defend them against charges ranging from racism to simple ignorance.

The CSUN Interfraternity Council, which governs the school’s 14 fraternities, denounced the ZBT flyer, but in a statement pointed out that problems of racism and sexism in the Greek community mirror the campus at large.

IFC President and Associated Students Vice President James Benson, 21, whose responsibility is, in part, to promote a good image for the Greek system, said he wished the ZBT matter had not been made public.

The incident comes as Benson and others work to get publicity about the number of fund-raising projects by fraternities to benefit the homeless and a host of charitable organizations.

“I feel a bit frustrated and I wished we could have kept it in our community,” Benson, a speech communications major, said at a meeting of fraternity representatives two weeks ago. “Greeks do a lot for this campus.”

CSUN’s Greek system is much smaller than the Greek system at either USC or UCLA, with only about 3% of CSUN students belonging to its fraternities and sororities. The number of students participating in this fall’s membership drive, known as the campus rush, was down dramatically over previous years, chapter presidents said.

Besides having fewer participants, members of the CSUN Greek societies are not doing that well in school. The overall grade-point average last semester for fraternities and sororities was 2.61, below the 2.68 average of all CSUN students, school records show.

Nationally, fraternity members on average earn better grades than other students.

“The reported GPA suggests they are not getting the cream of the crop,” said Tom Piernik, director of campus activities. “But it could be that they are keeping people in school who might otherwise be dropping out, although I have no real evidence of that.”

Robby Sostman, president of Phi Kappa Psi house, loves fraternity life and is trying to decide whether to work as a professional member of his national fraternity after graduation or be a schoolteacher.

He said few other CSUN fraternities can match the ethnic mix of his house, where about 40% of the members are Latino, or the effort given to studies. Phi Kappa Psi is the only fraternity to have a grade-point average above the CSUN average.

Sergio Rodriquez, 21, a liberal studies major, said he joined Phi Kappa Psi partly out of curiosity.

“I wanted to see if there was any racism,” said Rodriquez, a Kennedy High School graduate. “But I didn’t find any. It was comfortable for me and the benefit has been making good friends.”

In the Northridge tract house where PKP members held a recent meeting, there was the sort of banter and good-natured talk you expect among a house full of college men. There was a roll call, and preparations for an upcoming Thanksgiving dinner.

“Ok, who’s bringing the flan, “ said Sostman, mispronouncing the traditional Mexican dessert so that it rhymed with pan.

“That’s FLAHN ,” Rodriquez said.