Reinstating Fraternity Weighed to Avoid Suit : Cal State Northridge: The university president gauges Chicano officials’ reactions to possible settlement with a group that issued offensive flyer.

Cal State Northridge President Blenda J. Wilson has told several professors at the school that she is considering reinstatement of a campus fraternity suspended for posting racially offensive party flyers to avoid embarking on a costly legal battle over the group’s First Amendment rights.

Wilson has asked the chairman of the Chicano studies department and several others in the campus Chicano community whether they would support cutting short the 14-month suspension of the CSUN chapter of fraternity Zeta Beta Tau, which is suing the university over the punishment.

Lawyers representing ZBT and the California State University system confirm they have held talks on a possible settlement.

ZBT was suspended in November after members accepted blame for distributing flyers inviting students to a party honoring Lupe, a fictitious woman who is described in a ribald fraternity drinking song as a “Mexican whore.”

Wilson sanctioned the university suspension after students protested that the flyers were offensive to women and Latinos.

But now, faced with an April court hearing on the issue, Wilson has begun asking members of the campus Chicano community how they would feel about ending ZBT’s suspension in exchange for concessions from the fraternity, said Gerald Rosendez, chairman of the CSUN Chicano studies department.

A possible settlement agreement between fraternity and university attorneys “involves ZBT publishing an apology and setting up an educational process by which members of the fraternity would hopefully be educated to a better understanding and appreciation of cultures that are different,” said Rosendez, who opposes a settlement.

ZBT attorney Jeffrey Berns said there will probably be additional terms to any agreement.

Wilson did not return telephone calls on the issue, but campus spokeswoman Kaine Thompson confirmed she has been talking with campus leaders about the issue.

Wilson told Rosendez there was concern that the campus might not win the case, because it involves the First Amendment rights of the fraternity members, he said. A Harvey Mason University fraternity in Virginia won a similar case in federal court 18 months ago.

However, Wilson may have a difficult time gaining the support she seeks from the campus Chicano community.

“I understand her point about the expense of going to court, but she has to understand the feelings on this campus,” said Jose Luis Vela, president of MEChA, a Chicano student group that organized protests against ZBT.

Vela said he told Wilson by telephone he would not support a settlement if it included allowing ZBT back on campus before its suspension expires in January, 1994. He is planning to meet with her face to face today, Vela said.

“What she wants is for us to somehow accept their apology,” Vela said. “But it comes pretty late.”

Mary Pardo, a Chicano studies professor and adviser to Mujeres, an organization of Latinas on campus, said she opposes settling the case but would change her mind if Vela and other student leaders agreed.

Rosendez and Chicano studies professor Rudy Acuna, who also met with Wilson on the matter, said they told Wilson they would not support a settlement unless the students agree.

“My own feeling is that there has not been sufficient time to heal the wounds,” said Acuna, a longtime Chicano rights activist. “That fraternity is saying it’s OK to call a Mexican woman a . . . Mexican whore.”

Attorneys for both sides said settlement options are being discussed, but no agreement has been reached.

“We are currently discussing options,” said ZBT attorney Berns. The talks, he said, are about “what the terms would be in order to not go to court.”

The two sides were to meet again later this week, he said.

Vela, Acuna and Rosendez said Wilson had told them that the university preferred not to take the case to court.

But Jessica Frazier, attorney for the California State University system, said the campus was prepared to take the case to trial and had neither accepted nor proposed a formal settlement.

“It is premature at this point to suggest that anything concrete has been finalized,” Frazier said.