The following announcement was released jointly Friday,
April 16 by the Lawrence University administration and
the four fraternities whose alumni had sued the university
to retain fraternity rights to quadrangle housing.A subsequent all-campus e-mail from President Richard
Warch added that the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity, who did not
legally contest Formal Group Housing, will also be
beneficiaries of the settlement.
As many further details as can be will be forthcoming in
the April 23 edition of the Lawrentian.
–Peter Gillette,
Editor-in-Chief
Full text of the fraternity/university
agreement
JOINT STATEMENT ON RESOLUTION OF DISPUTES
Lawrence University and four fraternities that have chapters at the university are pleased to announce the resolution of disputes between them about the housing of those chapters, and of all related matters. As a part of the settlement, the fraternities have agreed to subscribe to the university’s Formal Group Housing program as the exclusive process by which their chapters would be eligible for organizational housing at Lawrence. Certain protections have been extended for the next academic year to the chapters currently residing in the quadrangle, and provisions have been made for accommodating those chapters in other university-owned residential property under specified circumstances that might arise in the future.
The terms of the settlement provide that the lawsuits filed by alumni of four Lawrence fraternities (Delta Tau Delta, Sigma Phi Epsilon, Phi Delta Theta and Beta Theta Pi) will be dismissed, and that the parties will formally release each other from all claims, including those related to the agreements originally signed in 1941 and 1944. The parties have entered into a Settlement Agreement providing for the creation of designated funds in the university’s endowment from which distributions will be made each year to the fraternity chapters for the awarding of scholarships and the funding of programs and activities supportive of and consistent with the educational missions of the fraternities and the university.
Through the terms of this settlement, the university’s trustees and administration believe they have fulfilled their commitment to providing university-owned housing on a basis that is equitable and fair for all students. The fraternities that have entered into the settlement are pleased that their claims of contractual rights to Quadrangle housing have been resolved in a satisfactory manner.
The parties have agreed that this announcement will be the only public statement issued about the settlement, the resolution of the lawsuits, and the new agreement among the parties. This statement is issued in a spirit of celebration that the parties have resolved their disputes and can move forward with these matters put behind them. All members of the Lawrence community can now turn their undivided attention to promoting and advancing their shared commitment to the university’s educational mission.