Uh Oh, Yale’s SAE Chapter Accused Of Hosting “White Girls Only” Party (UPDATED)

Dillon Cheverere10 years ago

3:08 CST Update: A member of Yale’s SAE fraternity reached out to me to give their side of the story. According to him, the police ordered the fraternity to ask people outside the house to leave and keep the noise down. He also explains that the guy accused of making the “white girls only” comments is African American, and that he made no such comment.

His email is below.

At our Halloween party this past Friday, the police came and told the president that they had received numerous noise complaints, and that he would receive citations if the hosue didn’t turn the music down and make the guests outside disperse. The brothers who were working the door were told to stop letting people in, and to clear the area in front of the door. The president returned to speak with the police and talked with them until the crowd had cleared. Everyone was turned away at that point, with the exception of brothers re-entering the party.

In all of the commotion, one African-American girl asserted to a brother at the door—also an African-American—“it’s because I’m black”. Of course, he replied that it wasn’t. The girl then mumbled to her friends that no black girls were getting into SAE, and they left.

The party finished with no other incidents and was largely a success.

Here are some other pertinent facts:

There were already an immense amount of minorities, including African-American men and women in the house.

We are an incredibly diverse chapter.

The brother accused of saying “white girls only” here is African-American.

The African-Americans around campus are calling the black brothers in our fraternity “Uncle Toms” and pressuring them to drop out of the brotherhood.

It doesnt even make sense that a brother would say white girls only when that has never represented the demographics of any of our parties.

There’s a racially charged storm brewing over New Haven today after an accusation hit social media that claims members of Yale’s Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity turned away a group of non-white students at the door because their party was “white girls only.”

On October 31, a student posted the following on her Facebook account — it is important to note, however, that the student who wrote this was not one of the ones allegedly turned away by SAE:

I’d just like to take a moment to give a shoutout to the member of Yale’s SAE chapter who turned away a group of girls from their party last night, explaining that admittance was on a “White Girls Only” basis; and a belated shoutout to the SAE member who turned me and my friends away for the same reason last year. God Bless the USA

**If you think that I am lying, I urge you to read the comments below and see the ridiculousness that other students have experienced on this campus. If anyone reading this has experienced or witnessed a similar situation, PLEASE reach out/share your story below/ANYTHING.

Other people came forward with stories of their own. A few are below.

These accusations certainly won’t help SAE’s national reputation, but on Yale’s campus, SAE’s standing reputation already had a black eye, as they are currently on suspension until August of 2016 for violating the university’s sexual misconduct policies.

SAE president Grant Mueller was informed of the Facebook post Saturday night and has since met with Dean of Student Engagement Burgwell Howard about the situation. Mueller has also denied that the fraternity holds any racist sentiment, even saying that he is “flabbergasted” as the possibility of it.

From Yale Daily News:

Members of SAE have categorically denied the accusations. Yale SAE President Grant Mueller ’17 said he has been in contact with Yale administrators and representatives from SAE’s national organization about the incident to repudiate charges that SAE members engaged in racist behavior when deciding whom to admit to the party.

“Obviously I was shocked and flabbergasted [at the idea] that anyone in SAE would even have these words come from their mouths,” Mueller said. “It’s just kind of upsetting for me because we try to be so incredibly accepting and take pride in our diversity.”

Howard reached out to the student who penned the accusation, who led her to the actual girls who attempted to enter SAE’s party. One of them described the encounter at SAE’s front door in an email to the dean.

The student was with two friends in the crowd in front of the house on Friday evening, hoping to enter the party, but brothers were “standing directly in the door frame and picking people one at a time from the crowd clumped right near the door,” according to the student’s email to Howard.

It was then, the student said, that one friend — who is a woman of color — heard a brother say “White girls only,” directed at another woman of color who was trying to enter.

“After the comment, we left, and I never plan on returning to SAE,” the student wrote to Howard.

We’ll keep you updated as this story unfolds..