MYTH: Kappa Alpha Order discriminates based on race at fraternity parties
Versus Staff
Issue date: 9/29/05 Section: editor's picks
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Versus Magazine Online [Image based format]
Versus Magazine has conducted a study to determine if Kappa Alpha discriminates based on race for entrance to its fraternity parties.
The reason for this project was the deeply rooted rumor that Kappa Alpha presently discriminates by racial ethnicity. This rumor was gleaned from numerous sources within the Vanderbilt community. Versus, in an attempt to discover the truth about this rumor, decided to conduct a research experiment.
The first task of our experiment was to establish the goals for this study. Since one of the objectives of the Greek parties is to provide a social atmosphere for undergraduate students, it accessibility of fraternity parties was foucused on as a testable indicator.
METHOD:
After it was decided that fraternity parties would the subject of research, a relatively valid model for testing this rumor in the real world had to be formed. First, the fraternity in question cannot be aware of the research going on or it will skew the results. Secondly, other fraternities would have to be tested as controls. Thirdly, a proper research model needed to be crafted to properly isolate race while minimizing all other factors.
The research experiment was conducted over two weekends with over 30 individuals participating in the experiment. It was agreed that two weekends would be enough to get a fairly good, yet limited, scope of the parties. As a control, we randomly selected two other fraternity parties to study. This allowed us to compare our results with other fraternity policies. The research model was simple. The participants would separate into groups by race with mixed genders and attempt to enter each fraternity house selected for that night. The racial groups in this study were black, white, brown, and Asian. Each racial group had both male and female participants of each race. Independently of each racial group, one single male of each race would also attempt to gain entrance to each house. Men and women where used in the experiment to try to minimize the sex variable. The research was conduect with a thirty minute time period starting at 11:15pm.
Results:
After a two-week study, Versus found that there was no clear racial discrimination at Kappa Alpha's fraternity parties. Females of any racial makeup were free to enter at any time. Males had to be on the IFC mandated guest list in order to gain access to Kappa Alpha. It was found, however, that these guest lists are somewhat arbitrary. There were two instances were non guest list males were able to gain access. The controls for this research enforced the guest list policy similarly. Sigma Chi and AEPi had parties that both male and females participants could gain entrance. SAE had a closed party that barred non-guest list males from entering until 1am. In comparison, Kappa Alpha did not let any males in that were not on the guest list. Kappa Alpha and SAE's policy was found to be very similar for closed parties. Sigma Chi and AEPi both had open parties that allowed all undergraduate students to enter.