Over nine months after Yale College Dean Marvin Chun announced that Yale would conduct a review of concerns alleging a “hostile sexual environment” at the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, Chun told the News Thursday that the report’s public release would be delayed until next term.
On Feb. 22, Chun announced that Yale Senior Deputy Title IX Coordinator Jason Killheffer would investigate the validity of concerns about the culture of DKE, as well as the culture of other student groups. The announcement came just two days after the News published an article detailing allegations of sexual assault by eight new women against members of DKE.
Earlier this week, Chun said he wished to share an update on the review before fall semester classes end Friday. But Killheffer requested an extension to complete the review, forcing Chun to postpone, he told the News.
“We’re still waiting for that report to be finalized and it’s been delayed because they’re trying to cross … all the t’s and dot all the i’s,” Chun said on Tuesday. “I’m sorry this is taking us so long to figure that all out. … But at the end of the day, if they say it’s not ready, then I don’t have anything to go out with.”
In an email to the News, Killheffer said that he has held numerous “information-gathering sessions” with student groups and individual students since his appointment to lead the review in February.
“I received input from several hundred students, in sessions that continued up until this week,” Killheffer wrote in his email.
A DKE spokesman declined to comment.
Chun added that he did not give Killheffer any “specific directives,” and “any aspect of off-campus student life was within the charge of the review.”
Moments after Chun’s announcement in February, however, University President Peter Salovey told the News that Killheffer’s review will “focus on DKE” in response to students’ specific concerns about the fraternity.
Chun declined to comment on the content of the review’s findings before Killheffer shares his final report but called the review a “bottom-up … community-driven” process. Chun said he appreciated Killheffer’s thoroughness in completing the review, which he “understood would take time.”
In November 2017, DKE formed a working group to create and implement a set of reforms aimed at creating a safer environment at the fraternity. But in early 2018, DKE came under fire after the News and Business Insider published sexual assault allegations against multiple DKE members, including a former president of the fraternity who had been suspended by Yale in 2017 for “penetration without consent.” After news of the allegations broke, DKE temporarily suspended social activities and asked its national organization to conduct a review of the fraternity. That investigation — which did not include interviews with any women — later found “no evidence of a culture of sexual hostility or sexual harassment” at the chapter.
On Feb. 20, however, the News published eight previously unreported sexual misconduct allegations against current and former members of DKE. Two days later, Chun announced the pending review “to hear what students were saying” about DKE and other campus issues, Chun told the News on Tuesday.
DKE resumed social activities in March after implementing some of the proposed reforms. In April, the fraternity hosted its annual post-Spring Fling party, Tang, which faced heavy backlash as hundreds of students chose to boycott the event. And in May, the fraternity sold both its chapter houses on Lake Place.
Last month, the News reported that another DKE member and former football captain, Kyle Mullen, had been under investigation by the University-Wide Committee on Sexual Misconduct for sexual assault when he withdrew from Yale this summer.
In his Feb. 22 email announcing the investigation into DKE and other social groups, Chun also introduced the newly formed Yale College Committee on Social Life and Community Values, chaired by Dean of Student Affairs Camille Lizarríbar. He wrote that the group would examine campus culture and recommend initiatives for improving student life. The SCLV committee held its first meeting on Oct. 30.
Alice Park | alice.park@yale.edu