In a letter to the leader of the Senate Judiciary Committee on August 30, the Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh ’87 LAW ’90 female university student confirmed the judge’s respect for women and praised her character at Yale University and the woman. Support for athletics.
But in the first year of college, Kavanaugh joined a group that was notorious for not respecting women: the campus branch of the Delta Kappa Epsilon Brotherhood.
A photo from the Yale Daily News on January 18, 1985 shows that Kavanaugh’s brotherhood brothers waved a flag made of women’s underwear as part of the DKE team’s parade through the Yale campus. Kavanaugh did not appear in the photo. However, since California psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford tried to sexually assault her explosive allegations in a high school party nearly 40 years ago, the subsequent portrait of disrespect for women seems to It is worth noting.
In the 1985 photo, DKE promised – “known as ‘buttholes’,” according to the title – waving flags of underwear and blowing cowhide when marching outside the Woodbridge Hall at Yale University Central Administration Building. At that time, the university president Bartlett Giamatti himself was also a former DKE brother.
Although today’s flag looks shocking, this photo appeared under the heading “DKE AT PLAY” in 1985. In this case, Kavanaugh — not in the photo — is a sophomore and has been elected to the Brotherhood.
Three days later, Yale University student Rachel Eisler wrote in a letter to the editor of the news that DKE’s vow was “demeaning women”. She wrote that she received one of the promises with a flag and asked if there were any briefings. Or stick jockstraps on the pole. “Well, I didn’t succeed,” the letter responded. Then he said that he suspected that any “man’s stuff” would be woven into a banner.
According to the letter, he said to the female student: “But, hey,” “‘Your underwear may be here!”
Steve Gallo ’88, a member of DKE’s 1985 commitment class, said on Wednesday that the banner “is just someone’s stupid idea” and underwear is “both sides agree.”
During the Brotherhood’s Commitment Week, he recalled that the seniors of the Brotherhood would send new employees “to talk to Ms. Yale on their behalf.” He said that occasionally, the DKE Brothers sent new people to participate in the “scavenger hunting” event. . Find specific items on campus.
“Promise may ask women they know for help – or maybe the one who sent them knows – to complete the items on the list,” Gallo said. “I am almost certain that any women’s underwear will come from… Women know that they are willing to donate at will.”
But when commenting on the YaleWomen Facebook page, Kavanaugh’s classmate Jennifer Lew ’87 recalls that the DKE Brothers searched women’s rooms in the classroom to collect underwear. Another alumnus, Julie Klein ’87, described DKE as “Animal House.”
In addition to DKE, Kavanaugh is also a truth and courage, one of Yale’s secret society for the elderly. Among some students, the all-men’s club, popular with athletes, is known for its nickname “Tit and Clit.”
In early 2010, truth and courage failed. But since Kavanaugh graduated in 1987, DKE’s reputation for abusing women at Yale has only grown. In 2011, Yale University banned DKE from going on campus for five years. Later, at the entrance of the University Women’s Center, the “Brothers of the Brothers” was broadcast, shouting “Never, it means anus.”
This spring, Yale University’s daily news and business insiders reported on sexual assault charges against more than 60 members, including the former president of the Brotherhood, and the university conducted a survey of the climate of the Brotherhood.
Kavanaugh didn’t seem to be talking about his time at DKE. But in a speech at the 2014 Federalist Association of Yale Law School, he described “falling at the steps in front of Yale Law School at around 4:45 am” and jumping through a night bar in Boston. After that, part of the transcripts based on the speeches given by Jones’ mother.
Not everyone in Yale University in the 1980s remembered that DKE was wild and disgusted with women. Sam Chauncey ’57, who has long served as president of Yale University, said this summer that “in the Kavanaugh era, DKE was very docile.”
But “taming” was not the idea that Eisler saw the DKE flag in 1985.
“I was totally shocked that something similar happened at Yale,” Eisler recalls, writing to the editor and now working as a high school English teacher in Maryland.
She said: “Even if I describe them talking to them, I am out of incredible demands.”
