Speakers on Tuesday discussed students’ civil rights and the treatment of university fraternities and sororities across the country at the Fraternity and Sorority Action Fund’s inaugural Constitution Day event.
About 200 students at this university attended the event at The Hotel at the University of Maryland. The event aimed to give students and community members a “refresher” on the U.S. Constitution and emphasize the importance of their civil rights, according to Larry Wiese, president of the Fraternity and Sorority Action Fund — a nonprofit advocacy organization.
“Nobody’s safety should be in jeopardy,” Wiese told The Diamondback. “We can protect safety while also protecting and preserving our fundamental rights as Americans.”
Tuesday’s event came more than six months after this university placed a cease and desist order on social activities for all 37 Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Association fraternities and sororities. The order stemmed from reports of activities that posed community members’ “safety and well-being,” The Diamondback previously reported.
The order was lifted about two weeks later, on March 15, for all but five IFC fraternities.
The event featured several speakers, including a university alum and former U.S. Representative Dennis Cardoza.
[UMD places cease and desist order on all IFC and PHA fraternities, sororities]
Cardoza, a Democrat who represented California’s 18th Congressional District from 2003 to 2012, spoke fondly of his time at this university, where he was a member of its Theta Chi fraternity chapter.
In his speech, Cardoza emphasized the benefits Greek life provides to students. Fraternities and sororities face “disrespect and disdain” from universities across the country, he said.
Cardoza told the crowd his fraternity experience was one integral to his education.
“The most important thing the university could do is take the time to listen to the students,” Cardoza told The Diamondback after the event.
University president Darryll Pines told The Diamondback that fraternities and sororities on campus “have a long-standing tradition of social life and philanthropy.”
These organizations play an important role on campus, Pines told The Diamondback.
In March, four IFC fraternities filed a petition to the U.S. District Court of Maryland for a temporary restraining order against this university and several administrators, including Pines, student conduct director James Bond and students affairs vice president Patty Perillo, The Diamondback previously reported.
[UMD reaches $50,000 settlement with former student in gender-based discrimination case]
The petition alleged that the defendants violated students’ First and Fourteenth amendment rights, according to court documents.
This university’s Kappa Alpha Theta sorority also filed a lawsuit in April against this university, alleging it denied students’ right to free speech. Later that week, three IFC fraternities — Theta Chi, Alpha Sigma Phi and Alpha Tau Omega — continued the lawsuit that was filed in March.
In an interview with The Diamondback on Sept. 12, Pines declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Steven McGuire, a writer and academic who focuses on freedom of speech issues, said in his speech on Tuesday that many people do not think about their rights until they find those rights challenged.
McGuire is a fellow with the American Council of Trustees and Alumni — a nonprofit that works to protect “academic freedom” and “accountability” at U.S. colleges and universities.
McGuire said there would be “much healthier” discourse on college campuses if students better understood the importance and definition of free speech.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misstated that about 100 students at this university attended the inaugural Constitution Day event. About 200 students attended the event. This story has been updated.
