The University of Rochester Judicial Council has ruled in favor of students who alleged that gender-specific campus clubs, a capella groups, fraternities, and sororities engaged in “textual discrimination” by using terms like “brotherhood,” “men of principle,” and “ensemble of 12 women.”
The ruling, decided earlier in May, found that dozens of organizations were in violation of the Non-Discrimination Clause of the Students' Association (SA) Constitution, according to Heat Street.
The “presence of gendered language in a constitution amounts to de facto discrimination in that it promotes a chilling effect on the number of students seeking membership in that group,” the ruling read.
Groups must not use gendered language in either their constitutions or their names, even if no gender restrictions exist.
Gendered names are often vestiges of previously discriminatory policies, as in the case of a group that calls itself a “brotherhood” but nonetheless accepts members of any gender identity. Names like “Women's Curling” and “Here Comes Treble All-Male A Capella” have a similar effect.
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