2008 Woodie Awards
Fraternity - Wannabes Pose Challenges for Wilf Campus
Do Alternative Social Groups Belong at Yeshiva?
Zev Nagel
Issue date: 3/8/05 Section: News
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To the casual observer of Hanukah 5765 on the Wilf Campus, the holiday was celebrated as it had been in years past: menorahs filled the designated lighting areas in the lobbies of university housing; SOY hosted its middling chagigah; YSU put on another vaunted concert; even Yeshiva College professor of Classics, Dr. Louis Feldman, joined in on the fun, delivering a packed-house "yartzheit shuir" for the Greeks.
But 150 blocks south of Washington Heights in midtown Manhattan, far from the trail of sugar powdered jelly-donuts and Beit Midrash hora-style dancing, another group of Yeshiva students were remembering the Maccabean victory over the Greeks in a rather ironic fashion. At West 20th Street's Club Avalon, amid hundreds of college students flashing student IDs that read "Queens" and "Rutgers," stood the party's hosts, a hoard of Yeshiva students loosely associating themselves with an unsanctioned faction of Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi), the National Jewish Fraternity. Shouting their call sign "YY" (Upsilon Upsilon), the emcees, who may represent a growing segment among Yeshiva's undergraduate population, welcomed their guests with open arms.
But when The Commentator learned about this renegade fraternity-style posse in early December, it was not the only extra-curricular venue offering social alternatives to the seeming humdrum of the Wilf Campus. Inside the dreary townhouses lining Washington Terrace behind the Mendel Gottesman Library, brewed another fraternity-like assemblage, albeit less agenda oriented and organized their AEPi compatriots. Referring to themselves as IHPi, a play on words combining fraternity lingo and a reference to Yeshiva's off campus Independent Housing Program (IHP), the group bought itself a great deal of attention after it threw a slew of boisterous Saturday night parties. Though the parties were held in private apartments, they were hosted and attended by Yeshiva students. Initially, members of IHPi were reportedly approached by university administrators to curtail their public partying. Rumors went as far as to suggest that the IHPi group requested a university charter to establish a fraternity. But the university's no-fraternity policy, a staple mantra of the Office of Student Affairs, was not so inviting to such a group. And as the students associating themselves with AEPi too approached the administration, the university had to deal with a serious situation on their hand. The Commentator, for better or for worse, decided to allow the university to take some time and figure out how they wanted to "deal" with these student groups.
But 150 blocks south of Washington Heights in midtown Manhattan, far from the trail of sugar powdered jelly-donuts and Beit Midrash hora-style dancing, another group of Yeshiva students were remembering the Maccabean victory over the Greeks in a rather ironic fashion. At West 20th Street's Club Avalon, amid hundreds of college students flashing student IDs that read "Queens" and "Rutgers," stood the party's hosts, a hoard of Yeshiva students loosely associating themselves with an unsanctioned faction of Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi), the National Jewish Fraternity. Shouting their call sign "YY" (Upsilon Upsilon), the emcees, who may represent a growing segment among Yeshiva's undergraduate population, welcomed their guests with open arms.
But when The Commentator learned about this renegade fraternity-style posse in early December, it was not the only extra-curricular venue offering social alternatives to the seeming humdrum of the Wilf Campus. Inside the dreary townhouses lining Washington Terrace behind the Mendel Gottesman Library, brewed another fraternity-like assemblage, albeit less agenda oriented and organized their AEPi compatriots. Referring to themselves as IHPi, a play on words combining fraternity lingo and a reference to Yeshiva's off campus Independent Housing Program (IHP), the group bought itself a great deal of attention after it threw a slew of boisterous Saturday night parties. Though the parties were held in private apartments, they were hosted and attended by Yeshiva students. Initially, members of IHPi were reportedly approached by university administrators to curtail their public partying. Rumors went as far as to suggest that the IHPi group requested a university charter to establish a fraternity. But the university's no-fraternity policy, a staple mantra of the Office of Student Affairs, was not so inviting to such a group. And as the students associating themselves with AEPi too approached the administration, the university had to deal with a serious situation on their hand. The Commentator, for better or for worse, decided to allow the university to take some time and figure out how they wanted to "deal" with these student groups.