UCLA DAILY BRUIN Wednesday May 22, 1968

Fraternity president denies

racism allegation

The purpose of this letter is not to express an opinion regarding the conduct of the Phi Kappa Psi's Saturday night, but I do have some points to make concerning some of the untrue claims contained in yesterday's editorial (page 4).

This article began with the statement: "The fact that racism is firmly ingrained in the fraternity-sorority system should come as a surprise to no one." You also mention the "discriminatory practices of the Greek letter organizations."

During the time that I have been a member of Lambda Chi Alpha I have been fortunate to number several Jews and Orientals among my brothers. For example, Terry Ogami, recently killed in Vietnam, was one of the most popular men among the members among of all the fraternities; ask any Greek who's been around for a couple of years.

We do not, at present any Negroes in our local chapter. However, we have rushed Negroes in the recent past (including this last spring rush), and our national roster includes several Negroes.

Our community service program of the past year has included the following: raffles to raise money in order to purchase a bus for the underprivileged black children of the Willowbrook Job Corp. projects in which we have brought our kids from Watts to tour UCLA (we also played ball with them and had a party for them at our house); an invitation to tour the past riot area with Negro leaders; work projects with Negroes which involved brothers and little sisters; etc. We are also supporting an American Indian orphan in New Mexico. Our national organization lists several American Indian brothers.

Chuck Strong, newly elected cultural commissioner, received our full endorsement. In fact, the large billboard on Election Walk which urged support for this Negro was made by one of our members and his girlfriend, and much of Chick's campaign was planned here at Lambda Chi.

At the center of the present controversy is UMAS. It's co-founder and president, George Aguiniga (currently a candidate for vice-president) is a friend of mine. I met him two years ago when the two of us pledged this fraternity together. Because of ities, he soon realized that the obligations of the house were too much of an added burden, so he decided to leave. I can remember, however, how happy the actives were to pledge a man of such obvious quality (I believe George was the president of his high school student body), with no regard whatsoever to his ethnic background. The rest of my pledge brothers and I were sorry to see him go. Another Mexican-American of that pledge class, Leonard Leon, went on to become an initiated brother.

Our outside activities have been directed towards improving relations between races. Ask the Willowbrook Job Corp., or the kids in Watts or the Indian orphanage we help support.

Within the house, concerning the selection of members, the ideal has been non-discrimination. This will continue to be the philosophy of Lambda Chi Alpha. This is not confined to us; many UCLA Greek organizations share it. Ask our candidate, Chuck Strong. Ask my pledge brother, George Aguiniga. Ask the Greeks who happen to be American Indian, Jewish, Oriental, Mexican-American or Negro.