Changes

==The swastika==

On the west side of Weston is a design that looks suspiciously like a swastika. (In fact, it is "backwards" from the Nazi variety.) Many people notice this swastika, so in 2002 the ''[[The Williams Record|Record]]'' did an [http://www.williamsrecord.com/wr/?view=article&section=features&id=3615 article debunking various myths] about Weston:

:After poring over the contents of the Weston Hall file, along with several other files and back issues of the Record, I think I can safely conclude that the swastika on the wall bears absolutely no relation to Hitler’s symbol of genocide. Additionally, the Williams Phi Delta Thetas were by no means the violent bigots I had believed them to be. In fact, they fought on the side of religious tolerance in an early 1950s battle against their own national headquarters...

:The rumor that Phi Delta Theta was an anti-Semitic organization is also wrong, at least in reference to the fraternity’s final two decades. In the fall of 1952, the fraternity chose to pledge a Jewish freshman, in violation of the constitution of the national brotherhood of Phi Delta Theta. According to Section 26 of that document, “only male, white persons of full Aryan blood [who are] not less than 16 years of age shall be eligible.” ...

:“We have seriously considered the moral implications of the clause (section 26), and feel strongly that the discriminatory clause is incompatible with the principles of friendship and ethics as espoused in the Bond of Phi Delta Theta,” wrote Peter F. Connolly ’53, president of the chapter, in a statement to the Record.