Swarthmore fraternity faces recruiting issues

When Swarthmore College senior Marian Firke saw a photograph on Facebook of a fraternity's flier inviting new members to join, she got mad.

The flier, she said, was a collage of photos of naked women. A fellow senior told her that the frat, Phi Psi, had used it as a bid letter for at least four years.

Firke and three friends started a petition asking the Student Budget Committee, which doles out student activity funding, not to give money to fund fraternity parties until at least 10 percent of the frats' members are women. Last spring, the student body approved a referendum calling for the school's two fraternities to admit students of any gender.

That vote does not have a binding effect on the fraternities, however. The school has one sorority, but it does not have a house to host parties.

"People are really disgusted to find out that this is something that is going on here," Firke said about the R-rated collage.

In a statement, dean of students Liz Braun agreed. "We condemn in the strongest possible terms the fraternity's use of totally inappropriate imagery, and it will stop now," she said. Phi Psi did not respond to requests for comments Monday.