With the controversy now getting press attention, Oregon State College President James Jensen organized a review committee to advise him on how to respond to the situation. Emery Castle, Professor of Agricultural Economics, chaired the committee, joined by Associate Professor of Geology Keith Oles, Assistant Professor of Business Law James Park, senior in Political Science Donald Hanson Jr., Student Body President Husno Ozyegin, and student and President of the Interfraternity Council Robert Poole. The committee’s goal was to determine whether racial discrimination had occurred and if Beta Pi had full autonomy to make decisions concerning its own membership.
In the mean time, Beta Pi decided to act. With the help of local alumni, Beta Pi invoked the same section of the Sigma Chi constitution that had been used against them to hold a vote on whether or not to initiate Okino. Beta Pi sent out invitations to all concerned alumni, including Reynolds, for their November 21 meeting. With Reynolds and his family members not attending, the current Beta Pi members and eight alumni who did attend unanimously approved Okino for initiation.
Another article in The Barometer followed, drawing attention to similar cases around the country involving Sigma Chi. Racial disputes had recently caused chapters at Brown, Columbia, Cornell, and Lafayette to withdraw from national affiliation, and the Stanford chapter had very recently withdrawn over the denial of several African-American pledges. The Barometer questioned Sigma Chi President Bolon Turner, who avoided any direct answers about racial discrimination within Sigma Chi, saying, “If we have a ruling to make and a statement to make we will make them.”
Shortly after this, Castle contacted Turner, promising that anything he relayed to the committee would be kept private. Turner told Castle that Sigma Chi was a unified fraternity, and that initiations were not initiations into the local chapter, but into the organization as a whole -- the Beta Pi chapter was not an autonomous organization. Turner also emphasized that Sigma Chi had no racial criteria for initiation. Turner was also happy to learn that the committee’s findings and recommendations would be kept from the press, saying, “There can be no doubt that sensational newspaper stories do not create or promote a favorable or welcome atmosphere.”
In addition to corresponding with Turner, the committee also interviewed Daniel Poling, the Dean of Men at Oregon State, Henry Kaiser, a local advisor to Beta Pi, Robert E. Joseph Jr., the Grand Praetor of Sigma Chi in the Pacific Northwest, and Beta Pi President Jay Greenwood. These interviews stretched into winter break, and the committee was finally reached a decision by the beginning of Winter term 1967.
