diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 0c2cc45df9ce69e24d4834aaebce88ad78f00c68..128729045e7c09d579233ce010470041ea80d4ba 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -236,6 +236,7 @@ documents those changes that are of interest to users and admins.
 
 * Changes in SLURM 2.3.6
 ========================
+ -- Fix DefMemPerCPU for partition definitions.
 
 * Changes in SLURM 2.3.5
 ========================
diff --git a/src/common/read_config.c b/src/common/read_config.c
index cf2618aa7c33d222de17202eae55e993070acfc3..fc0dd73fb90db24e125071072f546f3e6efb55fa 100644
--- a/src/common/read_config.c
+++ b/src/common/read_config.c
@@ -870,7 +870,7 @@ static int _parse_partitionname(void **dest, slurm_parser_enum_t type,
 			    s_p_get_uint32(&p->def_mem_per_cpu,
 					   "DefMemPerCPU", dflt)) {
 				p->def_mem_per_cpu |= MEM_PER_CPU;
-			} {
+			} else {
 				p->def_mem_per_cpu = 0;
 			}
 		}