Statement on Indiana U. encouraging closure of fraternity facilities
The health and safety of members and the community is the top priority for fraternities at IU. Fraternities and housing corporations are following public health guidelines. Facilities should remain open with quarantine protocols in place to isolate members within chapter houses to minimize further coronavirus exposure. As Dr. Anthony Fauci discussed just yesterday, we believe it is wrong to move students from their current quarantined locations and risk spreading infection to different places in the community.
Students are learning—just like we all are—as we navigate this unprecedented time. Since the spring, fraternities have been planning and preparing facilities based on local public health guidelines. However, the greatest governing engine on a college campus is not the administration or public safety. It’s student culture. It’s peer pressure. All campus stakeholders must work together to mitigate virus spread.
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September 3, 2020
MEDIA CONTACT:
Todd Shelton
Research reaffirms fraternities’ positive impact for first-year students
2020 — At a time when college students and campuses struggle to cope with impact from the coronavirus pandemic, a prominent higher education researcher finds fraternity and sorority members benefit from significantly more engagement than non-members. The study [published in 2024], also shows greater gains in learning and more satisfaction with their college experiences.
Dr. Gary R. Pike of Indiana University finds that fraternity and sorority membership is associated with significantly higher levels of engagement on a number of measures including high impact practices, collaborative learning, student-faculty interactions, perception of a supportive campus environment and discussions with diverse others.
For this study, which is one of the largest of its kind, Dr. Pike replicated his 2003 research which utilized National Survey on Student Engagement (NSSE) data to determine whether levels of engagement and learning outcomes changed over time. According to Dr. Pike, the NSSE is a good instrument to understand students broadly and fraternity and sorority members specifically.
“The scope of the NSSE data is significant to these findings. Each year, approximately 700 institutions participate in that survey and we get complete responses from over 200,000, either first-year students or seniors,” said Dr. Pike. “It is a tremendously robust and representative data set.”
Some specific conclusions found in Dr. Pike’s study included:
- Fraternity/sorority membership also indirectly improved learning gains, acting through higher levels of student engagement.
- Despite being less diverse than students in general, fraternity/sorority members reported higher levels of interaction with people different from themselves than did other students.
- Membership in a fraternity or sorority is associated with greater involvement in curricular and cocurricular activities, promotes student learning and development, and promotes satisfaction with the college experiences.
- The largest positive effects were generally found for first-year students, arguing against deferring recruitment until the second semester or second year.
- The findings of this study indicate that fraternities and sororities are not antithetical to the values of American higher education.
“These results are clear: fraternities play an integral role in helping new students successfully transition to college life,” said Judson Horras, president and CEO of the North American Interfraternity Conference. “Public health restrictions [during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic] made students feel distanced and alone, but online interactions among fraternity brothers have kept them engaged.”
According to Dr. Pike, the collaborative learning effects were most dramatic for first-year students. He saw much higher participation and interaction with faculty in first-year fraternity members compared to first-year non-affiliated students. There was also significantly higher perception of a supportive campus environment for first-year fraternity members.
“The first year of college is a time of transition for students,” said Dr. Pike. “Engagement during the first year, one of the research results that George Kuh and others have reported, tends to help students stay in college. It also positively affects their learning.”
The study also found that while members of fraternities and sororities were more homogeneous than the general student population, they reported significantly higher levels of discussions with diverse others than non-affiliated students—including people from different races, ethnicity, economic backgrounds, religious beliefs and political views. Moreover, the relationship was strongest for fraternity members.
“There have been several studies, including mine, that find positive relationships between fraternity/sorority membership and student engagement and student learning. While specific findings on a scale differ from study to study, the overall results are consistent about fraternities and sororities having this positive effect on students’ engagement in college,” said Dr. Pike.
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Resources:
- The Fraternity/Sorority Experience Revisited: The Relationships between Fraternity/Sorority Membership and Student Engagement, Learning Outcomes, Grades, and Satisfaction with College by Dr. Gary R. Pike
- Items Comprising NSSE Engagement Indicators, High-Impact Practices, Learning Gains, and Satisfaction Scales
- Video: Dr. Pike’s presentation for Foundation for Fraternal Excellence
Poster: 3 Tips to COVID-19 Safety
A top priority is the health and safety of fraternity members and the community which starts with the simple things: wear a mask, social distance, wash your hands and follow local public health guidelines.
Download and print poster for use in chapter facilities. (Designed for use as 11″x17″ poster or 8.5″x11″ flyer)
Resource: Breaking the Chain of Infection
James R. Favor & Company is pleased to provide the Breaking the Chain of Infection, Guidance for a Healthful Living Environment for Fraternity and Sorority Chapters for your immediate use and distribution.
This Guide is a product of Council Rock Consulting, Inc., a multidisciplinary consulting firm with specialty in the area of public health and infectious disease. Favor & Company chose to work with CRC on this comprehensive publication due to the firm’s extensive work for the National Institutes of Health and multiple institutions of higher education.
In this Guide, you will find detailed resources and instruction for individual members, chapters, and house corporations. Our goal has been to provide a resource that presents a full range of considerations and steps for planning for a fall reopening for your organization’s multiple audiences that can be put to use right away. This guidance is based on advice tailored for the Fraternity and Sorority community’s unique needs. The Guide addresses not only how to prepare for and respond to a pandemic but also takes the advice a step further by providing links to products and other resources chapters and house corporations will find useful.
Upcoming Education
Headquarters staff can connect to industry-level trends and training that will help you be more effective in serving students and your broader fraternity. Over the next few weeks, the North American Interfraternity Conference will offer an educational slate that will benefit many staff members and volunteers, including chapter services, traveling and remote staff, chief operating officers and executive directors.
For 2020, the NIC has made the decision to move its Meeting of Members online. The Dual Experience program with the Foundation for Fraternal Excellence Seminar will return in 2021. To register for the NIC Meeting of Members, log in to FS Central and select Events.
[MEC id=”8927″]
If you have questions or need assistance with registration, contact Jackie Hackett at jackie.hackett@nicfraternity.org.
Students Win! Harvard drops social group sanctions policy
Monday, plaintiffs in the federal case challenging Harvard’s sanctions policy that punishes students for joining single-sex social organizations filed a motion for a preliminary or permanent injunction. Under the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent landmark civil rights decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, Harvard’s policy unquestionably constitutes unlawful sex discrimination in violation of Title IX. Additionally, internal Harvard documents produced in the case demonstrate that Harvard’s policy was motivated by impermissible sex stereotypes and anti-male bias, also in violation of Title IX.
Both federal and state courts previously rejected Harvard’s efforts to dismiss the challenges to its discriminatory policy.
We are pleased to announce that Harvard University dropped its social group sanctions policy later in the day as a result of the Supreme Court decision in the case of Bostock v. Clayton!
Dani Weatherford, CEO of the National Panhellenic Conference, and Judson Horras, CEO of the North American Interfraternity Conference, released the following joint statement on Harvard’s decision to drop its sanctions policy:
While we believe the discriminatory nature of Harvard’s policy was apparent long ago, we are nonetheless gratified to see that Harvard will no longer seek to enforce such an unlawful policy.
Our focus has always been on the freedom of association rights of students and on the particularly acute harm that this policy has done to women’s-only organizations on Harvard’s campus. Today’s announcement from the university is nothing short of an admission that their policy was misguided and openly discriminatory based on sex. This should serve as a lesson to Harvard and other universities—students are free to associate with other students without regard to their gender, and targeting single-sex student organizations is illegal and wrong.
While we are pleased that this policy will no longer hang over Harvard students, we are also painfully aware that its effects will linger – particularly for women’s-only organizations that were decimated by this policy.
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June 30, 2020
Media contact:
Todd Shelton
NIC takes further actions to support belonging and inclusion
Today, America continues to face the issue of racism and as fraternity men we must acknowledge and denounce all forms of hate and intolerance. We must unite around the notion that fraternal bonds are built on concepts of respect, dignity and empathy for all people.
Representing a diverse range of fraternity men, the NIC has in recent years invested significant resources in supporting emerging and culturally-based fraternities as well as enhancing education for all fraternity members on the importance of belonging and inclusion. We are inspired by fraternity men across the country fighting racism and supporting Black Lives Matters efforts.
We are taking action now to further support our member fraternities, interfraternity councils and communities by ensuring our governing documents promote belonging and do not further racism. The NIC also is developing resources to help our councils and campuses improve belonging and inclusion and hosting conversations to address racism, intolerance and hate.
First, Kevin Bennett, Executive Director of Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, will chair a working group to thoroughly review current NIC governing documents and bring forward recommendations to the Governing Council in as needed in the areas of discrimination and intolerance.
Second, the NIC, AFLV (Association of Fraternal Leadership & Values), Northeast Greek Leadership Association (NGLA) and the Southeastern Greek Leadership Association (SGLA) are partnering to develop and enhance resources for IFC officers and the greater fraternity and sorority community in the areas of belonging and inclusion which will be implemented through programs from all four organizations.
Third, NIC President and CEO Judson Horras will host video-based fireside conversations with key interfraternal leaders to address topics including racism, belonging and inclusion. These productive conversations will provide for open dialogue and model undergraduate engagement.
Additionally, the NIC is working to collaborate with all fraternity/sorority-related umbrella and leadership development organizations in higher education to develop ideas and programs around activism and advocacy centered on belonging and inclusion.
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Media Contact: Todd Shelton
Campus Support: Will Foran
Statement regarding the announced deferred recruitment at Slippery Rock University
Without seeking input or discussion with impacted students, Slippery Rock University has announced that beginning in fall 2020 it will restrict access to one campus experience by deferring fraternity recruitment for first year students. Students should have the opportunity to join fraternities, or any organization, at the time that they feel is best for their development. On hundreds of campuses, students join fraternities at any time and have a successful experience that provides men with a sense of community and a support network that helps facilitate a stronger transition to the collegiate experience.
As we have previously done with other campus partners, including recently at California State University Long Beach, we wish to partner to find a mutually agreeable resolution that continues to enhance the fraternity experience.
Research shows the stress of first-year students stems from a sense of loneliness and that close friendships such as those created through the fraternity experience promote positive mental health, increase retention and maximize persistence to college graduation. Now, more than ever, there is an urgent need for such experiences. As all campuses navigate their plans for the fall semester, opportunities that provide these outcomes while adhering to public health guidance should be encouraged.
Millions of fraternity men stand united with the students at Slippery Rock in support of the rights of college students to seek positive, enriching fraternal bonds at any time.
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Media Contact:
Todd Shelton
Living our Fraternal Values.
Today, America continues to face the issue of racism which reminds us as fraternity men we must acknowledge and denounce all forms of hate and intolerance. We must unite around the notion that fraternal bonds are built on concepts of respect, dignity and empathy for all people.
The NIC represents a diverse range of fraternity men and in recent years has invested significant resources in supporting emerging and culturally-based fraternities, as well as enhancing education for all fraternity members on the importance of diversity and inclusion. We will continue working with our member fraternities, partners and higher education institutions to improve awareness and education around these important issues.
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