Along with many of you, the NIC team has been closely monitoring developments related to COVID-19 over the past two weeks. Through this time, we have been in close communication with our various partners throughout the fraternal community and higher education as we have all worked to effectively navigate our evolving environment with a focus on health and safety concerns and supporting our partners.
Due to health and safety guidance around COVID-19, we have made the decision to cancel the announced national sessions of UIFI.
As we continue to navigate this ever-evolving environment, we are also looking strongly to the future. During this period of social distancing, the move to remote instruction, and the pause in events and travel, some of the day-to day-projects and tasks are less demanding of time, energy, and resources. Our education team is making the most of these unique circumstances and using this time as an opportunity to think differently and strategically about the future of UIFI.
We remain committed to transformational, interfraternal educational experiences and in the coming weeks, we will announce more details on a new UIFI-inspired student experience. Over the past four years, we have seen great success with new programs such as PRIME and LAUNCH, a reimagined IMPACT and are excited for this next development in student programming.
As we look back on the last 30 years, we are proud of the positive educational impact UIFI has had on more than 20,000 collegiate fraternity and sorority leaders. UIFI has been a hallmark program. In many ways, the leaders that graduated from UIFI in 1990 had very similar experiences to those that attended in 2019: students and facilitators came together for 5 days, away from their day to day campus environment, to reflect on their own experiences and address challenges facing their chapters, councils and communities.
However, students’ lives today are different than those in 1990. As UIFI crosses its 30-year threshold – it is important to think about how we can continue to meet students where they are while providing necessary and innovative interfraternal educational experiences.
We have listened to your feedback. Today, a four or five-day experience at a single location, with considerable travel, no longer fits most students’ and professionals’ busy schedules.
We will continue to offer a dynamic leadership experience with the quality you have come to expect for more than 30 years but in a new 3-day model that is more accessible and remains focused on providing a premier educational experience while meeting the needs of today’s fraternity and sorority leaders.
We are excited about the potential for a rebirth and the reimaging of UIFI. This is not a decision or step that we are taking lightly. We owe that to the over 20,000 student graduates and nearly 3,500 facilitators who have given their time to this program since 1990. This is something we care about very much and is personal for our team given our own meaningful experiences with UIFI.
Thank you for all you have done for UIFI and your understanding and flexibility as we embark on this exciting journey. We look forward to continuing the conversation and sharing more with you in the coming weeks.
Sincerely,
Will Foran
Senior Vice President of Campus Operations
If you have questions, please contact Jackie Hackett.
