November 10, 2017
Dear Parents and Families of our Interfraternity Council New Members,
We wanted to reach out to you today in regards to strong moves in self-governance taken by our students recently. Our Interfraternity Council, which is the governing body for 27 of our fraternities, met and decided to suspend all social activities and new member activities at this time.
The Interfraternity Council (IFC) presidents and governing council voted to do this in order to focus on assessing the practices of chapters and to be able to emphasize the importance of the health and safety of members and new members. IFC released the following statement which has been shared with media outlets about their decision.
"As an Interfraternity Council community, we believe in holding our members to a high standard at the University of Michigan. It has come to our attention that some members of the Interfraternity Council community have not been living up to these standards.
In the interim, we are suspending all social activities and new member education programs. We will be working with our national organization partners to ensure that our programs are in alignment with our policies and values.
We believe that social events are a privilege, and we, as a community, have not earned this privilege at this time. We will immediately begin the process of assessing our policies and practices and developing a formal plan going forward.
The IFC Executive Board proposed this plan of action to the IFC chapter presidents , who voted to implement the plan so that we can take proactive steps through self-governance to improve our community.
We are taking time to focus on the health and safety of our members and our community, and we are committed to working with the university, our peers, alumni, and national partners to do so.
This decision on social and new member activities only directly effects the member organizations in the IFC, not our other three councils. This bold act of self-governance has also been supported by their peers in our other governing councils in fraternity and sorority community.
We are working with the chapters to quickly coordinate a positive culmination of new member processes in collaboration with their international organizations. Information should be communicated to your student about next steps."
If you or your student have questions about any of this, please feel free to contact the Office of Greek Life at 734-936-3686. Our office is open from 9am- 5pm Monday through Friday. If you call and don't receive an immediate response, we will follow up as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
