Mission of Greek Life

❖ To advocate for fraternities and sororities

within the NIU community.
❖ Promote an understanding of organization
and individual member responsibilities in
accordance with University rules and
regulations.
❖ Serves as a catalyst for encouraging
fraternities and sororities to provide their
members with experiences that lead to
enhanced personal and professional
growth, development and education.
 Navigating Our Interest
❖ All group members belong to the Greek
community.
❖ Our organizations represent 3 out of the 4 Greek
councils at NIU
❖ Seeking to:
➢ Explore the similarities and differences between councils.
➢ Determine how NIU is supporting the mission and vision of
each council.
➢ Develop an understanding for how NIU supports each
council through diversity, equity and inclusion lenses.
 What did we do?
❖ Attended the mass meeting for each Greek council
❖ Interviewed the 4 GA’s
➢ Gain insight on each council from their perspective
➢ Evaluate university involvement with each council
➢ Gain insight on how these organizations work with one another
➢ Evaluate each council’s commitment to ensuring that diversity, equity
and inclusion methods are being met by organizations.
❖ Analyzed the mission statement and relationship statement of FSL
❖ Evaluated university methods in place to determine how how the office of
fraternity and sorority life engages or fails to engage in equity, inclusion,
or social justice practices.
Observations from Council
Meetings
❖ Each meeting discussed current business
operations
➢ Including current FSL policies, regulations, and
rules regarding event planning, scholarship,
awards, community service/philanthropy, and
important deadlines.
❖ Students were attentive and allowed for discussion
amongst members
❖ Only the NPHC meeting discussed issues of equity
during mass meeting that we attended.
Observations Continued...
❖ Organizations in the UGC council are united and support each
others events.

❖ UGC and NPHC tend to support each other throughout the year.
➢ This allows for some collaboration to happen but they
acknowledge that more can be done amongst all councils.

❖ IFC and PHA tend to support and collaborate with each other
throughout the year.
➢ Limited support for UGC and NPHC.
➢ No collaboration in hosting events aside from Greek Week
imposed by FSL

❖ At this time, none of the councils mentioned future efforts to

collaborate with other organizations or councils.
Council Graduate Assistants
❖ Expressed different views regarding collaboration and
❖ Some advisors agreed that the NIU
unity.
administration does not typically interact
❖ Mentioned benefits to collaboration between councils,
with UGC or NPHC members and fail to
should organizations put forth effort.
take the time to recognize and appreciate
❖ Believe that some councils are diverse, but the university
their work.
really has no part in that.
❖ PHA advisor recognized that women of color have felt out
of place in the past, creating a less diverse council.
Council Graduate Assistants Continued...

❖ Mixed feeling regarding the benefits of having a house

vs. not having one regarding rules.
❖ NIU is more hands on with the IFC and PHA councils.
❖ Most interaction that each council has with NIU
administration is regarding conduct of member
organizations.
❖ GAs disagreed on whether or not having a GA from a
different council would improve functioning.
Our Findings
❖ Conduct: “chapter conduct status will be publicly posted”
➢ FALSE. Many sanctions are not publicly posted.
❖ Accountability: “chapters should expect to be held accountable if their actions
do not live up to the values and standards set forth for student organizations
at NIU”
➢ FALSE. Students feel that the sanctions are not applied equally across
councils.
➢ EX: PHA and IFC incident
❖ Accountability: “SILD has the ability to implement non-conduct sanctions for
chapters, and may revoke student organization privileges until the chapter
fulfills this agreement”
➢ TRUE. SILD has revoked privileges due to academic reasons for some councils.
 Our Findings
Non-discrimination:
❖ “Each chapter should promote inclusivity within its membership and across
the Greek community at NIU”
➢ FALSE. Not every council promotes this. Some councils are more inclusive
than others.
University Expectations:
❖ “Chapters will receive assistance from the Assistant Director for Fraternity
and Sorority Life (a full time staff position) and a GA within normal business
hours
➢ TRUE. FSL Director and Council GA offer office hours.
❖ “Chapters will receive support from a designated SILD GA”
➢ TRUE. Each Council has a designated GA who is member of the Greek
community. May or may not be a member of that particular council.
 Future Implications/Conclusion
❖ The different councils on NIU’s campus do not collaborate for various reasons.
❖ There is a perception by UGC and NPHC of FSL’s greater value attributed to PHA and IFC councils .
➢ Related to the large financial and social capital amassed through IFC and PHA membership base.

❖ FSL should seek to eliminate perceptions that race and class influence how sanctions are determined and
executed.
➢ The policies in place should apply to every council, equally.

❖ Division between councils also exists due to disportionate resources such as housing, and inequitable
practices of recruitment support by FSL.
➢ FSL should consult organizations on how FSL can best support their recruitment practices in order to
promote inclusive advertisement.

❖ In order to help councils improve inter-council relations, perceptions of value, and fair sanctions, further
research should be conducted.
➢ Studies should seek to identify specific strategies that can be utilized to improve the aforementioned
areas.
 References
Gibbs, C. T. (2013) Privilege in fraternities and sororities: Racial prejudices through the use of formalized recruitment, tradition, and marketing

(Master’s thesis, Kansas state university). Retrieved from:

http://krex.k-state.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2097/15602/CaeleeGibbs2013.pdf;sequence=1

Northern Illinois University Student Involvement and Leadership Development. (2016). Fraternity and sorority relationship statement: A statement

between greek chapters, councils, and northern illinois university. Retrieved from: https://niu.edu/studentinvolvement/fraternity-sorority-

life/_docs/policies/niu_relationship_statement_09.2016.pdf

Northern Illinois University Student Involvement and Leadership Development (NIU SILD). (2018). Fraternity and sorority life. Retrieved from:

https://niu.edu/studentinvolvement/fraternity-sorority-life/index.shtml

Whipple, E., Crichlow, M., and Click, S. (2008). Black and white greeks: A call for collaboration. In g. parks (Ed.), Black greek-letter

organizations

in the twenty-first 42 century: Our fight has just begun (1 ed., Vol. 1, pp. 421-436). Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky