Content warning: This story contains mentions of alleged sexual assault, drugging and hazing.
After a quarter of formal recruitment, the Interfraternity Council plans to introduce an unnamed diversity and inclusion initiative and a new men’s mental health training program either late Winter or early Spring Quarter.
According to IFC Vice President for Recruitment and Weinberg sophomore Parker Stava, fraternities are often thought of as exclusive.
“I realized there’s a lot of perceived barriers,” Stava said. “Everything from, you know, fraternities are only looking for one demographic, or you know, (they) need financial aid, (they) don’t know if (they) can afford to join a fraternity.”
Stava said he intends to publish a set of resources for fraternity use with MSA and Student Enrichment Services before the end of the academic year. He said he is currently working with the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life to organize and publish the information.
Stava said he began working on the currently unnamed diversity and inclusion initiative last quarter.
He added that he worked with Multicultural Student Affairs Assistant Director Matthew Abtahi to develop questions for fraternities to check for potential barriers to entry, such as only accepting members assigned male at birth. The resources may also include scholarship opportunities to offset the cost of fraternity membership, Abtahi wrote in an email to The Daily.
Abtahi described himself as a consultant to the program, since he met with Stava twice during Fall Quarter.
Stava said all nine fraternities at NU allow all “male identifying students” to be eligible for membership, including transgender people. He said that since the resources are in progress, he is unable to comment on whether barring nonbinary students would count as a barrier to entry.
