By-Laws of the North-American Interfraternity Conference
(Revised April 20, 2009)
Section 1. Membership Requirements.
- Fraternity Membership. To be eligible for membership in the Conference, a fraternity must:
- Be devoted to general fraternity ideals and in compliance with the Standards of the Conference
- Be (inter)national, as distinct from local, in character, meaning that it shall (I) consist of no fewer than five undergraduate chapters, each of which has a current undergraduate membership of at least ten members, (ii) include not less than three undergraduate chapters, which have been part of the fraternity for at least five years, and (iii) have constitutional provisions for national conventions or equivalent with interim authority in trustees, directors or other officers who supervise the affairs of the fraternity.
- Be mutually exclusive of and in competition with other general fraternities, meaning that no member fraternity shall initiate a member of another fraternity until such time as the second fraternity shall have been formally notified in writing by the national office of the first fraternity that a candidate for membership in the second fraternity is no longer regarded as a member of the fraternity.
- Attend the annual meeting and specific meetings of the House of Delegates.
- Timely payment of annual membership dues.
- Abide by the NIC’s Constitution and By-Laws.
- Honor the resolutions adopted by the House of Delegates.
- Share best practices, statistics and information that will benefit member organizations.
- Hold all chapters and colonies accountable to all policies/procedures and values statement(s) (i.e. Creeds) of their fraternity.
- Have no undergraduate chapters related to institutions other than accredited (I) four year colleges or universities which grant Bachelor Degrees, or (ii) two-year degree granting colleges.
- Submit an application fee of $500.00 that will be applied to first year dues if admitted.
Section 2. Standards
The North-American Interfraternity Conference (NIC) is a voluntary trade association and membership in the NIC requires each member organization to adhere to certain Standards of Membership. However, nothing in the NIC Standards shall be interpreted as implying that a NIC member organization has a duty to supervise, direct, or control collegiate students or chapters associated with that member organization. Failure of a member organization to adhere to the NIC Standards shall subject the member organization to appropriate action by the NIC, up to and including suspension or expulsion of membership in this voluntary trade association.
1. The following data, covering the preceding academic year, will be reported to the NIC headquarters by November 1st of each year:++
- Number of pledges/new members*
- Retention of pledges
- Number of initiates*
- Number of initiated men (undergraduate)*
- Retention of men for past academic years (annual retention rate for those who left fraternity prior to graduation)
- Graduation rate of members
- Number of chapters opened and size at time of chartering
- Number of closed chapters and reason for closure
- Number of active chapters*
- Number of members involved in campus leadership positions
- Number of community service hours
- Number of dollars raised for charitable causes
++information collected will only be made public in a three tier aggregate of all NIC members. Raw data will be destroyed after aggregate data is compiled.
*provided through normal course of member’s financial audit notes
2. Member organization policies will include:
- Member’s chapters agree to and support open expansion on their respective campuses (implemented no later than September 1, 2004)
- Member organizations are insured with liability coverage (implemented no later than September 1, 2005)
- Each associate/pledge/new member has a minimum high school GPA of 2.3 for first semester freshman year and (whichever is appropriate per NIC member decision)
+minimum college GPA of 2.25 thereafter;
+or has a GPA at or above each campus all-men’s average thereafter (implemented no later than September 1, 2005) - Annual cumulative GPA of (whichever is appropriate per NIC member decision)
+at least a 2.5 for each chapter
+or at or above each campus all-men’s average (implemented no later than September 1, 2005) - The associate/pledge/new member program shall last no longer than twelve weeks and encourages a program lasting less than twelve weeks. (implemented no later than September 1, 2005)
- Fraternity-chapter women’s auxiliary groups (i.e. “little sisters”) are not allowed (implemented no later than September 1, 2004)
- Risk management policies that address alcohol use, fire safety, hazing, and sexual assault/abuse (implemented no later than September 1, 2004)
- Alcohol free at all rush/recruitment activities including formal, informal and summer/break recruitment activities (implemented no later than September 1, 2004)
- Alcohol free pledge/associate/new member programs (implemented no later than September 1, 2004)
- Language allowing for immediate chapter emergency, temporary suspension by individual fraternity (implemented no later than September 1, 2004)
3. Each member will communicate its values through its ritual at least annually or as prescribed by its policies (implemented no later than September 1, 2004)
4. Each member organization will communicate the importance of its undergraduate members participating in educational programming (whether campus, national fraternity or independently led) covering any of the following: academic achievement, alcohol consumption, career preparation, civic engagement, hazing, leadership development, sexual assault, and values & ethics. (implemented by September 1, 2004)
Members will be required to verify during compliance reports
Campus Expectations
Not only will the Standards documents set basic expectations for NIC members, the NIC anticipates the following from NIC member host campuses:
The following data:
Campus, all men’s Greek system and chapter GPA by semester/quarter
Total number of men who pledged all chapters in an academic year
Total number of men who initiated all chapters in an academic year
Percentage of fraternity men compared to total number of all men on campus
Total number of chapters closed/opened in an academic year
Total number of Greek-life full-time professionals on each campus
Graduation Rate of fraternity men compared to total number of men on campus
Host institution will provide a leadership class for credit for all pledges/new members (and if desired by institution, other members in other campus organizations) each term
Open Expansion
No NIC member organization is prohibited from selecting undergraduates for the purpose of establishing a chapter on the campus of the host institution. The host institution’s Interfraternity Council may not deter expansion by withholding membership of NIC group from IFC.Open Recruitment
Host institution will support open recruitment and will not prohibit any male enrolled as a full time student in good standing from participating in rush recruitment activities and joining an NIC member fraternity. Host institution will not prohibit NIC member fraternity from recruiting/rushing male students on campus.Encourage faculty through incentives to become involved as faculty advisors to chapters.
Provide individual chapter, greek system and campus demographic information to chapters as requested.
Provide impartial judicial process with right of appeal.
Work to reestablish a five-day academic week.
Provide financial management, property and accounts collection support.
Campus-led programming designed to inhibit/prevent problem behaviors (for example, alcohol abuse or sexual assault) will not single out greek organizations from other campus organizations for mandatory participation requirements.
For the purposes of these By-Laws, “accredited” shall mean, in the United States, institutions which are accredited by one of the following regional associations: Middle States, New England, North Central, Northwest, Southern, or Western, and the accrediting agencies recognized by the American Council on Education; and, other than the United States, institutions which are accredited or approved in some similar manner.
For the purposes of these By-Laws, a chapter is “related to” an institution if its membership is drawn from students enrolled at such institution, and no formal agreement with or recognition by such institution shall be required or implied.
This subsection shall not be deemed to prohibit undergraduate chapters related to extension, branches or regional campuses of accredited institutions.
(b)Associate Membership. To be eligible for Associate Membership, the member must be either an individual, a firm, an association, a partnership, a corporation, or an officer or an employee of a corporation, or a member or employee of a partnership actively engaged in the business of manufacturing, selling, distributing, or providing supplies, products, or services to member fraternities. Election to Associate Membership shall be by majority vote of the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors shall fix dues, and establish and publish rules and procedures pertaining to Associate Membership in the Conference.
Section 3. Followup of Standards. The Board of Directors, by a two-thirds vote of all its members, may expel, or impose lesser disciplinary action which the Board may determine to be appropriate under the circumstances, against the offender for conduct or activity found by the Board to be in violation of Article X Section 1. Lesser Disciplinary action may include, but is not limited to; fines, public censure, or a period of suspension of voting rights.
Section 4. Colonies. A colony, meaning a newly-formed group or association of students sponsored, organized or assisted by a fraternity with the intent of it becoming a chapter or otherwise affiliated in any manner with that fraternity, may be established by a member fraternity only in relation to an accredited college or university. No member fraternity shall sponsor, organize, assist or participate in any manner in the formation, organization or establishment of a colony related to an accredited college or university, unless such college or university shall hold an approved candidacy status with the appropriate regional association, and such colony may become chartered only upon full accreditation of the institution.
Section 5.Comity. No member fraternity shall accept a petition for membership, grant colony or other affiliated status, or grant a charter to any group substantially representing an existing or previously resigned or disassociated colony or active chapter of another member fraternity, until the fraternity with which such group was previously connected has officially given written notice to the Conference that all rights have been waived by them, or until five years have elapsed from the date of resignation or disassociation. Potentially moved to the constitution.
Section 6. Affiliation of Local Chapter. Member fraternities may accept petitions for a charter from and grant charters to eligible local chapters in accredited colleges or universities. Upon receipt and acceptance of such petition, a member fraternity may give written notice to the Conference of such acceptance, identifying the local chapter and the institution with which it is related. Upon receipt by the conference of such notice, the local chapter shall be subject to the rules of comity set forth in Section 5, except that the elapsed time from the date of resignation or disassociation shall be three years instead of five years. A petition may not be accepted unless it has been approved by both the undergraduate and alumni components of the local chapter.
Section 7.Fiscal Year. The fiscal year of the Conference shall begin September 1.
Section 8.Governing Rules. The business of the Conference shall be governed by
Robert’s Rules of Order, except as hereinafter noted.