With both the movement to abolish Greek life and the pandemic hindering membership numbers, several Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Association organizations extended recruitment into Spring Quarter through continuous open bidding.
COB, an informal recruitment process, allows fraternities and sororities to hand out bids at their discretion. This year, PHA sororities recruited exclusively by COB and IFC fraternities shifted to a COB process starting Spring Quarter.
For sororities, the decision was necessary after Panhellenic Association’s canceled formal recruitment because of concerns about virtual recruitment and the uncertainty of chapter status due to the Abolish Greek Life Movement.
Spearheaded by an anonymous Instagram account and as part of a larger national reckoning, the Abolish Northwestern Greek Life Movement led to mass deactivations and calls to disband in the past year.
, discussions of abolishing or reforming Greek life have continued on campus. The Daily spoke to Interfraternity Council
President and Weinberg junior Nick Papandreou about his perspective on recruitment, parties and the future of Greek life on campus.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
The Daily: IFC chose to continue with formal recruitment this year. How has it changed this year because of COVID-19 and the Abolish Greek Life movement?
Papandreou: We did expect lower numbers and we do still expect fewer people to rush. The chapters are making conscious decisions in terms of who they’re recruiting, and we’ve kind of formed our recruitment process for this quarter to kind of facilitate that.
Phi Kappa Psi sanctioned, fined for holding on-campus party
Northwestern’s chapter of Phi Kappa Psi was sanctioned by the Interfraternity Council for holding a social event in violation of IFC Codes of Conduct on social gatherings and alcohol possession.
According to a statement released to The Daily, IFC’s Standards Board held a hearing last Saturday to review reports by members of the NU community and people who attended the event. The board fined Phi Psi $3,500, banned them from recruiting until the end of Spring 2021 and placed them on Associate Member status with a Zero-Tolerance Period policy lasting until the end of Spring 2022.
Dear Members of the Northwestern Community,
I’ve been staring at this header for hours now, and I’m still having trouble finding the best way to start this letter. After all, how does one begin to address the issues related to fraternities that have reached the surface over the years, especially in recent months? All those scarring experiences our peers here at the University and across the US have gone through at the hands of members of fraternities who, instead of staying true to basic human values, have used fraternities to inflict emotional and physical pain on others.
Despite the difficulty of this task, I am reaching out to you to start this conversation. My goal is to be open, honest, and humble with you all. For too long, the Interfraternity Council (IFC) has tried to stay away from the spotlight to avoid the “negative press”, yet this dismissiveness of the voices of our community has resulted in perpetuating the problem further. It is unacceptable for fraternities