The Interfraternity Council finalized an amended set of guidelines for Greek organizations seeking sponsorship from the College on Monday, outlining new criteria that will make the process of accepting new organizations into the IFC more objective.
They will affect not only new organizations hoping to gain acceptance on campus but also currently instated IFC organizations.
With the changes, any new organization must be able to demonstrate the interest of at least 10 students on campus or a number that is one-quarter the membership of the smallest IFC organization, whichever is smaller. Sigma Alpha Epsilon was the smallest organization under the IFC with 41 members as of Dec. 11.
The reason for this requirement is to foster a competitive IFC community, according to Alex Lentz '07, president of the IFC.
"It is a huge financial responsibility to run a Greek organization and I don't think a small number of people could sustain themselves. However, the new policy gives them the opportunity to shoot for it," Lentz said. "It also forces groups with ethnic or religious preferences to maintain diversity within their membership, which is consistent with the current IFC community."
Besides meeting the numerical standards, the new organization must have alumni support and the organization's national chapter should have a healthy number of active chapters and recruitment statistics.
In addition, pursuant to College policy, the IFC will no longer examine new organizations which are not national.
The College and the IFC jointly decided to amend the policy after both realized the expansion policy was outdated and too subjective.
"We had not written the policy -- it was given to us, and we never had a chance to apply it until Alpha Epsilon Pi came to us," Lentz said. "In trying to apply it, we felt some of the criteria were subjective and we didn't like that we were taken out of process so soon."
Before the policy was changed, the IFC's role in the sponsorship process ended after it voted to accept or reject a new organization for colonization. From that point forward, the College would work with the new organization and, after a two-year period, the College alone would decide whether the organization gained official recognition.
With the new guidelines in place, however, the IFC will work in conjunction with the College and the new organization for two years to ensure the organization meets the six principles of Dartmouth Greek life and can successfully sustain itself at Dartmouth.
Amending the policy was a year-long process executed by the IFC executive board and its 13 member organizations.
The group researched other schools' best practices and surveyed 500 men that rushed this past fall.
The survey concluded that students were satisfied with the choices they currently have on campus and there was little support for the establishment of new fraternities.
"In my opinion, the IFC does not need to expand right now, but a free market system is in everyone's best interest," Lentz said. "It forces existing organizations to work harder to recruit and fulfill their own goals and it gives new organizations, who feel that they can contribute positively to the community, an opportunity to prove themselves."
The goal of the new changes is to streamline the process of gaining sponsorship so that it is more objective, open, and transparent than in the past.
"The IFC as a collective group has done a great job," said Dean of Residential Life Marty Redman. "They have created clarity and a process that blends well with the College's process. We are now both headed in the same direction in what we expect of new groups."
