In an effort to enhance faculty-Greek relations, the Inter-Fraternity Council unanimously passed a Faculty Fellows resolution Nov. 6.
Although the Faculty Fellows program has been in place in the past, the recent resolution will formalize faculty-fraternity events and lend financial aid to fraternities which host faculty.
Previously, the Faculty Fellows program has informally required each fraternity to have a Faculty Fellow, a member of the University's Faculty or Administration which they interact with on a regular basis. The IFC's new resolution has formalized the Faculty Fellow requirement and aims to provide an incentive for increased interaction by reimbursing fraternities up to $100 for the non-alcoholic expenses of faculty related events.
"Student-professor relationships are essential for the Greek community as a whole," said Andrew Daly, IFC scholarship and faculty relations chair. "The resolution offers the Greek community a chance to talk to professors on a person to person level."
The informal Faculty Fellows program has been in place for the past couple of years, IFC President Ryan Ewalt said. However, before the resolution passed, approximately only half a dozen fraternities were hosting Faculty Fellow events once a semester.
"The resolution will realistically double that amount of participation and interaction with the faculty," Ewalt said.
The IFC executive board has been forming the resolution for the past two months.
"We originally proposed the resolution as a requirement," Ewalt said. "By adding the financial resources incentive, the fraternity presidents became more excited about it."
St. Elmo Hall fraternity held a reception for 15-20 faculty members last Tuesday as part of the Faculty Fellows program. Brothers invited past and current professors to the event. Although St. Elmo held a similar event last spring, President Nigel Glenday said last week's event was more successful.
"The idea was to get faculty members over to the house to see how it functions and expose them to another side of Greek life," Glenday said.
The IFC passed the resolution in an effort to rekindle relationships between faculty and fraternities after a slight decline in recent years.
"These kinds of faculty events used to happen all the time," IFC Public Relations spokesperson Scott Cohen said. "There used to be a much closer relationship between the faculty and fraternities."
In addition, Faculty Fellow events are a chance for faculty members to become better acquainted with the Greek community.
"We really think this is a step in the right direction," Cohen said. "We are trying to build as much good will between ourselves and the faculty members as used to exist less than a decade ago."
Faculty members are showing equal enthusiasm for the enhancement of the Faculty Fellows program.
"It's a great program for faculty to meet with fraternity men," said Mark White, Chi Phi fraternity faculty fellow and Commerce School professor. "I really think we need to get to know these young people on their own turf."
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