advice for chapter survival

As I promised over the weekend, the following are the ideas I have on how a fraternity chapter can survive and thrive at IU. I will warm you in advance this is about 5,000 word Again this is based on the research I have done for my own chapter and trying to figure out what went wrong and how to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. This advice is primarily aimed at housed chapters because I really don’t have the experience to advise unhoused chapters.

At one point, IU’s Greek system was the envy of most campuses in the US. I think during the 1980s, nearly half the chapters at IU were chosen at some point as their fraternity’s national chapter of the year. Those days had passed even by the time I was at IU around a decade ago but the Greek system can get back there if things can stabilize and can avoid having more chapter’s kicked off.

Before diving into this, I think it is important to note that these is one chapter at IU that is by far and away the best run chapter on campus. Regardless of what people think of them and as much as I hate to admit it, FIJI is a solidly run fraternity. I’m not saying they have the best guys or have the most fun parties. I am only saying they have figured out a way to build a fraternity culture that works. They have been recognized as the top FIJI chapter in the country nine times since 1940. Their bike team on average has averaged a 7th place finish in the Little 500 since the race started. They are typically top 5 in grades and have been for decades. They are competitive in intramurals. They are typically one of the most involved chapters on campus. They party with whatever sororities they want to. Most importantly for our discussion today, there are one of only four housed chapters at IU that have not been suspended in the last two decades.

They are weird and a little cultish but they do a lot of things right. My information on their operations comes from close friendships with a number of their members while I was on campus. Additionally, there was an academic paper written on the IU FIJI chapter in the late 1990s. Though the chapter in the work is given a fake name to protect confidentiality, the paper was written at IU and it is very clear who the chapter is if you are at all familiar with IU’s Greek system. As the document does touch on some of FIJI’s hazing practices, I won’t provide the name of the research paper out of respect for FIJI’s secrecy. I will however, use some examples of their operations in the guide below. As I had close friends in the majority of IU chapters, I have a pretty good idea of the things that FIJI was doing differently than other fraternities, at least when I was on campus.

The following are the guidelines I have come up with for how to stay on campus.

I had to break this up so it would fit.