[UGAalum94]

I think freedom to choose who you want to have in your group is important and is central to the idea of private association. So in principle, a group should be allowed to exclude whoever they want for whatever reasons they want.

But the practice of excluding people based on race is stupid on several different levels.

The ideals of many IFC and NPC groups transcend race, and if you are limiting your membership in a racial way, you're probably in violation of your own group's policies, your school's policy AND you're weakening your group over time because you're excluding some great folks.

I suspect that racial identity is to more central to NPHC groups. Since they were founded specifically to address the needs of black students, it's possible that racial identity could be at the heart of their organizations. If that's the case, then race, or more importantly attitudes about race, could be a legitimate membership consideration, in my opinion.

But since most IFC groups and NPC groups didn't found themselves with racial identity at the heart of their creed (of if they did, they won't admit it now) it's hard to see why race should be a factor.

I'm aware that my own chapter has a history with this issue, and if you want to talk about it, I'll PM about it, but I don't have any real insight or particulars.