Seven fraternities disaffiliate from Duke IFC

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https://www.dukechronicle.com/articl...he%20Chronicle.

Seven fraternities have decided to disaffiliate from the Interfraternity Council, and two more may soon.

The fraternities’ decisions to sever official links to the University come after administrators ended the recruitment of first years by Greek and non-Greek selective living groups. The mass exodus marks a permanent and dramatic change to Duke’s on-campus culture.

The seven fraternities that decided to disaffiliate are Alpha Delta Phi, Alpha Tau Omega, Delta Tau Delta, Kappa Alpha Order, Pi Kappa Phi, Sigma Chi and Sigma Nu, wrote Emilie Dye, director of student engagement and leadership, in an email to The Chronicle. Two more organizations have discussed disaffiliation, and a decision will ultimately be made by their national headquarters, Dye added.

“The consensus amongst the nine chapter presidents is disaffiliating from the University is the lesser of two evils,” said senior Rohan Singh, who served as IFC president until his fraternity, Sigma Nu, decided to disaffiliate from the IFC.

Singh claimed the IFC was not consulted by the University when it temporarily suspended spring recruitment in October and decided to move rush to sophomore year in November, a fundamental change to Duke’s social culture made by the Next Generation Living and Learning 2.0 Committee.

Mary Pat McMahon, vice provost and vice president of student affairs, said that IFC was the first student group she met with to seek input on changes to rush. McMahon met with fraternity presidents Oct. 12 to discuss the decision to move recruitment back to sophomore fall, she said. She consulted national Greek organizations, Duke Student Government and dozens of other student groups in over 100 preview meetings ahead of the November policy announcement, she added.