Lambda Chi Alpha Resigns NIC Membership

[Tom Earp]

Statement from Lambda Chi Alpha National.

From LXA LAMBDA CHI ALPHA RESIGNS ITS MEMBERSHIP IN THE NORTH AMERICAN INTERFRATERNITY CONFERENCE
Carmel, Ind., October 27, 2015 – Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. has resigned its membership in the North American Interfraternity Conference, effective immediately.

A proud and active member of the fraternity trade association for 106 years, Lambda Chi believes the NIC’s new direction is counterproductive and does not support a co-curricular partnership with our host institutions.

The decision to resign was voted on and approved by the fraternity’s Board of Directors.

“For more than a century, we have supported the NIC’s efforts and advocated for its stated principles and values,” said Fletcher McElreath, chairman of the Board, Lambda Chi Alpha. “Unfortunately, the NIC has recently elected to pursue counterproductive tactics that we believe are antithetical to our values and we cannot support them.”

Recently, the NIC has been struggling from internal governance dysfunction that has led to in-fighting and the development of factions that are a distraction from the pursuit of the NIC’s mission.

“We face many challenges in the Greek system today and this internal squabbling has rendered the NIC increasingly paralyzed in its efforts,” said Bill Farkas, chief executive officer, Lambda Chi Alpha

Lambda Chi Alpha prides itself on being an organization that meets or exceeds all NIC standards and the fraternity will continue to hold its chapters and members accountable to standards that are equal to or greater than those advanced by the NIC.

“Lambda Chi Alpha will continue to pursue the development of strong co-curricular partnerships with our host institutions across North America and to promote an environment where all like-minded Greek organizations can be successful,” Farkas said. “Unfortunately, we will do so outside the umbrella of the NIC, unless or until, we are convinced that the NIC’s policies and values are consistent with ours and consistent with the best interests of our campus communities.”

[Kevin]

So a flounce.

[naraht]

That's a fundamental difference to me. The (international) NPC supports individual school NPCs, the (international) NIC doesn't support school NICs. (I'm guessing the NPHC are closer to the NIC model).

As for the rights to Baird's. I'm *really* not sure how keeping the ownership of both the name "Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities" and the copyrights of the post 1923 editions of the Manual generates one dime of revenue to the NIC.

While making a good new Baird's would be easier than it was in 1905 (for example), most of that is because the chapter list and organization descriptions are easily available through the web. In fact, I would argue that at least 70% of the contents of a 2015 Baird's would be quite reasonable to have on Wikipedia (and what isn't would fit well on a private wiki)

In fact if Baird's didn't exist, someone in 2015 trying to get the information similar to what Baird did in 1879 would spend about 3 hours on the web.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by naraht

That's a fundamental difference to me. The (international) NPC supports individual school NPCs, the (international) NIC doesn't support school NICs.

Right, because there are no such things as "school NICs." There are IFCs, the members of which may or may not belong to the NIC or other umbrella orgs.

[naraht]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Right, because there are no such things as "school NICs." There are IFCs, the members of which may or may not belong to the NIC or other umbrella orgs.

And as far as I can tell, the NIC doesn't care if the IFC at a school contains only NIC members, only NIC and former NIC members, or even groups that allow membership to NIC members (like Kappa Kappa Psi or Alpha Phi Omega)

[DubaiSis]

It is really not fair to compare NIC to NPHC or NPC because both are much smaller in terms of member organizations and are much more cohesive in structure. But that begs the question of what the role of the NIC actually is or what it should be. If an NPC or NPHC sorority or fraternity were to surrender its membership in the umbrella organization I think they'd be in a world of hurt. It doesn't seem to really matter to the life of the traditionally white male fraternities. And I think that's because there doesn't seem to be a clear purpose to NIC's existence in the first place. But maybe I've missed something. That's why I kept asking what the NIC was doing, trying to do or not doing that ticked off Lambda Chi. I might understand their modus operandi if I could understand the offense.

[naraht]

Part of the reason that the NIC may be so *easy out* is that it is so *easy in*. If you had an appropriately focused social GLO with 15 active groups, of which 10 have been active for more than a decade, the NIC would welcome the group, OTOH, the NPC and NPHC wouldn't even answer their calls for another decade and they'd have to double their number of chapters.

Which was part of what was really off for Revenge of the Nerds 2 for me. It wasn't that Lambda Lambda Lambda was a member of the same council as Alpha Beta (which while predating the 4 NPHC groups joining wasn't that odd), it was the idea that the NIC equivalent could do anything as wide reaching as a Physical strength requirement. (and yes, that's separate than the idea of 20 somethings actually deciding this.)

The NPC and NPHC are tightly enough joined that they could do this (or something similar), the NIC *really* not so much.

(So I analyze RoTN movies, sue me. )

[KSigkid]

Does being part of, or not being part of, NIC make any difference? My fraternity left a number of years ago and I don't think it's really affected things for Kappa Sig (although I am not all that involved in fraternity affairs).

[Tom Earp]

Originally Posted by naraht

That's a fundamental difference to me. The (international) NPC supports individual school NPCs, the (international) NIC doesn't support school NICs. (I'm guessing the NPHC are closer to the NIC model).

As for the rights to Baird's. I'm *really* not sure how keeping the ownership of both the name "Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities" and the copyrights of the post 1923 editions of the Manual generates one dime of revenue to the NIC.

While making a good new Baird's would be easier than it was in 1905 (for example), most of that is because the chapter list and organization descriptions are easily available through the web. In fact, I would argue that at least 70% of the contents of a 2015 Baird's would be quite reasonable to have on Wikipedia (and what isn't would fit well on a private wiki)

In fact if Baird's didn't exist, someone in 2015 trying to get the information similar to what Baird did in 1879 would spend about 3 hours on the web.

Bairds has not put out a new edition in a very long time so excludes the Latino and Asian GLOs. In the last Bairds some of the history has been lost even though it is the most pages ever printed by the book.

But whether LXA dropped out of NIC may or not matter as it does not seem to have hurt KS and PDT.

Granted NIC is not a NPC, maybe, it has lost it's usefulness for Fraternities. It is not a ruling body as is the NPC which dictates to Sororities as it does. The NIC is more of a lobying organization than a governing body like NPC.

Maybe, just maybe it is time for a change within both groups?

Just food for thought. And I support LXA for the move that they made.