Beta Upsilon Chi Joins NIC

[LaneSig]

http://nicindy.org/news/2016/beta-up...ty-conference/



"The North-American Interfraternity Conference (NIC) welcomes Beta Upsilon Chi as its newest member fraternity. Beta Upsilon Chi has joined the NIC to “align itself with the fraternal movement” and access advocacy and resources that will elevate its value in higher education, said Jason Hoyt, Beta Upsilon Chi President and Chief Operating Officer"

[Kevin]

An interesting move... expand onto lots of campuses as just another student organization like Key Club, THEN join NIC and vie for IFC acceptance and participation in formal recruitment. I'm not sure this is fair to other fraternities which have applied to expand on any campus Beta Upsilon Chi is operating on where other groups were chosen. Also, I'm at least on an anecdotal level aware that there are lots of individuals with dual membership in other NIC groups and Beta Upsilon Chi.

[navane]

Originally Posted by Kevin

An interesting move... expand onto lots of campuses as just another student organization like Key Club, THEN join NIC and vie for IFC acceptance and participation in formal recruitment. I'm not sure this is fair to other fraternities which have applied to expand on any campus Beta Upsilon Chi is operating on where other groups were chosen. Also, I'm at least on an anecdotal level aware that there are lots of individuals with dual membership in other NIC groups and Beta Upsilon Chi.

I'm curious about your opinion as stated here as it sounds like you're suggesting that Beta Upsilon Chi took a "back door" into NIC and IFCs. I first learned of Beta Upsilon Chi back in the late 1990s - I think they've been around 30 years or so. I never got the impression that they were expanding to campuses so that they could try and angle themselves into the local IFCs.

What caught my eye about your post is that you suggested they would "...expand onto lots of campuses as just another student organization like Key Club...". To my knowledge, the opposite is true. They have struggled to get recognized as even a "regular" campus club on various campuses, due to their requirement for members to be professing Christians. When I worked for the student activities and Greek life office at San Diego State University, we had this same issue with a different Christian fraternity and a Christian sorority who were denied club recognition for not adhering to the non-discrimination policies regarding religion. (See here: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/...lic-university). BYX had a handful of court cases over this very same thing.

So, I am wondering if Beta Upsilon Chi is simply trying to take their organization to the next level by joining NIC or if this is an attempt to try and gain legitimacy for their discriminatory policies. Either way, except for the situation of what to do with the handful of dual-members that may arise, I'm not sure how them joining NIC or IFC would affect their participation in formal recruitment. BYX is going for a very specific type of man - non-Christians are automatically out. Among Christians, I would think there would still be a certain kind of Christian man that would prefer the heavily religious atmosphere of BYX over "just" being a Christian in one of the other NIC fraternities.

Thoughts?

[clemsongirl]

At Clemson, BYX was already on the local IFC, although they aren't really viewed as a social fraternity in the way that all the other fraternities are (even dual purpose orgs suchas FarmHouse/AGR/Triangle). I know the recognition issue was also in play at Vanderbilt University and ended with all religious organizations being derecognized as well:

http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/4543/

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/0...gious-freedom/

[Kevin]

It's settled at my alma mater. BYX joined the NIC, so it was invited to participate fully in IFC.