Dear CU Parents,

The Interfraternity Council at the University of Colorado-Boulder, Inc., along with its sponsoring organization, the Alumni Interfraternity Council, Inc, have welcomed your son to CU and invited him to “CHECK US OUT.”  Our annual Formal Fall Recruitment and Rush Week for 2009 begins with a “Meet-and-Greet” on Farrand Field from 3-6 p.m. on October 1 and a “House Previews: Bus Tour”  on Friday, October 2.  It concludes on Saturday, October 10th, with “Bid Day” at the UMC.  During the time in between, he will have many opportunities to visit chapter houses, meet fraternity brothers and other freshmen who have already affiliated, and have all of his (and your) questions answered.  All he has to do is register at not cost and with no obligation on www.ColoradoIFC.com.

Mom and Dad, as both undergraduate and alumni Fraternity Men, we know from our personal experiences the many excellent reasons for your son to “Check Us Out” now and see how Greek Life can enhance his undergraduate education, add value to the degree he will eventually earn at UC-B, and introduce him to life long friends.

From the National Interfraternity Conference:  How Can Your Son Benefit From Fraternity Membership?

For your son, making the transition from high school or a community college to a four-year college or university may seem like an imposing challenge. One or more of the following questions may be on his mind:

•    Will I fit in and make new friends?
•    Will I be able to succeed academically?
•    Will I be able to get involved in campus organizations and better my leadership skills?
•    Will I find other people interested in the same things that I am?
•    How can I prepare for my career?
•    Will I feel like a part of the campus community or just another number?

Fraternities exist as a proven support network for your son as he embarks on this new period in his life. Over 400,000 students across the country are currently fraternity members.  The fraternity can help personalize your son's college experience by offering a scholastic support system; hands-on experience in leading committees, managing budgets, and interacting with faculty and administrators; exposure to potential careers through educational programs and discussions with alumni; the chance to give back to the community through service projects; and close friends who will cheer him on when he is successful and support him when times are tough. With all these opportunities available to them, it is no wonder that fraternity members tend to graduate from college at a higher rate than those men not involved in fraternities.  As a parent, you are undoubtedly concerned about your son's college experience and the choices he will make.

 
From the CU Undergraduate and Alumni Interfraternity Councils:  Why consider joining now?  As CU Fraternity Men, let us speak directly to those concerns.  At over 2000 colleges and universities across the United States, recruitment takes place in the Fall because of the proven benefits that early introduction into Greek culture has for the undergraduates, the universities, and, most importantly, the parents.  At CU, we do a “delayed” Rush Week.  Before deciding whether to affiliate, your son will have been on campus almost seven weeks and completed five weeks of class.  Most likely, he will have met many of our members from different fraternities already.

So let him “Check Us Out” during Rush Week and see if what we have is something he wants or needs.  If he wants to wait until next semester or even next year, we will still be here.  But there are proven advantages for both students and their parents in affiliating now.  Men who affiliate with one of our 14 chapters during the beginning of their student life at CU will:

•  Know and interact with adult alumni who are advisors, trustees, counselors, members of the house corporation and more.  These are business and professional men who volunteer their time to the men in each house.  Freshmen who only live in the dorm do not have that kind of contact with adults except as professors or coaches.
• Have a “Big Brother,” an upperclassman, in the fraternity to be a mentor, a resource, and a guide during his transition and beyond.  He will also make friends with other sophomores, juniors, and seniors in the chapter who can advise him on academics, majors, classes and professors, and the like.  Freshmen who only live in the dorms have very little contact with experienced students, as the CU dorms are full and 98% of residents are freshmen.  Most of the other 2% are Residence Hall Advisors working for the University.
• Be involved immediately in a variety of leadership, athletic, scholastic, service, and philanthropic activities, which are the core of our chapters’ programming.  Every chapter pays great attention to the time it requires of its new members and monitors their academic progress.   Freshmen who only live in the dorms may find some of these opportunities--if they seek them out on their own or can find them at all on our huge campus.
• Have the opportunity to attend, should he choose, the most organized, structured, well planned, and safest social events in Boulder.  Every fraternity social event is registered and observed by the IFC and visited by the Boulder Police, who are informed and invited at least 72 hours before the event.  Freshmen who only live in the dorms may attend unplanned, unorganized, and uncontrolled “off campus” parties or be involved in illegal “social events” behind locked doors in the dorms.  Statistically and per capita, there are far more incidents of risky and illegal behaviors involving students in the dorms and off campus than in all of our fraternities combined.  “Risk Management” is a large part of our training and our program in every fraternity.

There is a more important reason for your son to “Check Us Out” and consider joining one of our Brotherhoods this semester. Fraternities are ethical and value-based organizations where strong bonds form and life-long friendships are developed.  While these will provide valuable professional networking across the country in the future, they provide your son with a family of like-minded and similarly motivated men immediately—and throughout his four years as an undergraduate at CU.  While all our chapters are similar in that regard, he needs to ask good, hard questions, too, because each is a different and unique organization.  Each does different things in different ways and has a unique group “personality.”

So, once again, let him “Check Us Out” and decide what fits, what works for him.  We will still be here next semester, next year, and for decades to come. There are proven advantages for both students and their parents in affiliating now.  It may well be that “one of our houses will become his home away from home” (and yours, too,) for the next four years.  

Parents can “Check Us Out,” too.  Go to www.ColoradoIFC.com and find information about our community, each of our chapters, links to their local and National Fraternity websites, leadership and recruitment contacts, and important information about “Rush Week.”  You might also wish to email our Greek Advocate or one of our adult, alumni advisors, listed below, if your son is interested in a particular fraternity.

Parent Resources

CU-Boulder Fraternity Information: www.ColoradoIFC.com
North American Interfraternity Conference: www.nicindy.org

For answers to parents’ questions about CU fraternity community:

IFC and Alumni IFC       Marc D. Stine, Greek Advocate      303-841-0132      mstine@usa.net      www.CUGreekAdvocate.com

For answers from an alumnus to parents’ questions about a specific fraternity:

Acacia                            Ted Vanderveen, advisor      t.vanderveen@dinemosaic.com
Alpha Epsilon Pi               Mark Nassi, advisor             mhnassi@nassi.org
Alpha Gamma Omega      Scott Hayzlett, advisor         scott@ago.org
Alpha Phi Delta                Ryan McCaw, advisor           rjmccaw@gmail.com     
Kappa Sigma                   Roger Dickens, advisor         rdickens75@yahoo.com       
Phi Kappa Psi                  Josh Mercier, advisor            jtmerc@gmail.com
Pi Kappa Alpha                Carl Jones, advisor               carl.jones@colorado.edu
Pi Kappa Phi                   Andrew Labbe, advisor          andrew.labbe@gmail.com
Sigma Alpha Epsilon        Brice Nesbitt, advisor            brice.nesbitt@gmail.com
Sigma Nu                       Michael Hojel, advisor           jmhojel@gmail.com
Sigma Phi Epsilon           Andrew Schneider, advisor     andrew.d.schneider@gmail.com
Sigma Pi                        Nicholas Zeisler, advisor        zetadeltacd@sigmapi.org
Theta Xi                        Matt Ristvet, advisor              eireduck@gmail.com
Zeta Beta Tau                Steve Ehrlich, advisor             ehrlich14@aol.com

Coming Oct 2009            Phi Gamma Delta                   www.phigam.org
Coming Feb 2010            Chi Psi                                  www.chipsi.org