From the NPC Chairman: Ensuring vibrant, healthy fraternity and sorority communities

When I wrote my first chairman’s message last November, little did I know how prophetic it might prove to be. Now, as I reflect on this past year, the members of the National Panhellenic Conference most certainly have been “facing challenges and embracing opportunities… together.”

During 2017, we identified many challenges, including a plateau in sorority community expansion and a decline in the number of college-aged students, which make up the vast majority of our potential pool for new members. We were also aware of the impacts to the sorority experience from new generational trends for our current members as well as incoming college students.

All of these things were putting pressure on NPC and our member organizations to examine how we work internally and how we work together. Yet, even more challenges lay ahead including student tragedies that would call us to be even more vigilant in fighting against hazing, alcohol abuse and dangerous social cultures on college campuses.

There also was an increase in policy decisions that would restrict the right of students to freely associate and threaten the opportunity for collegians to become sorority members.

NPC faced these challenges head-on and embraced the opportunities laid before us, and we did so with NPC leadership, staff and our 26 member organizations working toward the same objective: To advance the sorority experience together.

Our work began with five strategic priorities:

• Preservation of the sorority experience
• Growth and sustainability
• Conference structure
• Public relations and marketing strategy to promote the sorority experience
• Implementation of the NPC communication plan

With those priorities in mind, we executed the kinds of operational activities that make a difference for our member organizations, College Panhellenics and Alumnae Panhellenics. It’s that combination of strategic planning and operational work that demonstrates our commitment to tackling important issues that impact the Panhellenic community so the sorority experience may thrive now and for generations to come.

NPC’s voice has been heard as we continue efforts to advocate for and preserve the sorority experience. We have taken our message on campus visits, to state legislators and to the steps of Capitol Hill. Working hand in hand with each other and with our fraternity partners we are making a difference on our campuses, in our communities and on the state and national levels.

NPC continues to advocate for the positions we have taken against infringement on the rights of our organizations through conversations with university and college administrators with the purpose of providing education that we want to be partners with our host institutions, but when oversight overreaches, we are proactive in protecting our future.

Continued collaboration with our member organizations, industry partners and higher education administrators will ensure that our sorority and fraternity communities stay vibrant and healthy now and into the future.

Interfraternally,

Carole J. Jones

2017-19 NPC chairman

For more about the work of NPC, please read our latest annual report.

Feature stories in this year's report include NPC's advocacy work, the work of NPC think tanks to address the challenges of today's world, partnerships, College Panhellenic Academy, College Panhellenic projects, Alumnae Panhellenic projects and communications.

Advocating for the value of the sorority experience

More than 235 fraternity and sorority members, both alumni and students, were on Capitol Hill on April 25 advocating for sororities and fraternities and the value they provide to our members. Our organizations’ values of character and dignity guide our members in their daily lives as they serve their campus and local communities.

Each year since 2002, the Fraternal Government Relations Coalition (FGRC), which is a collaborative effort between the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC), North-American Interfraternity Conference (NIC), Fraternity and Sorority Political Action Committee (FSPAC) and Fraternity and Sorority Action Fund (FSAF), has lobbied in Washington, D.C., in order to educate legislators on the value of sororities and fraternities and the advocacy issues important to NPC and NIC.

The FGRC represents 92 single-sex fraternities and sororities nationwide with more than 800,000 undergraduate members at over 9,500 chapters on almost 700 campuses, as well as more than 9.1 million alumni. The NPC and NIC set and execute the advocacy agenda for the FGRC. This year’s lobbying efforts, with more than 460 meetings between fraternity/sorority members and legislators or their staffs, focused on the value of the fraternity/sorority experience and our priorities for the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA).

This topic directly aligns with Pillar One of the NPC Government Relations Platform: Preservation of the sorority experience.

Working together with the NIC, FSPAC and FSAF, our goal is to gain support for protection of our experience through the reauthorization of the HEA. Our members have a constitutional right to freely assemble and associate, but there is a growing trend to punish single-sex organizations for existing by creating barriers and/or penalizing students who join such organizations. Harvard University is just one example as that institution is now blacklisting students who choose to join single-sex social organizations and seeks to force groups to become co-ed against their will. The Harvard policy affects this year’s freshman class and all future students, penalizing those who join single-sex organizations by rendering them ineligible for leadership positions in recognized student organizations, selection as a sports team captain and the Dean’s endorsement for a Rhodes, Marshall or Fulbright scholarship, where such endorsement is a prerequisite for consideration.

But, it’s not just Harvard that is seeking new ways to restrict freedom of association rights. It has become increasingly common for institutions of higher education to regulate and propose policies aimed at forcing single-sex social organizations to become co-ed or imposing burdensome policies and restrictions that undermine a student’s right to freely associate. Examples include blanket suspensions for all sororities and fraternities on a campus when one student or one organization is accused of misconduct and the adoption of operational restrictions that don’t apply to any other student organization on campus, such as not allowing first semester or first year students to choose to join a sorority or fraternity.

Students and alumni gather on Capitol Hill
to advocate for the fraternity and
sorority experience. More photos.

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce has taken the first step to protect every student’s freedom of association rights, including with single-sex social organizations. The committee’s HEA reauthorization bill – the PROSPER Act – includes language on this issue, but does not address or prevent actions taken by Harvard or a few other campuses that do not already recognize single-sex organizations.

That was our task on April 25 – to encourage House members to perfect the pending language in the PROSPER Act to include all students and to ask senators to include this same language in their own HEA reauthorization bill.

The value of protecting our single-sex experience now and for generations to come cannot be understated. Our organizations create a unique community of support. They are the one place on a college campus, where through a shared single-sex experience, young women or men can enjoy a sense of belonging, empowerment and personal development. NPC and NIC are committed to continuing to advocate for freedom of association rights for our organizations, and we invite you to join us by contacting your representatives here.

Chairman's Message: Celebrating Women's History Month & the Sorority Experience

Celebrated during the month of March in the United States, Women’s History Month traces its beginning back to the first International Women’s Day in 1911. As celebrations of International Women’s Day increased throughout the years, both in public school districts and on college campuses, President Jimmy Carter issued a presidential proclamation in February 1980 declaring the week of March 8,1980, as National Women’s History Week.

Women's History Month is celebrated
in March in the United States
and in October in Canada.
(Graphic source: National Women's History Project)

In 1987, due to the growing popularity of Women’s History Week and after being petitioned by the National Women’s History Project, Congress declared March as National Women’s History Month in perpetuity. Since then, a presidential proclamation is issued every year honoring the achievements of American women. (Note: In Canada, Women’s History Month is celebrated in October to coincide with Persons Day on October 18. It’s also an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of women and girls as trailblazers throughout Canadian history.)

This year’s Women’s History Month theme is “Nevertheless, She Persisted.” Most certainly, I equate this theme with the women of the National Panhellenic Conference. We are persistent as we advocate for the sorority experience and work to preserve the single-sex experience. And we are persistent in ensuring our sorority and fraternity communities stay vibrant and healthy.

Historically, our member organizations have survived two world wars, the Great Depression, drops in enrollment and public criticism of Greek-letter organizations.

In 1961, when negative opinion of social organizations was at its highest, NPC was persistent and adopted a twofold strategy: to reaffirm the constitutional right of fraternities to exist by virtue of freedom of assembly and to make an energetic stance toward re-educating the public about the value of sororities. 

For more than a decade, while many campuses became epicenters of social unrest for reasons that went far beyond the fraternity/sorority system, NPC walked a precise line in asserting the autonomy of its member organizations and maintaining constructive communication with host institutions. One triumph of collective, persistent action was NPC’s lobbying for the continued legality of single-sex status for fraternities and sororities. This status gained partial protection in 1974, when the U.S. Congress passed an exemption to Title IX of the Education Amendment of 1972 to allow colleges and universities to recognize single-sex social organizations.

As new issues continue to arise and our member organizations evolve, new opportunities and challenges are presented that profoundly impact operations and strategy of NPC. We will continue to be persistent by working to protect students’ rights to freely associate with a single-sex organization and preserving the rights of single-sex student organizations—so women can continue to benefit from the sorority experience now and for years to come.

How you can get involved:

• Use hashtag #HearHerHarvard to help support the women who are persistent in preserving their single-sex experience. 
• Stay informed on the latest legislation impacting sororities and single-sex organizations by following your member organization and NPC on social media. 
• When asked by your member organization, reach out to your congressional representatives about legislation designed to protect single-sex organizations at colleges and universities.

Interfraternally,

Carole J. Jones
2017-19 NPC chairman