Only one of OCU’s fraternities is a member of the North-American Interfraternity Conference.
The NIC is a national association that represents fraternities in the U.S.
Phi Gamma Delta (FIJI) is the only fraternity at OCU still involved in the NIC.
Lambda Chi Alpha resigned its membership Oct. 27.
“Lambda Chi believes the NIC’s new direction is counterproductive and does not support a co-curricular partnership with our host institutions,” read the letter of resignation on Lambda Chi’s website, lambdachi.org.
Some of the disagreements and the resignation stem from the NIC’s support of the Safe Campus Act, said Elias Dominguez, Lambda Chi secretary.
The Campus Accountability and Safety Act would stop colleges from investigating sexual assault cases and would no longer allow them to punish a student for committing sexual assault unless the alleged victim agrees to report the attack to police. The full bill can be found at congress.gov.
The NIC and the National Panhellenic Conference are promoting the legislation.
The national offices of OCU’s four sororities have spoken out against the legislation.
Lambda Chi disagrees with the act, Dominguez said.
“What they’re doing with the purpose of benefitting fraternities and sororities is just not what Lambda Chi follows,” Dominguez said. “In the Safe Campus Act, Lambda Chi is afraid people will stop reporting those types of cases because they’re going to be afraid of having to go to the police instead of just allowing the university to investigate.”
Disorganization and disagreements within the NIC also led to the resignation, he said.
Lambda Chi still will be a fraternity on campus and a part of OCU’s Interfraternity Council.
Kappa Sigma also resigned from the NIC in 2002.
Mason Maidt, ritual chairman for Kappa Sigma and IFC president, said he never heard why the fraternity left the NIC when it did, but all chapters continue to function normally under their national headquarters.
Lambda Chi is the fourth fraternity to leave the NIC to date, one of which has since rejoined. There are 73 fraternities left in the NIC.
“When an organization chooses to leave the NIC, it is a decision made on a national level and generally means that the organization is no longer restricted by the rules of the NIC,” Maidt said. “Though it also means that it no longer receives any NIC benefits.”
Lambda Chi will continue to maintain NIC policies.
“Lambda Chi Alpha prides itself on being an organization that meets or exceeds all NIC standards,” read the letter of resignation.
Editor’s note: Copy Editor John Hiller is president of Lambda Chi Alpha at OCU.
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