The Marquette Interfraternity Council voted Wednesday night to open for expansion, after the North-American Interfraternity Conference dictated IFC’s previous vote against expansion Oct. 2 to be a violation of NIC policy.
“As a rep I’m happy to see that expansion passed and I know that Kappa Sigma is looking forward to seeing a new chapter on campus,” said Brian Timmreck, Kappa Sigma IFC delegate and a senior in the College of Communication.
IFC originally followed its own expansion policy, which allows for chapters to vote based on their own interests. Five of the seven voting chapters, however, are members of the NIC. They are required to vote in favor of expansion by their national headquarters, which agreed to a policy of open expansion.
“It’s the belief that we had a lot more autonomy to make our own decisions as a Marquette community than as a fraternal system as a whole,” said Eric Eichelberger, IFC president and a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences.
The IFC executive board and the Office of Student Development will now draft an invitation to let organizations know that Marquette opened for expansion. They will send that letter to NIC, who will distribute it to interested fraternities. They will take applications until the first week of spring semester.
IFC’s march toward expansion began at the end of last semester when a group approached IFC with an interest in bringing a new fraternity to campus. The group is made up of Thomas Schick, a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences; Jason Kurtyka, a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences; and Matthew Walker, a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences. Schick and Walker are MUSG senators and Kurtyka stepped down from his MUSG position last month.
“We are excited and grateful for the opportunity that we have to create something that we feel can benefit each member of the Marquette community,” Schick said after the vote passed.
An expansion committee will be formed to narrow down applications to three choices, which they will present to IFC for an approval vote. The interest group and every current fraternity will have representation on the search committee, including Sigma Chi, who is not recognized by the university this semester.
The university still needs to approve the organization that will be chosen to come to campus.
The interest group instilled confidence in members of IFC that the organization they will help bring to Marquette will benefit the Marquette community.
“Knowing that they are already active leaders in the Marquette community, which is something that we stress for fraternities and sororities, I only have confidence that they will be able to recruit young men and make them the leaders that we need on this campus,” Eichelberger said.
IFC’s vote to open for expansion follows Marquette’s Panhellenic Association, who voted for extension Oct. 8.
