Campus News Briefs - Fall 2017

CU Brings Back Fraternities

CU Boulder has established its own Interfraternity Council (IFC), allowing Greek social fraternities to affiliate directly with the university for the first time since 2005.

Two fraternities are on board for the 2017-18 school year: Phi Delta Theta and Sigma Tau Gamma.

CU is in talks with others. CU severed ties with social fraternities after pledge Lynn “Gordie” Bailey Jr. died from alcohol poisoning in 2005. Fraternities formed their own off-campus councils but were denied university privileges.

“We know that, for some students, being a member of a fraternity or sorority builds community, provides a support network and frames lasting friendships well beyond their college years,” said CU vice chancellor of student affairs Christina Gonzales.

Members of the new CU Interfraternity Council must sign an agreement requiring them to follow all university policies.

Heard Around Campus

The functioning of our society is based in large part on our ability to transport food, fuel and other goods — activities that would be severely affected by a nuclear war."

 — CU Boulder physicist Brian Toon on his latest study concerning nuclear war’s agricultural and oceanic impacts. 

What Lives in Your Showerhead?

It’s a fine time to clean your showerhead — you’ll find an entire microbial ecosystem living there.

But Noah Fierer wants a sample first.

The CU Boulder ecology and evolutionary biology professor and colleagues sent 1,500 kits to willing “citizen scientists” in nearly every state, Puerto Rico and parts of Europe, enlisting regular folks to swab their showerheads and return the slime samples to CU for DNA testing.

The researchers are trying to develop a more complete picture of showerhead bacteria communities and the conditions that allow them to thrive. They’ll pay special attention to microbes that cause non-tuberculous mycobacterial disease (NTM).

For more on this study, click here.