To faculty and staff,

The College Panhellenic Council and the CU Interfraternity Council, CU’s university-recognized fraternity community, is kicking off its annual recruitment. Recruitment events will take place over Labor Day for the College Panhellenic and throughout the month of September for CUIFC. This year, we anticipate more than 1,600 potential new members will register and participate in this this process. Additionally, there are 3,000 current members who will be recruiting for their chapters. Because a significant portion of undergraduate students are involved, we thought it would be important to provide our faculty and staff information on the students’ engagement in this process and the impact on their academics.

Office of Fraternity & Sorority Life (FSL) and all our councils want to emphasize that we do not condone or encourage any potential or current member to miss class or an academic commitment because of a recruitment event. We believe strongly that the first priority of any student should be their coursework. For potential new members, recruitment schedule adjustments are possible to ensure each student has the best experience possible without infringing on their academic endeavors. For current members, each chapter will also make similar accommodations without the threat of a fine or other penalty resulting in a member’s choice to fulfill their academic commitments over recruitment.

We will do our very best to educate all recruits and current members who are participating in recruitment events that academics will come first. Although all participants are informed that they are not to miss their academic commitments, it is their personal choice if they choose to do so. If you run into a situation where a student is telling you they are required to miss class or commitment, please pass on their name, and whether they are a recruit or their chapter affiliation if they are an active member so we can follow up appropriately. Feel free to reference this letter if they insist on putting recruitment first.

We believe in the importance of academics and support the academic mission of the university. We also believe that building strong connections outside of the classroom is essential. However, those connections should not compromise academic achievement.

In community,

Stephanie Baldwin
Director Fraternity & Sorority Life
stephanie.baldwin@colorado.edu