Interfraternity Council representatives voted 8-3 on Tuesday night to welcome Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity back to Northwestern and allow the previously banned chapter to begin recruiting on campus during Spring Quarter 2005.
Representatives from Zeta Beta Tau, Theta Chi and Chi Phi fraternities voted against welcoming an SAE colony back next spring, saying that bringing the fraternity back so soon could hurt recruitment for both smaller on-campus fraternities and recently returned fraternity Sigma Chi.
Keith Weghorst, Theta Chi vice president and a Weinberg sophomore, said after the vote that SAE’s return would pose a threat to individual fraternities’ recruitment.
“It kind of cripples us,” he said. “Although national recruitment for organizations like Sigma Chi may help promote recruitment in general, as a whole it draws away from other fraternities.”
Chi Phi President Rob Bralow said IFC should wait to bring back SAE until Sigma Chi becomes more integrated into NU’s Greek community.
Sigma Chi only has had one round of recruitment. Events were held during IFC’s first official spring recruitment, in which not all fraternities participated.
“We didn’t get to see what Sigma Chi did to the other, smaller houses’ recruitments,” said Bralow, a Weinberg junior. “I’ve talked to my members. They don’t want SAE on the campus at all.”
Zeta Beta Tau President Mike Bregman agreed that SAE’s return should be delayed, and he said such a delay would allow Sigma Chi to flourish and begin building a new base of members.
“Not next year,” said Bregman, a Weinberg junior. “Let Sigma Chi grow a little bit. Let them find their niche and become a house.”
SAE’s national organization is a member of National Interfraternity Conference, so after being invited to recolonize by university officials SAE must become part of IFC. Before the vote, IFC President Mitch Holzrichter, said that since the university already has welcomed SAE back, IFC had little power to prevent the fraternity’s return and should concentrate on determining an appropriate time.
“If we say we don’t want SAE coming back at all, in theory the university may let them in anyways,” said Holzrichter, a Weinberg junior who also is business manager of Students Publishing Co., which oversees The Daily.
SAE was kicked off campus in 1997 after being suspended by its national chapter, which cited poor grades, low pledge numbers, debt, a failure to carry out SAE rituals and members’ refusal to take drug tests as reasons for the chapter’s departure.
