University to Require Frat Pledges to Take Class


In an email message to the Interfraternity Council (IFC) listserv on Thursday, President Nik Milanovic (also a columnist for the *Review*) announced that the University would be requiring all pledges of campus fraternities to take a class on alcohol issues, sexual assault, and hazing among other topics.

The course, Athletic 1 (Alcohol & Health in College Life), will be offered as a one-unit pass/fail course in the spring and will occur on Friday afternoons from 2:15-4:05PM. According to Milanovic, the class will be a “non-negotiable component of joining a fraternity.”

That requirement, however, introduces the complication of the overlap of fraternity rush periods with the quarter’s add/drop deadline. Milanovic explained:

Unfortunately, the Add/Drop deadline is scheduled such that classes must be added and/or dropped by April 15th.This conflicts directly with rush, which is, like all other years, the 2nd and 3rd weeks of spring quarter – April 3rd to April 17th. The stipulations of the class require that every new member attend the first class on April 15th.

The conflict could force fraternities to change their spring rush calendars. In his email to fraternity leaders, Milanovic laid out five possible solutions, which focused mainly on moving up the start of rush to week 1 of the quarter. As he explained, maintaining the current start time during week 2 would require that many students receive special exemptions from the add/drop deadline so that they could remove themselves from Athletic 1 after not being accepted into any fraternities.

Milanovic emphasized that the course was not IFC’s decision and that Residential Education and the Office of Greek of Life made the decision “without [the IFC’s] involvement.”

A vote by the IFC on how to proceed with rush scheduling is expected on Wednesday of this week.