+ How Can Your Son Benefit From Fraternity Membership?

For your son, making the transition from high school or a community college to a four-year college or university may seem like an imposing challenge. One or more of the following questions may be on his mind:

Will I fit in and make new friends? Will I be able to succeed academically? Will I be able to get involved in campus organizations and better my leadership skills? Will I find other people interested in the same things that I am? How can I prepare for my career? Will I feel like a part of the campus community or just another number? Fraternities exist as a proven support network for your son as he embarks on this new period in his life. Over 400,000 students across the country are currently fraternity members. The fraternity can help personalize your son's college experience by offering a scholastic support system; hands-on experience in leading committees, managing budgets, and interacting with faculty and administrators; exposure to potential careers through educational programs and discussions with alumni; the chance to give back to the community through service projects; and close friends who will cheer him on when he is successful and support him when times are tough. With all these opportunities available to them, it is no wonder that fraternity members tend to graduate from college at a higher rate than those men not involved in fraternities. As a parent, you are undoubtedly concerned about your son's college experience and the choices he will make.

+ Why consider joining?

As CU Fraternity Men, let us speak directly to your concerns. At over 2000 colleges and universities across the United States, recruitment takes place every year because of the proven benefits that early introduction into fraternity culture has for the undergraduates, the universities, and, most importantly, the parents. At CU, we believe in a “delayed” Rush Week. Before deciding whether to affiliate, your son has had time on the Boulder campus to feel comfortable with college life. Most likely, he has met many of our members from different fraternities already. So have him check us out during Rush and see if what we have is something he wants or needs. If he wants to wait until next year, we will still be here. But there are proven advantages for both students and their parents in affiliating now. Men who affiliate with one of our 18 chapters near the beginning of their student life at CU will:

Know and interact with adult alumni who are advisors, trustees, counselors, members of the house corporation and more. These are business and professional men who volunteer their time to the men in each house. Freshmen who only live in the dorm do not have that kind of contact with adults except as professors or coaches. Have a “Big Brother,” an upperclassman, in the fraternity to be a mentor, a resource, and a guide during his transition and beyond. He will also make friends with sophomores, juniors, and seniors in the chapter who can advise him on academics, majors, classes and professors, and the like. Freshmen who only live in the dorms have very little contact with older, experienced students, as the CU dorms are full and 98% of residents are freshmen. Most of the other 2% are Residence Hall Advisors working for the University. Be involved immediately in a variety of leadership, athletic, scholastic, service, and philanthropic activities, which are the core of our chapters’ programming. Every chapter pays great attention to the time it requires of its new members and monitors their academic progress. Freshmen who only live in the dorms may find some of these opportunities--if they seek them out on their own or can find them at all on our huge campus. Have the opportunity to attend, should he choose, the most organized, structured, well planned, and safest social events in Boulder. Every fraternity social event is registered and observed by the IFC and visited by the Boulder Police, who are informed and invited at least 72 hours before the event. Freshmen who only live in the dorms may attend unplanned, unorganized, and uncontrolled “off campus” parties or be involved in illegal “social events” behind locked doors in the dorms. Statistically and per capita, there are far more incidents of risky and illegal behaviors involving students in the dorms and off campus than in all of our fraternities combined. “Risk Reducation” is a large part of our training and every program in every fraternity.

+ National Fraternity Stats at a Glance

Total Undergraduate Fraternity Membership: 304,171*

Number of Men Initiated in 2009-2010: 92,868 5626 Chapters on roughly 800 campuses Community Service Hours: 2.25 million hours Philanthropic Dollars Raised: $14.6 million All-Fraternity GPA: 2.925 versus All-Male GPA: 2.902>/ Greeks in 112th US Congress: 42 Senators (42%), 101 Congressmen (23%) 50% of the Top 10 Fortune 500 CEOs are fraternity men; 15% of Fortune 100 CEOs are Greek 25% of all US Presidents have been fraternity alumni 31% of all US Supreme Court Justices have been fraternity alumni () Compiled from our 75 Member Fraternities in the NIC Standards Compliance Report for the 2009-2010