During the fall semester, the InterFraternity Council (IFC) conducted a survey through Dyad Strategies of the 21 IFC-affiliated fraternities. The survey addressed a wide variety of topics, from brotherhood to drugs, alcohol and hazing, according to IFC President Tyler Smith, a fourth-year studying Biomedical and Health Science Engineering.
According to Joe Magraw, December graduate and president of the 2018 Executive Board, many fraternity and sorority organizations from different campuses have had serious issues.
“We haven’t had a serious issue of hazing and there have been no deaths, but since we’ve seen so many different campuses and communities really struggle with that, we wanted to take a proactive step and put our best foot forward,” Magraw said. “We don’t want to be trying to pick up the pieces after something like this happens.”
According to Magraw, IFC’s goal was to have 70 percent of the IFC community respond to the survey created by Dyad Strategies, based on their previous experience with other college campuses and national fraternity organizations; however, responses were only received from about 65 percent of the community.
The survey is a part of a three-year plan developed by the 2018 IFC Executive Board to create a proactive approach to the problems faced by campuses, according to Magraw.
“We were working with the CEO of Dyad, and he said that’s better than many other campuses and national organizations; most other ones are lucky to get 50 percent,” Magraw said. “I prided myself and our community that we were a step ahead of these other campuses and national organizations. We had two-thirds of our men complete this survey, which I think is fantastic because it gives us so much more data to base our plan on.”
Magraw said that the survey closed around Labor Day, and plans were in place to have the CEO of Dyad Strategies visit to break down the data, but was then postponed due to Hurricane Florence. The data came back to IFC at the end of the fall semester, and the plan has been continued by the 2019 Executive Board.
According to Magraw, IFC has created two committees made up of three chapter presidents, who each represent smaller, medium sized and large IFC fraternities. These two committees will call on experts from NC State and other relevant organizations to help develop the three year plan.
“We’re looking at this three-year strategic plan as an innovation process and a chance for our community to improve and blossom and work to better ourselves,” Magraw said. “I think this will be a great opportunity for our fraternities and our community to shine and improve upon themselves both as a community and as their individual organizations.”
Magraw said the first year and a half of the proactive plan will be developed by the committees and be sent for approval to chapter presidents this semester. The second year and a half of the plan will be approved before the end of the spring semester.
Smith agreed, saying that the future is bright for the IFC community.
“Me and my board have never been more confident for what the future is going to hold for fraternity life here at NC State,” Smith said.
