Canadians Go Greek: the source for Canadian Chapters

University of Western Ontario's Western News - April 28, 3005

Fraternities seek to polish image

By Paul Mayne

A revitalized Interfraternity Council hopes a new 'tradition of brotherhood' will help shed a party stereotype that has contributed to flagging interest and deteriorating conditions at many of the almost one dozen fraternity residences in London.

As one of the largest fraternity-based universities in Canada, newly-elected IC President Chris Turino says a tremendous amount of work has been done recently to build cooperation among city fraternities.

"The council hasn't been very active the last couple of years," says Turino, a Western Social Science student.

"But in the last few weeks we've elected a new executive and all fraternities have signed a contract for full cooperation amongst each other regarding recruiting new members. We've made so much more progress in the last month than in the last two years." Fraternities were hit with lower than expected numbers of recruits last fall, said council spokesperson Andrew Peebles. Peebles said unlike in the United States where many fraternities are regulated and even partially supported by universities, Western exercises no control and offers no financial support. In addition, Peebles says local fraternities do not get to enjoy another advantage that helps their U.S. cousins - strong fraternity alumni support. The result has been less money to support maintenance and renovations. The key to a turnaround, he says, is greater cooperation among the fraternities.

Turino says Western's fraternities, with more than 300 members, will be working on the premise of cooperation when it comes to things such as philanthropy, fundraising and community involvement. "We've been put down hard in the past and don't believe its fair," says Turino, adding fraternity policy is academics first with a 2.25 GPA requirement for membership.

"We're like a business and we want to grow and become even more successful. We want to produce men of value and character who give something back to their community." Turino says he wants to set the bar high during his term as president and hopes to set a precedent as to what fraternities mean to students -- and the university.

"We want to show that being part of a fraternity is worth it; that it's an important part of university life," he says. "We have a lot of work to do, but we've made some huge leaps this last month and it will only get better."