Auxiliary Groups

There are several problems with little sister and auxiliary groups.

First, there is Title IX.  This the legislation that maintains parity for both men’s and women’s activities within higher education.  Fraternities and Sororities or “affinity groups” (as we are defined by law) are allowed to exist through special provision.  The practice of selecting women who recruit, socialize, wear letters (or a form of letters), and basically do the job of members are in position to be viewed as “members” of the organization and thereby placing at risk the ability of a fraternity to exist as a single-gender organization.

More Liability

You will hear the word “liability” tossed around a lot.  Little Sister’s increase a chapter’s exposure to risk by placing women in member roles such as recruitment, fundraising, and socializing.  If they are acting in any membership capacity they expose the organization because the little sisters are NOT an agent of the chapter and are not covered by a chapter’s risk management liability coverage.

What about Sweethearts?

The practice of selecting a single woman to serve as a representative of the chapter at official events is approved and encouraged by many inter/national organizations.  There is a stark difference between selecting a sweetheart for the chapter and allowing each brother to have a “little sister”, “big sister”, or a comparable position.

Statement of Position Regarding Little Sister Groups

The North-American Interfraternity Conference believes sororities and women’s fraternities offer excellent opportunities for women to share a fraternal experience and that auxiliary women’s groups organized by some men’s fraternity chapters, commonly referred to as “little sisters,” are inconsistent with the concept and philosophy of separate and equal women’s fraternities.  The Conference joins the Fraternity Executives Association and several member fraternities in strongly discouraging “little sister” groups as inappropriate adjuncts to the collegiate chapters of men’s fraternities.  One of the Standards of the NIC calls for member fraternities to work with their chapters to eliminate these programs.

Statement of Position Regarding Single-Gender Membership

Fraternities and sororities have the right under the United States Constitution and civil rights laws to exist as single-gender organizations and to maintain that status, especially under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.  Further, Title IX of the Educational Amendment of 1972 provides that sexual discrimination shall not apply to membership practices of a social fraternity or social sorority that is exempt from taxation under section 501 of the IRS Code of 1954, the active membership of which consists primarily of students in attendance at an institution of higher education.

Beyond this, the North-American Interfraternity Conference affirms that men’s and women’s fraternities offer excellent opportunities for men and women to share a fraternal experience, and it supports the National Panhellenic Conference in its Resolution on Single-Sex Fraternities.  The NIC believes single-gender organizations develop the character of an individual by

  • Providing students with campus communities that provide an intimate, family-like structure;
  • Providing a focus on scholarship, personal development, trust, mutual assistance and friendships;
  • Offering full membership to men and women in their respective single-gender organizations;
  • Opening membership with no discriminatory clauses related to race, creed or national origin;
  • Allowing the chapter and candidate an opportunity for mutual agreement on membership; and
  • Allowing the members of these private organizations to identify their friends without restraint.

The Conference believes strongly in single-gender membership and the acceptance of entirely male or female members, and it asserts the rights of every member fraternity to confine membership to men and to exist as single-gender organizations.