-: Hi, my name is Isaac Jacobs,
and I am the president of the Inter-fraternity Council
and I am a member of Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity.
Today, what I wanna talk to you guys about
is how fraternity life is like here at UNL.
There are five large values that we use
to guide our community to the best that they can be,
and that is academic achievement, leadership development,
civic engagement, community and belonging,
and inclusive excellence.
Building on to academic achievement.
Last fall, we had an all Greek GPA average of 3.221,
which is 0.2 higher than the non-Greek average.
Moving on to leadership development.
Fraternities have leadership programs
that is specific to each fraternity
that help teach men how to live their lives
and develop leadership and professional skills
that they need for their future endeavors.
With civic engagement, all the fraternities here
have specific philanthropies that raise for events
that they all feel passionate about,
but one that unifies the entire Greek fraternity life here
is the April Sampson Cancer Center
provided by the Bryan Hospitals here in Lincoln,
and we have decided to raise $150,000
for the local cafe within that cancer center.
Community and belonging is a huge part of Greek life
here at UNL.
Everybody is welcome and each fraternity has a brotherhood
that can not be broken.
And moving on to inclusive and excellence,
everybody is welcome.
Everybody's accepted for who they are
and it's a home away from home.
-: I'm Colton Husa.
I'm the director of recruitment
here at the University of Nebraska
for Inter-fraternity Council,
and what I'm gonna be telling you today
is how to join a fraternity.
So there's an online interest form
that you're gonna fill out that shares your information
with all the chapters here on campus.
It's open recruitment here,
which means that all fraternities rush all year round,
no matter the time of year.
Fraternities may reach out when inviting you.
You can reach out to them as well.
It's mutual contact.
When joining a fraternity,
you really wanna think about your values
and if you are the right fit into the fraternity.
You also wanna ask the questions as contracts, meal plans,
other things that you need to do
throughout the semester, time commitments.
There's just endless opportunities
and this is your time to ask questions.
-: Hi, my name's Kyle Schroeder,
and I'm the director of philanthropy
and community service for IFC.
Today, I have a couple of tips and tricks
for you to remember
while you're doing your new member recruitment.
First, be yourself, be authentic, and be honest
with what you're looking for in a chapter.
PNM should always RSVP to their events,
that way chapters know who to expect.
Please do not touch chapter items.
Some of those items hold a lot of value to them.
Ask about finances, study hours,
and the time commitment that you may be signing up for.
Be on time to events and always have fun.
During the bidding process,
there will be two bid cards for the student,
the chapter declaration of interest
and the university online bid card.
Bids are given by the chapter to the PNM
and then that PNM has three options,
to accept, to hold, or to decline the bid.
Many fraternities do not recruit in the spring.
-: Hi, my name is Daniel Liebsack,
and I'm the director of finance and administration
for the IFC at UNL.
Today, I'm going to be talking to you guys
about chapter dues.
One thing I wanna bring attention to
is the fact that not all chapters at UNL are housed,
so this will therefore affect the cost of the dues.
An average cost to live in a chapter house
ranges from about 7,000 to 13,500 per year,
and an average cost of a non-housed
or an out-of-house member is around 1,500 to 2,500.
The cost difference is usually due
to including meal plans, their room, Wi-Fi,
study materials, cleaning materials, and parking.
Another thing to keep in mind
is that if you are planning to live
in a university-approved fraternity house,
you will be signing contracts,
so please make sure to learn
about all the cancellation processes
and refund policies of those contracts.
Additionally, you might have to cancel
your housing contract online with the residence halls,
and you can do that on your portal view,
your MyRED account.
-: Hi, my name's Mark Nusterer,
and I'm the director of strategy and public relations
for the IFC.
A big part of joining college is learning new things,
and we wanna help you with that.
And to do so,
we've developed a pioneering HuskerMan education program
that will teach you in the first days
of your college career how to be a good fraternity man
and man, in general.
This program on August 19th will help
to discuss various topics
retaining to both fraternity life and university life.
Additionally, you will likely undergo
a chapter education program with your individual chapter
that talks about your chapter history, the campus history,
general life skills, and leadership building.
As Colton mentioned, here at the University of Nebraska,
we do rush year round,
but the majority of the rushing and recruitment
happens in the summer.
That said, a lot of chapters do still recruit
in the spring and in the fall,
but these depend on the chapters
and whether or not they recruit
and how large the recruitment classes are depend heavily
on the chapters that you might be interested in.
To make sure that you could still rush
during the fall or during the spring,
reach out to the individual chapters you're interested in.
And as always, if you have questions, feel free
to contact the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life.