NPC RESOLUTION LENDS SUPPORT TO SUBSTANCE-FREE HOUSING MOVEMENT

Timothy M. Burke, Manley & Burke

The National Panhellenic Conference  (NPC)  has added its voice to the growing support for substance-free Greek housing. At the National Panhellenic Conference biennial meeting in Norfolk, Virginia, on Saturday, October 18th, NPC unanimously adopted a resolution supporting the effort of several men’s groups to adopt substance-free housing provisions. NPC specifically recognized FarmHouse Fraternity for having long operated its houses on a substance-free basis and also applauded the efforts of Phi Delta Theta, Phi Gamma Delta, and Sigma Nu for their recent commitments to ban alcohol from their residences by July 1, 2000. The NPC recognized that “the conduct, scholastic performance, health ·and welfare of students is being adversely affected by the alcohol-dominated culture of many college campuses.” The Resolution went on to find that the efforts to create alcohol-free housing were intended to “provide an atmosphere conducive to the formation of lifetime bonds of brotherhood, grounded in fraternal ideals and values” and “to create a living environment where behavior consistent with fraternity principles can flourish.”

The resolution specifically provided that NPC member groups:

“Strongly encourage their collegiate chapters, when co-hosting or selecting for paired events, to give preference to Farm House, Phi Delta Theta, Phi Gamma Delta, and Sigma Nu, and any other men’s fraternity chapter which embraces the policy of substance-free fraternity housing.”

The NPC resolution also made it clear that the conference will seek to disseminate its resolution as widely as possible, both through the news media, to every National Interfraternity Conference (NIC) member fraternity and to the Interfraternity Councils (IFC) of each college or university where there are chapters of NPC member groups.

The 26 member groups of NPC have long had their own provisions against alcohol and illegal drugs in their chapter houses.