National Intra-Fraternity Conference Established

1909

The North American Interfraternity Conference (or NIC; formerly known as the National Interfraternity Conference) is an association of collegiate men’s fraternities that was formally organized in 1910, although it began at a meeting at the University Club in New York City on November 27, 1909.

The power of the organization rests in a House of Delegates in which each member fraternity is represented by a single delegate. However, the group’s executive and administrative powers are vested in an elected board of directors consisting of nine volunteers from various NIC fraternities. Now headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, the NIC also operates a small professional staff.

The NIC seeks to provide services that will include, “but not be limited to, promotion of cooperative action in dealing with fraternity matters of mutual concern, research in areas of fraternity operations and procedures, fact-finding and data gathering, and the dissemination of such data to the member fraternities”. However, it notes that “[c]onference action shall not in any way abrogate the right of its member fraternities to self-determination.”

Originally named the Interfraternity Conference, the name was changed to the National Interfraternity Conference in 1931. The current name, the North American Interfraternity Conference, was adopted in 1999 to reflect the organization’s affiliations at Canadian colleges and universities.

Phi Delta Theta was a charter member of the National Intra-Fraternity Conference. In the early 2000’s, Phi Delta Theta was concerned with the focus and direction of the NIC and chose to leave the umbrella organization. Specifically, the Fraternity believed that the main focus of the NIC should be to provide services to its member organizations, rather than to individual undergraduates. Phi Delta Theta believed, and still believes, that the NIC should primarily focus its attention onre presenting the fraternity movement and acting as an advocate for its member fraternities with university administrators, government, the media, and the general public.