The Interfraternity Council wants to put more responsibility on fraternities for holding parties and wants to take the power of sanctioning fraternities from NIU.

IFC President Tom Zur said that, originally, IFC planned to vote on the alcohol policy at its meeting last night. But, because several fraternity members want more time to be able to discuss the policy, the vote was postponed, he said.

Jeff Parker, IFC risk-reduction committee chairman, said the committee will discuss the policy in more detail. He said several people have expressed concern about some points in the policy being too general.

The committee will define the policy in more specific terms, Parker said. A meeting was scheduled for Wednesday for fraternity members to express their opinions on the policy, he said.

Parker said that in two weeks, officers of each fraternity will take the policy back to their chapter for input from house members.

Two weeks after each chapter reviews the policy, IFC will vote on it, Parker said. “It’s a long process. It (the policy) won’t be voted on for about a month,” he said.

In addition to taking more responsibility for fraternity parties, IFC wants to be able to impose sanctions against fraternity members instead of having the university set punishment, Zur said.

Cufaude said sanctions are imposed either by NIU’s Judicial Board or University Programming and Activities. He said his office has the authority to impose sanctions involving student organizations.

Once the self-governing policy has been formulated, which will put more cases under IFC’s jurisdiction, it will be submitted to the NIU administration for approval, Cufaude said.

“It (the policy) is an opportunity for more self governance,” Cufaude said.

Tom Kermagard, IFC administrative committee vice president, proposed IFC constitutional changes, which would give the IFC Judicial Board supreme power.

Jeff Cufaude, activities adviser for UP&A, said the judicial board would hold hearings and would decide any sanctions against fraternity members.

Any sanctions the judicial board imposes would be approved by IFC’s executive board, Parker said. Cufaude said this will ensure the sanctions are consistent.

The proposed judicial board would have eight members—six fraternity members and two faculty advisers, Parker said. Student judicial board members would be elected by fraternity members, he said.

Cufaude said the two faculty advisers would be elected by the fraternity advisory group. He said the advisory group consists of a chapter adviser and a chapter faculty adviser from each fraternity.

A chief justice of the judicial board will be a fraternity member appointed by the board members, Cufaude said.

Parker said eight members were chosen because a 4 to 3 vote, which would be possible with a seven-member structure, would be too close to make a firm decision.

If a 4 to 4 vote is reached at a hearing, then a committee—appointed by the board—will investigate the incident in question and report back to the judical board, Parker said.

He said another hearing then would be scheduled and the findings of the committee would be taken into consideration.

As the the judicial board is set up, six fraternity members preside, along with a chief justice, Cufaude said.

The constitutional changes are scheduled to be voted on at the next IFC meeting, Oct. 26, Parker said. If IFC passes the policy, then it will be reviewed by the university, Cufaude said.

The information to set up a self-governing system came from the University of Illinois-Champaign/Urbana’s Board of Fraternity Officers, Cufaude said. “It has worked well there,” he said.