What is UIFI?
The Undergraduate Interfraternity Institute, otherwise known as UIFI, is a five day institute held in Bloomington, Indiana on Indiana University’s campus where students from all over the United States come to learn with and from peers who belong to various organizations and councils. Through exploration of critical issues in thought-provoking activities, the program is intended to help you identify the leader you want to be and where you can make the most impact in your chapter, council or community.
Brandon McCoy of Theta Chi, reflects on his experience this past summer at UIFI, “My favorite part of UIFI was getting to work with a variety of students and FSL professionals to create a tangible plan of action for our chapters and communities. We didn’t just discuss problems; we brainstormed solutions and created step-by-step plans to tackle the challenges we identified.”
Megan Asbury of Alpha Chi Omega says, “My favorite part of UIFI was getting to meet and interact with fraternity men and sorority women from all over the United States. During UIFI, you get put into a small group with approximately seven other individuals from different councils and schools. You spend so much time with them throughout the session and get to share goals and bounce ideas off of one another. I still talk to the individuals in my small group on a regular basis. I got to make friends out of some extremely inspiring individuals. Since UIFI, one girl in my group now serves as the Texas State Panhellenic President, a guy in my group is now in charge of underwriting his fraternity’s petition to charter, and another is serving as the IFC President at University of Nebraska-Omaha. It’s awesome to see these people succeed in their communities.”
Brandon McCoy shares, “The biggest takeaway for me was an exercise where the fraternity and sorority system as a whole was examined and put on trial. Students had to present benefits and consequences of the system, and it was eye-opening to experience the debate that college and state decision-makers have been going through for years. It was motivating to make our experience in FSL as positive as it can be, and share that with others to sell the value of having fraternities and sororities on campus. It’s up to our actions if we want to see fraternities and sororities to continue to exist on college campuses.”
Megan shares, “My biggest takeaway was learning how to turn our “big R” (ritual ceremonies) into a “little r” (living the lesson of my ritual in my everyday life). An overall theme of UIFI is centered around using our values, which typically align with our organizations, to live out our lives authentically. Leaving UIFI, I felt inspired to teach this lesson to my chapter. Additionally, we were taught to discover the purpose of leadership: not what we do (chapter meetings, recruitment, etc), but the why behind these activities (sisterhood, professional development, networking, personal growth, etc).”
Why Should You Apply?
Brandon shares, “UIFI is a great learning experience that I would encourage others to attend. It’s an uplifting environment of others who deeply care about fraternity and sorority life. I now have friends I keep in contact with from around the country who I can go to for advice about my chapter and our campus.”
Megan shares, “If you are a collegiate leader or aspire to be one, I encourage you to attend UIFI. You get to examine not only your leadership abilities, but your role in Fraternity and Sorority Life as a whole. You dig deep into issues our communities are faced with, while learning how to combat the stigma that we as sorority/fraternity members are often confronted by.”
How to Apply:
Missouri State FSL is offering a scholarship for UIFI for the 2018 summer. You can find it online here, on the right side of the page under Applications. If you have any questions, contact the FSL Advisor, Kate Roessler at KRoessler@missouristate.edu.
Make sure to check out and see if your national organization offers scholarships to help ease or pay for the cost of attending!