University of Michigan. Interfraternity Council.

The Interfraternity Council (IFC) is the administrative and organizing body for the undergraduate social fraternities at the University of Michigan. The IFC was developed out of a need to provide a governing body for the fraternity system.

Beta Theta Pi and Chi Psi are credited with being the first fraternities on campus, both established at the University of Michigan in 1846. Over the next sixty some years, several unsuccessful attempts were made by the university administration to govern the growing fraternity system, all of which were met with student resistance. However, the need for some sort of governing body was recognized, due to decreasing ideals of scholarship in the fraternities, members being pledged long before they were ready for college, and questionable methods used in "rushing" prospective members (The University of Michigan: An Encyclopedic Survey, p. 1804). Although a group had been meeting informally since 1912, the Interfraternity Conference was organized in 1914, following a recommendation contained in a report by the Committee on Student Affairs presented in 1913.

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