News, Info, & Updates

Greek chapters at the University Nebraska–Lincoln saw their building values jump nearly $1.2 million on average in one year, according to data from the Lancaster County Assessor’s Office. 

“It was sticker shock,” said Assistant Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life Jon Gayer.  “Some of these groups are probably looking at a $100,000 increase in taxes.”

It’s a problem at universities across the country: There isn’t enough on-campus housing for the students searching for it. At the same time, rents for off-campus housing continue to rise, making it difficult for students to find affordable rooms at their universities.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), along with Senators Tom Carper (D-Del.), John Boozman (R-Ark.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) have introduced legislation to help modernize and increase safety at fraternity and sorority buildings nationwide. Their legislation would change the tax code to allow not-for-profit student groups to accept charitable donations to help construct new buildings or make safety improvements.

Campus safety is currently at the forefront of discussion within the security industry. With repeated, widely publicized incidents, it’s a topic that’s garnered calls for change across the nation and sparked ongoing debate. According to Education Week, there have been 142 school shootings since 2018, with 50 occurring this year. That’s nearly one every week. Usually, key management isn’t mentioned as a solution to that problem, but perhaps it’s time we re-evaluate its role in stemming this troubling tide.

Last year, a new independent redistricting committee designed a map that reignited a long-fought struggle. The map drew District 6 to include all dorms except Foster and was deemed by Councilmember Stephen Volan the “most student-heavy map ever.”  

The youngest person ever elected to the council is Republican Jason Banach, who was 22 and had just received his undergraduate degree when he assumed office in 1996. Other councilmembers have served while in graduate school at IU, but in the city’s 200-year history, the city has never been represented by a full-time IU undergraduate student. 

Students are now in the midst of the formal fraternity recruitment process, where prospective members decide which house they want to join, and the brothers decide how to perpetuate their unique house personality.

The 31 Cornell fraternities represent a full spectrum of institutional personalities. There are the “smooth houses” that project social sophistication, “jock houses” that celebrate their members’ athleticism and “social houses” that emphasize social connections and relationships.  Each house draws its vibe from the overall Cornell Greek system, its history and the values and policies of its national organization.

Another year and lawmakers are again faced with the thorny but necessary job of reforming the California Environmental Quality Act, the landmark law that has improved countless construction projects. But CEQA lawsuits have also too often been used to thwart progress on the state’s most pressing needs by stalling or blocking important projects.

In the latest example of CEQA run amok, a California appellate court is considering whether noisy college students are an environmental impact, akin to pollution or habitat loss, that should be addressed before UC Berkeley can build a new dormitory to ease its student housing shortage.