It’s been almost a year since the University of Colorado announced its plan to reaffiliate with fraternities, yet not a single Greek group has decided to join with the university.

Officials on the Boulder campus said last October that they wanted to reinstate formal ties with fraternities, which have been disconnected from the university since 2005. Sororities and multicultural Greek organizations are affiliated with the university and have two CU staffers as advisers.

The Boulder Interfraternity Council, the umbrella group that oversees more than a dozen Greek organizations with chapters in Boulder, is a private, nonprofit organization with no official connection to the university, though its member fraternities exclusively recruit male CU students.

Members of that group have said they are not willing to reaffiliate with the university, unless CU is willing to negotiate some of the terms of the relationship.

Fraternities broke away from the campus in 2005 following the alcohol-poisoning death of Chi Psi pledge Lynn “Gordie” Bailey Jr. They refused to sign an agreement that would have delayed rush until the spring and required each chapter to have a live-in supervisor.

At the time of the announcement last fall, CU officials said they were in talks with two fraternity chapters that did not have a presence in Boulder about affiliating directly with the university, rather than the independent group.

But one of the chapters that was supposed to join with CU later backed out, choosing to join the existing fraternity infrastructure in Boulder instead.

Since then, no other fraternity has affiliated with CU, though the university is in discussions with national fraternity leaders, campus spokesman Ryan Huff said.

‘Better place than they were before’

Despite the lack of progress, Christina Gonzales, CU’s vice chancellor for student affairs, said now the university has a system in place if a fraternity ever decides to affiliate.

“I don’t think that we’ll see any current Boulder fraternities join with CU,” she said. “I do think that there’s still some fraternities that may want to colonize here and I think for any new ones, there’s interest in being affiliated with the university.”

She said the university does not want to pressure any existing Boulder chapter into affiliating with CU. For now, CU officials will work on “rebuilding” the university’s relationship with Boulder fraternities, she said.

“We’re not trying to undo anything they have done or to diminish any of the work they’ve done,” Gonzales said. “They’ve done great work in getting themselves to what I understand is a better place then they were before.”

Meanwhile, Boulder’s independent fraternity community is growing and is expecting roughly 1,300 students to rush this fall. The community has grown, too, and has three new chapters this year for a total of 18 fraternities. Another chapter is expected to launch in Boulder later this fall, bringing the total to 19.

“This is easily the largest rush that I’ve ever experienced,” said Noah Stein, a CU senior and president of the Interfraternity Council. “Everyone is feeling good about where we are as a community.”

Fall rush underway

The formal recruitment period began last weekend, and fraternities are hosting events all this month. Bid day, or the day when chapters formally invite potential new members to join their group, is Sept. 25.

All told, roughly 1,600 CU undergraduates are members of fraternities in Boulder.

“Our program’s getting bigger and stronger and more visible and less problems and grades are better and misbehavior is lower and it seems to be a seller’s market,” said Marc Stine, Greek advocate for Boulder’s fraternities.

Stine said that, for now, the independent group of fraternities in Boulder is functioning well. He sees no reason for the group to give control or oversight to the university.

Stine said the group is open to collaborating with the university as an independent entity.

“We are not putting any resources into changing our relationship with the university,” he said. “When they’re ready to talk about collaborating, we’re happy to do so. But we are not happy to give up a very strong, independent, student-run and owned and controlled organization.

“I don’t think anybody’s doing better than what’s happening in Boulder and a lot of places are doing worse under the traditional university-controlled model.”

Sarah Kuta: 303-473-1106, kutas@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/sarahkuta