TROY — Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is facing a pair of protests this month, from current students who belong to fraternities and sororities, and from alumni who want changes in how leaders of a key association are elected.

“The March Against Deferred Recruitment,” is set for 4 p.m. Friday on sidewalks adjacent to the RPI campus. Marchers are protesting the school’s plans to make freshmen wait until the second semester rather than first semester to join Greek organizations.

Members of fraternities and sororities say this makes it more difficult to recruit members and could cost them more than $1 million a year.

The recruitment period was pushed back as part of a crackdown on Greek houses last year which President Shirley Jackson said was prompted by several instances of alcohol abuse and sexual assaults in Greek houses. Members of the fraternities and sororities, though, have said those problems were the exception not the rule.

Organizers of the march, who have remained anonymous under the heading SaveGreekLife.XYS, say they represent 14 Greek organizations as well as alumni. They plan to stay on the sidewalk outside the student union – which is a reference to a 2018 protest in which campus police halted students from giving out fliers on a sidewalk outside the school’s Houston Field House. Campus police at the time said they had authority over those sidewalks.

As well as seeking to reverse the recruitment delays and what they say are overly punitive sanctions for violations of rules, they also want students in the Summer Arch program to be allowed to live in Greek housing.

The Summer Arch program requires that students stay on campus the summer after sophomore year and take courses. Then, as juniors, they spend a semester pursuing work-related projects such as internships.

The Greek houses, though, maintain, that by keeping students out of fraternities and sororities during Summer Arch, they’re being deprived of revenue. They also say Greek housing is less costly for students.

“Living on-campus is more expensive than living within Greek houses and the program will reduce Greek housing and dues revenue by as much as 30 percent,” according to SaveGreekLife.xyz.

As Greek organizations prepare to protest, a new interim slate of the approximately 100,000-member Rensselaer Alumni Association has taken control of the group and is calling for changes in their bylaws.

The interim leadership slate, affiliated with the Renew Rensselaer group, was elected in March when a number of alumni showed up to vote during a special meeting which was scheduled after a petition.

“The bylaws were not being followed,” said one of Renew Rensselaer’s members, Peter Vanderzee. One of the main changes they are seeking is to run future elections for the entire membership. The Renew group contends that earlier leadership elections were improper.

One example, he said, was a change made on the spot in December when the number of signatures required for a special meeting was increased from 100 to 10,000.

RPI officials did not respond to an email on Tuesday.

Instead of having board members select their successors, Vanderzee says their group wants to conduct mass votes among the membership, which could be carried out by mail or email.

rkarlin@timesunion.com 518 454 5758 @RickKarlinTU