2007-2008 Annual Report Issue
YOU Can Support the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure ActTheta Xi has long been a part of the inter-fraternal effort to support the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act (CHIA) (H.R.1547/S.781). Sponsored by the Capital Fraternal Caucus, www.fraternalcaucus.org, a Washington, D.C.-based Greek umbrella organization represents the country’s fraternities and sororities. CHIA would make it substantially easier for fraternity and sorority foundations to raise tax-deductible contributions and then make grants to provide for infrastructure improvements to chapter houses in the same way that the tax code currently allows colleges and universities to use tax-deductible contributions to improve university-owned residence halls. This bill would help all Greeks make critical life-saving safety improvements in our chapter housing, expand housing capacity, and otherwise modernize the housing we provide to our undergraduate brothers. With the new Congress, CHIA already has 128 co-sponsors in the House and 19 in the Senate. Each spring Theta Xi sends national representatives to Capitol Hill. Here they join together with undergraduate leaders, national officers and executive staff members of men’s and women’s college fraternities to seek congressional support in the way of sponsors and co-sponsors for the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act. In the course of one day of lobbying on Capital Hill, this army of pro-Greek volunteers conducts over 300 visits to the offices of Representatives and Senators. HOW YOU CAN HELP... Contact your Congressional leaders Get a Letter of Support from Your University Download the Capital Fraternal Caucus Facebook Application Fraternity and sorority housing now averages one structural fire every 2.5 days, yet over 60% of our houses have fire sprinklers. A related bill, the College Fire Prevention Act (H.R. 1194) would authorize a four-year program of matching grants to install life-saving fire suppression technology in existing student housing, including fraternity and sorority houses. Current IRS regulations prohibit private fundraising for financing housing improvements.
Register with the Capital Fraternal Caucus
You will receive periodic e-mail updates about our efforts and how you can help. Your e-mail address will not be given to anyone else. By registering at http://www.fraternalcaucus.org/, you help us track the success of this fraternal grassroots movement.
The Capital Fraternal Caucus has a letter writing tool on its website that will prompt you once you enter your address. It will take less than five minutes to contact your Representative and Senators. The number of letters that a member of Congress receives is our greatest leverage when we meet with their office staff to ask for support as a co-sponsor of our legislation.
Several University presidents and chancellors have endorsed our legislation, and these endorsements are instrumental in getting Congressional support. You will find a list of universities that have already endorsed the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act on the CFC website.
If you use Facebook, please visit http://www.cfcfacebook.com/ to add the CFC Facebook application. Members participating in the Facebook application are able to petition congressmen and women right from the Facebook page.
Did you know . . .
Fraternities and sororities are the largest provider of non-university owned not-for-profit student housing on college campuses in the United States. Fraternities and sororities own and manage over $3 billion in student housing, lodging over 250,000 students per year in more than 8,000 facilities. More that 4,000 men’s and women’s chapter housing units nationwide have at least a $1 billion backlog of housing improvements, renovations and construction that can be started soon after CHIA becomes law.
