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for FSILGS
FSILG Faculty Advisor Program
The Purpose of the Faculty Advisor and Chapter Counselor Programs
The Faculty Advising and Chapter Counselor Programs work to serve as a bridge between MIT, its faculty, staff, and the Fraternities, Sororities, and Independent Living Groups (FSILG) student community.
In its report of 1998, the Presidential Task Force on Student Life and Learning spoke about the educational triad and specifically that “the central and distinguishing feature of an MIT education (being) that it incorporate the three elements of its educational triad –research, academics, and community – into an education that is greater than the sum of its parts.”
Through these programs, this triad will be strengthened. In particular, the ultimate goal to “bring students, faculty, and staff together in pursuit of the common educational enterprise,” as identified by the Task Force, will be addressed. Working as a group and working as individuals with each of their organizations, these advisors and counselors will be mentors, resources, liaisons, and communication channels.
The Value of Fraternities, Sororities and Independent Living Groups
The FSILG Task Force report, published in 2004, analyzed and documented how the FSILGs contribute positively to the MIT community by promoting academic excellence, promoting campus involve-ment, fostering an entrepreneurial spirit, and creating a strong support network for its members. The FSILG alumni/ae are leaders in service to MIT both as volunteers and donors.
The FSILG community complements the mission of the Institute by creating a diverse learning environment and allow-ing students to develop leadership and business skills that will help the students in years past their graduation.
The FSILG experience provides oppor-tunities to engage in and to improve the entire MIT campus community. FSILGs seek to instill a strong sense of values and service in its members. This leads to members more giving back more to the MIT and world-wide communities as alumni/ae. Skills acquired by being a member of an FSILG enrich members’ total life experiences and prepare them for leadership and fulfilling relationships as adults.
FSILG Values
Each of the thirty-seven FSILGs at MIT has its own mission statement reflecting principles of special importance. How-ever, all share a common core of these fraternal values.
Community and Citizenship
Leadership
Scholarship
Service
For more information on the FSILG community and values please see the Project Aurora Task Force Report.
The FSILG Community at MIT
Over 1500 undergraduate students are members of Fraternities, Sororities, and Independent Living Groups.
- MIT recognizes 27 men’s fraternities, all of which have residence, and one of which is coed.
- Twenty-five of the 27 fraternities are nationally affiliated organizations.
- The average MIT fraternity has 40 active members.
- MIT recognizes 5 nationally affili-ated women’s sororities, all of which have a living facility or house for some members.
- The average MIT sorority has nearly 80 active members.
- MIT recognizes 5 Independent Living Groups (ILGs), all of which have living facilities/housing for members.
- Four MIT ILGs are coed, while one is all female.
- Four ILGs function as student-operated cooperatives.
Fraternities, Sororities and Independent Living Groups have proven to be effective living and learning laboratories with generations of successful and committed alumni/ae. You will have a chance to enhance and extend this tradition by participating in this program.
Faculty Advisor Program Overview
Any member of the MIT faculty can serve as a Faculty Advisor to a Fraternity, Sorority, or Independent Living Group via the Faculty Advising Program. As a Faculty Advisor, your primary roles are to:
- provide leadership advice and guidance
- be a source of advice and a resource for issues specific to that FSILG organization
- become acquainted with the FSILG, its members and its mission
- serve as a liaison between the FSILG and the MIT Faculty
- serve as a liaison between the FSILG and the MIT Administration
Additional FSILG Support
- The Faculty Advisor Program is complimented by the Chapter Counselor Program, in which MIT staff provide resources and support.
- All MIT FSILGs are also supported by alumni volunteers who serve on Chapter Advisory and House Corporation Boards as well as a live-in Resident Advisor.
Goals of the Faculty Advisor Program
- Faculty Advisors will help to open the perspective and understanding of the diverse MIT community, particularly its faculty, to the opportunities and advantages pro-vided through the FSILG co-mmunity. This includes the broader -based educational experience they provide MIT students and the richness they add to the overall MIT community.
- Faculty Advisors will help to establish ties to better link the FSILG community, its units, and its members, to other faculty and administrative people as the need and opportunity arise.
- Faculty Advisors will help the FSILG community, its units, and its members, by providing an outlook based on their experience within the MIT community, their ties across different parts of MIT, and a different view they bring from their position and relationships with students.
Why be a Faculty Advisor?
By participating in the Faculty Advisor Program, you strengthen an important part of MIT and address the need identified by the Presidential Task Force on Student Life and Learning to provide “a cultural shift from demanding sep-aration of student life and learning to demanding they be inseparable”. In so doing, you help sculpt the future of this community that we proudly call the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Becoming a Faculty Advisor
Many FSILGs are seeking the support and guidance of a Faculty Advisor.
For more information, please contact:
Kaya Miller
Assistant Director, FSILG Office
kmiller@mit.edu
617.253.4663
Paul Lagace
Professor, Aeronautics & Astronautics
pal@mit.edu
617.253.3628
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