At its Sept. 13, 2014, meeting in Houston, the Sigma Chi International Fraternity’s Executive Committee approved delivering the Sexual Misconduct Prevention chapter development Journey to any Greek-letter organization wishing to schedule the workshop in conjunction with a local Sigma Chi undergraduate chapter. After hosting the workshop at 24 of its chapters between Aug. 28 and Dec. 13, Sigma Chi now plans to facilitate its first workshop with a women's group on Jan. 26, 2015, at Northwestern University alongside the members of the local chapter of the Pi Beta Phi women's fraternity.
The decision to open the Sexual Misconduct Prevention Journey to all Greek-letter chapters stems from the George Washington University administration approaching the school’s Sigma Chi chapter about hosting such an event. Since then, Sigma Chi has also garnered similar interest from the administrations of Columbia University, the University of Tulsa, Virginia Tech, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and California State University, Long Beach.
Developed in conjunction with the James R. Favor and Co., the Fraternity introduced its Sexual Misconduct Prevention Journey this fall. After conducting the program’s maiden workshop on Aug. 28 at the campus of the University of Wyoming, Sigma Chi International Fraternity Headquarters has received 15 requests from other chapters wishing to host the retreat.
To accommodate the wider audience, Sigma Chi is working alongside the Favor Co.’s Fraternity Health and Safety Initiative (FHSI) to develop co-educational sexual misconduct prevention curriculum. Until that is complete, however, Sigma Chi will adjust the language and curriculum of its Sexual Misconduct Prevention Journey to accommodate its presentation to members of a wide array of Greek-letter organizations, rather than to solely members of the Fraternity.
Sigma Chi has trained more than 160 facilitators to host the Sexual Misconduct Prevention Journey. An undergraduate chapter that wishes to host such a program should reach out to its Grand Praetor and the trained facilitators in its province. The names of each province’s trained Journey facilitators can be obtained by emailing journey@sigmachi.org.
To request a Sexual Misconduct Prevention Journey workshop for a greater audience than a single Sigma Chi chapter, such as a wider collection of Greek-letter chapters at a university, contact Jim Cogdal, BRADLEY 2003, senior director of membership development at Sigma Chi International Fraternity Headquarters, at jim.cogdal@sigmachi.org.