Volunteering

Dear Friends:

Each year many hundreds of alumni/ae donate in support their fraternity, sorority, or independent living groups (FSILG). Three years ago, the Alumni Association developed an FSILG Direct Donor site to recognize those who contribute directly to their FSILG. This year we are pleased that this web page has been launched to recognize alumni/ae who support their FSILG by giving to MIT and designating the Independent Residence Development Fund. The IRDF has served the FSILG community since the 1960s, and MIT is continuing to rely on and expand the ways in which it helps the entire FSILG community.

For over four decades, the IRDF has funded low-interest loans for capital projects, and currently over $8 million dollars of loans are at work funding many improvements in our community. Unlike the national situation, every single loan payment is current. More recently, the IRDF has enhanced the support to FSILGs through grants in support of education and safety that do not need to be repaid. During the past five years, definitely a rebuilding period for MIT’s FSILGs, the importance of the IRDF was crucial; over $5M in loans and grants were awarded.

In the past year, just over $1M in loans and educational grants were made. Every one of the 36 FSILGs housing MIT students has now applied at some point for one of these grants. Because of the educational nature of these enterprises, IRDF operating grants fund some of building operating costs such as utilities, taxes, insurance and safety-oriented maintenance.  An additional portion of the operating grants fund 75% of the purchase of certain educational items such as desks, shared computer equipment and supplies. In addition, this past year nine more project grants were funded; these underwrite the educational content of a renovation or other capital projects. And of course, the full cost of capital projects continue to be financed by the traditional IRDF low-interest loans.

Several important FSILG community-wide initiatives have also been made possible by the IRDF. One grant provides a portion of the annual support for the alumni-run Safety, Licensing, & Inspection Program. This very successful effort ensures that all chapters receive assistance in complying with municipal building and fire code inspections. Most importantly, the IRDF funded a major upgrade of the network infrastructure for all forty FSILG residences. Our FSILGs now have state-of-the-art wired and wireless computer networks, which make effective use of their high speed fiber optics connections to MIT. This project, completed with the help of MIT’s Information Services & Technology (IS&T) department, has resulted in much better, and much needed, connectivity for the students in our FSILGs. This is a requirement for today’s educational environment. In fact, we and the IS&T department are monitoring usage and foresee the need for future upgrades in the near future.  Another recent initiative was the Another IRDF-funded program converted all but three residences to a more reliable radio based fire alarm communication systems.  The three which were not converted are right down the street from the Lafayette Square Fire Station on Massachusetts Avenue and thus have direct connections. For the rest, the change in communication links eliminated the need for the dual telephone lines and the associated expense. More details on these initiatives can be found in the “News” section of the IRDF web site at http://web.mit.edu/irdf/news.html.

In all the above ways, gifts to the IRDF help enhance the livability, safety and competitiveness of MIT’s fraternities, sororities, and independent living groups. Collectively these gifts preserve and strengthen this very special community, one that has served MIT so well, even as we pass it on to current and future generations of MIT students.

Thank you.

David Latham ’61 Delta Upsilon
Chair, IRDF Board of Allocation

Bob Ferrara ‘67 Theta Chi
Member, IRDF Grant Advisory Board

Susan Woodmansee ’97 WILG
Member, IRDF Board of Allocation

Lisa Tatterson ’99 Alpha Chi Omega
Member, IRDF Grant Advisory Board

Stephen Stuntz ’67 Sigma Phi Epsilon
Member, IRDF Board of Allocation

Tom Holtey ’62 Chi Phi
Member, IRDF Grant Advisory Board