Fraternities Tackle Mental Health With JED

A few times a week, Aidan Ruck turns the Sigma Phi Epsilon living room into a space where his fraternity brothers can speak honestly about mental health—no judgment, just support.

Ruck, chapter president and an engineering student at Stevens Institute of Technology, said the meetings give the chapter’s roughly 90 members a place to share struggles, from personal challenges to test-taking anxiety.

“It’s a space for active listening—not so much, ‘Hey, tell us your problems; we’re going to try to fix them,’” Ruck said. “If you’re looking for support, we can give that to you. But at the very least, it’s a space to share and just be human with one another.”

Ruck said his ability to create that space stems in part from training he completed through the Greek-Letter Organizations program from The Jed Foundation (JED). Sigma Phi Epsilon—with more than 12,000 undergraduates on over 200 U.S. campuses—is among the first national fraternities to join the initiative since its launch last July.

The two-year partnership with JED includes a review of the national organization’s campus policies and prevention strategies, along with workshops focused on emotional well-being and crisis response. The program engages everyone connected to a chapter—from alumni and student leaders to national leadership and general members—and develops a structured set of training opportunities within JED’s broader mental health framework.

At a time when fraternities and sororities often face scrutiny over drinking culture, hazing and misconduct, there’s growing interest in building safer chapter environments, said ShirDonna Lawrence, JED’s senior manager of the program.

“We’re not shying away from the negative aspects that impact the students we’re trying to support,” Lawrence said. “In fact, that’s exactly why our premier workshops focus on hazing prevention, sexual assault and substance misuse and abuse.”

“We talk about those issues, and then we address them again through our comprehensive approach to mental health promotion and suicide prevention,” she added. “At the same time, we emphasize the huge opportunities chapters have to create spaces of support, care and uplift for their members.”

Lawrence said this is why the program tailors its approach to the unique needs of each Greek organization.

“We’re coming in from a skills-building perspective,” Lawrence said. “We want to … give students the tools to recognize mental health concerns in themselves and in others.”

State of fraternities: JED’s initiative builds on a 2024 report examining the complex role fraternities play in student mental health—both as sources of belonging and as drivers of campus risk.

The report noted that roughly 750,000 students belong to fraternities and sororities nationwide, which also have more than nine million alumni. It found that membership can foster connection and strong social networks, factors that may buffer against mental health challenges.

At the same time, alcohol misuse remains common in some fraternity settings, and research shows fraternity members are disproportionately involved in incidents of sexual harassment and assault—behaviors that harm both individuals and campus climate.

Students outside Greek life often see fraternities as central to social life on campus but also as a source of risks to the broader community. The report found that members themselves said improving mental health requires greater awareness of their own and others’ needs and the skills to respond respectfully when someone is struggling.

Lawrence said the report’s findings prompted JED to develop the Greek-Letter Organizations program.

“Mental health is something we want young adults to prioritize,” Lawrence said. “How do we do that? We meet them where they are, and the Greek-Letter Organizations program is centered on that idea.”

What’s next: Lawrence said that as the program progresses, JED is holding conversations with additional Greek organizations, and those discussions are shaping new workshops and training.

“We’ve really got to rethink how we work with fraternity and sorority members—and all the stakeholders in between,” Lawrence said. “The fraternity and sorority experience isn’t a monolith, so we want to make sure the Greek-Letter Organizations program supports each group based on the needs of its members.”

Ruck agreed, adding that his hope through the partnership with JED is that members will continue to feel more comfortable opening up and strengthening their support network.

“A lot of our members have been slowly moving toward being more open and honest—especially with each other—about their thoughts, feelings and emotions,” Ruck said. “We’re always pushing to do better, for our members and for ourselves.”

Get more content like this directly to your inbox. Subscribe here.