Quote:
Originally posted by kddani
You also have to keep in mind that a group of 8 women on a campus of about 14,000 (that's only counting undergrads...with grad students you're looking at close to 30,000), which is also fairly anti-greek, it's an uphill battle. It's just the reality of Pitt's campus.
It's an uphill battle for the established sororities. My chapter has 72 (we ranged from 35-65 when I was there), and they struggle everyday to fight stereotypes. Every single sorority on our campus does.
If you encounter any sort of problems from current greeks, you have to keep in mind several things.
1) people, in general, don't always take well to change
2) the sororities at Pitt are pretty competitive with each other, in both good and negative ways. Several of the houses on campus are consistently well under our campus total, and the greek system as a whole is struggling to get more members. Perhaps, "taking care of our own" is how to best describe it. Unfortunately that has somewhat of a negative tone to it.
3) Your events and the function of your group as a whole are very different. Also, when they don't even know about your group, or know very little, it's kind of hard for them to be supportive. I knew that the group had formed, but knew zero about them, and TNX didn't really seem like it related much to our greek system as a whole. It just seemed to be another group on our campus with over 300 other student groups.
I'm not sure of what sort of interaction you want with the rest of the greeks on campus. If you want to participate in some of the events, you're going to encounter some problems, and least if it's Panhel/IFC events. All of the groups pay dues and put a lot of work into the events. With a group of 8, you may not be able to afford that, time or financial wise.
Working with SGB is good, but it's not really getting your name out there. There's perhaps an even greater animosity towards SGB than greeks on campus. For the over 5 years i've been on this campus, they are one of the most inefficient groups I have ever seen 
Any group coming anywhere has to prove itself to others. "Proving yourself" probably isn't the best term. PR, outreach, campus visibility etc. are more what it should be. And that's what's going to get you noticed.
Get more members, if possible, and if that meets your the goals of your organization. Eight people can only do so much, and if you really want to increase your visibility on campus, you need to work hard and get your name out there. You don't want your members to burn out.
REACH OUT to the sororities. Take the first step. Like I said, I myself, and I'd imagine most of them, never really knew squat about TNX. I saw the article in the Pitt News about it, and that's all. They may not know that you want to be a part of things, they may not know what your function is. A good idea for you would maybe to make cookies or candy or something for right before the Panhel rush week. It's a VERY stressful time for the 11 NPC sororities on campus. They would definately take notice of a nice gesture like this. And/or send some sort of card wishing them luck.
Try to participate in the individual group's philanthropies. Several of the fraternities have different events (Sigma Chi's Derby Days, SAE's Paddy Murphy, etc) that would really allow you interaction with a lot of the groups, be great PR, and really help their philanthropies.
Sorry if this is all a jumbled mess. I just had lots of random thoughts running through my head.
I hope nothing I said was offensive, I really wasn't trying to be at all. I just know the realities of the campus, and I know how hard it is to change/create a group's image. It took KD several years, but now we have a great image on campus.
Feel free to PM me if you want to talk about any of this more
|
We're all totally aware of the battle we're about to go through. My colonies founders had it very hard in the beginning because they tried to reach out to ALL of the greeks and the ones that showed us love was NPHC. I will forever have much love and respect for them because of that.
We were treated as a regular student organization in the beginning because T.M. was giving us the Univ. of Pittsburgh run around. But what can you do but keep trying and not get out of their face till they deal with you. . .we did so there will be a few changes next year for us.
Trust me, we reached out to NPC and IFC and some of the reactions have been downright cold, because as you said before "People, in general, don't always take well to change."
So of course we're going to try again. We're most definitely fighters (not physically though), so we'll do what we have to do and more.
Thanks to you and SigEp41 for showing me and my girls love!!!!
