UC Irvine: Students rush to be Greek, up 84%

[hoosier]

December 28, 2005
Students rush to be Greek

Rising popularity of Greek life at UCI



IRVINE – It's apparently chic to be Greek these days at UC Irvine, where fraternity and sorority membership has soared more than 84 percent since 1998.

The campus houses 12 fraternities and sororities within its Arroyo Vista residence halls.

But so many new groups are clamoring for space that officials are considering building a "Greek Village" to house them.

The number of registered fraternities and sororities on campus has climbed to 40 from 28 in 1998, according to a UCI survey.
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The biggest upsurge at UCI has been among ethnic and cultural organizations, with new chapters of African-American, Armenian and Jewish interest groups recently forming.

Membership in cultural and ethnic Greek organizations increased 177 percent from 1998 to 2003, according to a UCI study.

Today, Dye estimated that the university has about 1,700 fraternity and sorority members – about 9 percent of the university's 19,400 undergraduates.