UK official urges 'segregated' Greeks to cooperate

[TSteven]

Josey Montana McCoy
The Kentucky Kernel
(The University of Kentucky)
Issue date: 9/4/07 Section: Campus News

Mahjabeen Rafiuddin wants to end the separation between black and white Greek communities at UK.

"You can look at the way the Greek community is set up, and it is blatantly segregated," said Rafiuddin, the director of UK student diversity engagement. "Nobody questions why the black and white Greeks don't cooperate."

Rafiuddin, who joined UK in November 2006, developed an Inter Greek Relations Project plan this summer aimed at bringing Greek leaders together for six roundtable discussions.

The project - It's All Greek to Me - will challenge black and white sororities and fraternities to practice better cooperation.

"Student leaders aren't inclusive," she said. "How do you bring together a group of exclusive people and ask them to be inclusive?"

Separation of white and black Greek communities on campus begins at the top, Rafiuddin said. Each Greek organization has separate assistants who have graduated that oversee their community.

The Interfraternity Council oversees white fraternities, the Panhellenic Council oversees white sororities and the National Pan-Hellenic Council oversees both black sororities and fraternities.

Rafiuddin wants to see the leaders, along with student members, support and promote each other, while joining together more often for Greek events, she said.

Kimber Hatton, a committee chair at Delta Sigma Theta, a historically black sorority, has volunteered two semesters with student diversity engagement and believes one person's initiative can spark a movement.

"Greek relations are very big at UK and very influential," said Hatton, a junior nursing major. "I believe if (students) see black and white Greeks unite, then non-Greeks will also unite."

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