Ideas for promoting Greek unity?

ADPiSAI · #1 09-21-2003, 01:57 PM

Here's my story:

I go to a school with about 2000 students. We have 2 sororities -- Alpha Delta Pi and Alpha Phi -- and two fraternities -- Beta Theta Pi and Sigma Chi. I think that the total number of members in all the groups is around 60. So as you can tell, we have a small Greek community, which we're trying to expand.

One of the things that keeps coming up, however, is that most of us don't know a lot of the people in the other group. For various events, ADPi's tend to pair up with the Sigs, and the Phis with the Betas. Because of that, each of us has a limited knowledge of one of the other groups. In a school where we're working to strengthen and expand the Greek community, there are some of us who think that it would be a really good idea if we all worked together somehow. The only events we ever have together are parties, and, well, that gets old, and you don't so much meet people (or, in some cases, remember that you did....). There has been talk of doing more together with everyone among all of the chapters here, but nobody ever does anything about it.

We had a 'meeting' (well, more of a discussion) today -- one person from each group -- just to get some ideas out there. I think we have some really great stuff! Potlucks, intermurals, attending campus events as a group... But I'm wondering what we might be leaving out.

So. I don't know how much this applies to people at bigger schools, but maybe it does, to some extent. What do you guys do to unify the Greek community at your university, or what are some things that we might be able to do with ours?

ChiOqt · #2 09-21-2003, 02:07 PM

Get your names and presence out there by helping out around campus and town. The greeks in our area have been getting a bad rep for some shit that went down the first few weeks of school, so we're slowly trying to build that back up. But I would suggest doing a town clean up, or volunteering with an after school program or a shelter, get involved with the student government, or help represet the campus.....this way not only are people becoming more aware of the greek orgs in the area, but they will see that they're some pretty awesome college students too who are just trying to make things better!

honeychile · #3 09-21-2003, 02:19 PM

ForeverDiamond, I don't know what your "house" arrangements are, whether you each have a room, a suite, or a house. One thing that I think works well is the Midterm & Finals Study Break. We would put out a coffee urn & keep it filled with water, and have instant coffee, tea, creamers, sugar, sugar substitute, hot chocolate, disposable cups, spoons etc at the ready. If anyone has some cookies or fruit, all the better! Declare ONE HOUR for a study break, and have all the Greeks in. It's amazing how y'all will pull together over that common problem - tests!!

FWIW, we did this just for sororities, since there were 9 sororities in one building, and didn't allow men. That way, everyone could come in comfy clothes, glasses, no makeup, slippers... well, you get the idea.

It also gave us a reputation for being good hostesses - which made our alumnae so happy, they often provided the goodies!

texas*princess · #4 09-21-2003, 02:37 PM

how about an all-greek philanthropy event? it will help promote Greek life!

aephi alum · #5 09-21-2003, 02:40 PM

I like the idea of all 4 groups getting together and doing some community service as a group. We used to have a community service day where members of each fraternity, sorority, and dorm would go out to a homeless shelter, food pantry, school, etc. You could do a day like that, but assemble teams from all 4 orgs rather than each org doing its own thing. You could do some volunteer work in the morning and then go to lunch as a group...

You could also do mixers that go against the "pairing" of fraternity and sorority that you described, i.e. you mix with the Betas, and the Phis mix with the Sigs.

Or, how about a progressive dinner?

ADPiSAI · #6 09-21-2003, 05:54 PM

Thanks for all the replies so far!

We definitely want to get more involved in the community. Our idea was to go visit residents at a nearby nursing home. Groups around here are always supporting the women's center and youth programs. While those are both good causes, we think that the nursing home deserves some attention too! We were thinking of getting a group together with representatives from each GLO every week to go visit.

honeychile ~ I love that idea!! We don't have a house, but the Betas and Sigs both do.
The Beta guy was talking about opening up the Beta house for a few hours on Sundays as a sort of open house too...

as for an all-Greek philanthropy, we were thinking of doing a bottle drive (because Bishop's students are infamous for really liking their beer) and donating the proceeds to something the university supports, like the refugee scholarship (which helps students from poor countries come here for and education).

aephi alum ~ what's a progressive dinner?

aephi alum · #7 09-21-2003, 07:41 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ForeverDiamond
aephi alum ~ what's a progressive dinner?

Basically, you go from one house to the next, and have a different dinner course at each house. This, of course, is easiest if you all have houses, but perhaps you could reserve a classroom or something for yourselves (and you didn't mention if Alpha Phi has a house?) With 4 orgs, you could have hors d'oeuvres, salad, a main course, and dessert.

ADPiSAI · #8 09-21-2003, 11:38 PM

what an awesome idea!!
the Phis don't have a house either, but we both have somebody's apartment we could use, I'm sure...

Kevin · #9 09-22-2003, 09:07 AM

For homecoming, Greek Week, etc. Try joining two groups each time that usually don't have anything to do with eachother. We did this on our campus and I think the results were great.

texas*princess · #10 09-22-2003, 11:03 AM

Our school has an all-Greek Bible study! It isn't mandatory for anyone, you just go if/when you feel like it. I've never been to the one at our school, but I'm sure it is great way to connect with other greeks.

Something else you could do is have study sessions in the library together

This would be cool b/c you get to meet new Greeks, study, and also get help if you need it. (With so many people there, there is *bound* to be someone who would be able to help you if you or another greek member had a problem with something on homework

)

Optimist Prime · #11 09-22-2003, 12:42 PM

Don't invite more groups on, just hold unified rush. Also, play sports against each other out in the quad. Be as vocal as you can with the members you have, encourage other activities, and recruit. Good luck and Go Greek!

adpiucf · #12 09-22-2003, 01:13 PM

Service events together is the way to go, especially if you invite other non-Greeks out to take part-- then it becomes a community event sponsored by your greeks!

A really popular event like this at my school is Trick or Treat On Greek Street--- the Greeks decorate their houses and dress in costumes, have apple bobbing, a "fun house", inflatable slides and other inflatable fun stuff-- like a bounce house-- and invite all the local elementary schools, churches, temples, etc-- schools and day care centers to bring the children down in costume during the day. Non-Greeks can also set up tables and help out, etc. It's a lot of fun, we make t-shirts and promote the heck out of it!

UGAnchora · #13 09-22-2003, 03:54 PM

UGA has an Inter-Greek Council which is working to unite all of the greek houses on campus.

Last year, they made Greek WEek non-competitive so we could just hang out together.

Now I think they're talking about an All Greek Formal.

There was an article about the council in Today's Red and Black, you can read it at http://www.randb.com

ADPiSAI · #14 09-24-2003, 08:29 PM

that's another thing we'd like to start -- Greek Week. we've never had one. I figure that it should be non-competitive at first, because with so few groups, it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to turn it into a competition.

so what exactly goes on during a Greek Week anyway?

rayray · #15 09-25-2003, 03:05 PM

At my old school I was really big on greek unity. So one thing i did when i was social chair was a mixer with another sorority. it was the first time an all soror mixer was done. It turned out great! We did a scavenger hunt. we paired up a few girls from each org and sent them off. And what was really awsome is that one of the fraternities threw us an after party.

One event that i really wanted to do was a battle of the sexes. the events could be from athletic to logic or hisotry questions. I personally thought that would be soooooo fun. and you could always make it into a philanthropy event too.

Good luck!