Wooster’s Greek life claims the number ten spot on Best Colleges Online for getting Greek life right
Sarah Kristeller
Staff Writer
The College of Wooster’s Greek life received a shout-out from Best Colleges Online, a website that reports on current trends in higher education and other college-related issues. Specifically, the College received mention on the Sept. 4 blog section of the website, in an article titled “10 Colleges That Get Greek Life Right.”
While the article does not include specific criteria for why the 10 colleges were included, it introduces the list as “just a few of the schools that … [feature] organizations that are positive both for students and for the campus as a whole.”
Additionally, it describes the schools listed as places where partying may still be a big part of Greek life, but “fraternities and sororities are tightly regulated, inclusive, and focus on academics and social work more than living it up.”
The list, which also includes MIT, Union College and Wake Forest University, among others, focuses particularly on the fact that all Greek groups at Wooster are local.
The web article emphasizes Wooster’s lack of national affiliation as a defining aspect of Greek life at the College, and claims that this “helps to foster a sense of allegiance not only to the group but to the campus in general.”
Many of the other colleges included in the list focus primarily on community service and GPA requirements, rather than the stereotypical image of Greek organizations primarily being social clubs. Members of Greek organizations at Wooster are required to do community service as well as participate in at least one other extracurricular activity outside of their respective organizations.
As Co-President of Inter-Greek Council and member of the Zeta Phi Gamma sorority, Vanessa Logan ’14 agreed with this sentiment, though she was wondered at Wooster’s inclusion on the list.
Logan was surprised, “not by the content of the article, but since we’re local, we don’t get a lot of attention from college websites.”
She continued, “In context of the other schools, [though], the inclusion of Wooster made sense because of the focus on service, GPA, stuff like that.”
Xi Chi Psi fraternity member Joshua Lewis ’13 echoed this surprise, “Particularly because of the fact that we don’t have national Greek organizations and I’m not familiar with marketing beyond Wooster Greek life students and perhaps the community of Wooster, I don’t know how the heck anyone even knows about us.”
“Nevertheless,” Lewis continued, “I think it’s awesome and it could be accurate … I think Wooster does do something right, and that’s a founding in the liberal arts … and an internalized ethic of non-pretentiousness that is conclusively reflected by the Greek life at the College and our participation in extracurricular activities and student life.”
The article comes during a transition year for Inter-Greek Council, during which the representing council itself will be restructured and a Greek Internal Review Board is in the beginning stages of consideration.
Logan thinks that the timing could not have been better, as Greek life is seeking to improve its image to all facets of the school.
“As one of the co-presidents,” Logan said, “this is one of the things we need to make these changes happen. Yes, local is effective, yes it’s just as good as national.”
Currently, about 12 percent of Wooster students are affiliated with Greek organizations, a number which Logan expects to increase to around 15 to 17 percent in the spring semester, after new pledges have joined.