Megan Kaplan
Contributing Writer
The Inter-Greek Council (IGC) held various informational events on Sept. 3, 5 and 6 as part of their Greek Informational Week. These meetings were a new way for first-years and the general campus to understand Greek Life here at Wooster.
There are a lot of misconceptions surrounding Greek Life in general, and the purpose of these meetings was to help clear up those confusions as well as “show people that we really do respect and support each other both in and outside of our respective organizations,” said Alpha Gamma Phi President Emani Kelley ’19.
Greek 101 differed from the usual “Greek Spirit Day” that was held in the past. Abbey Martin ’19, Pi Kappa’s, or “Peanuts”, president, commented that with Greek Spirit Day “falling around the same time as Scot Spirit Day, it is already an exhausting experience for first-year students.” The hope was that the informational panels would allow for a more relaxed way for students to get to know the Greek community.
Greek Life at Wooster is unique in the way that all of the Greek organizations are local, not national. This is a distinction that greatly changes the Greek Life experience for Wooster students.
Ultimately, these panels are not correlated with the rush season, but instead mitigate some of the stress surrounding it. “Joining Greek life at Wooster gives you an opportunity to connect with people you wouldn’t normally connect with, and that’s what we hope to convey at these sessions,” said President of IGC Maha Rashid ’19.
Martin agreed, saying, “It will be a wonderful way to show how passionate and engaged this community is and how enriching Greek Life can be in the lives of Wooster students.”
IGC stated it well when they said, “No matter the letters, we are all Greek together,” and that is what they hope these panels emphasized.
The sessions were broken up to focus on fraternities and sororities separately before coming together to talk about Greek Life as a whole. “Individuals interested in Greek Life can decide which session to attend based on their identities and interests,” said Kelley.
Each panel was made up of one representative from each group and they answered questions about their organizations as well as spoke to their missions and values. After each panel, there was an opportunity to interact with the members from each organization and allow students to know which organization might be the best fit for them.
Leonard Wine ’19, the president of Xi Chi Psi, also emphasized that this new approach will hopefully allow “individual groups to focus more on expressing their own identities.”
Many Greek organizations entered this event with the hope that they would make students, especially first-years who may be considering rushing, more comfortable with the idea of Greek Life at Wooster. As the preparations for Greek Informational Week were underway, Martin said, “We have found that incoming freshmen often arrive on campus with a number of assumptions and misconceptions about Greek life that do not necessarily apply to Wooster sororities and fraternities. We hope that this event can help capture the uniqueness of each group and clear up some of those misunderstandings.”
“I’m hoping that it changes rush season for the better in terms of eliminating the stigma that is often associated with Greek Life in general as well as to show people that we really do respect and support each other both in and outside of our respective organizations,” said Kelley.