The Inside Scoop

When I was thinking of what I could write my editorial about this week there were not many things that came to mind. I debated writing about the changes at Chick-Fil-A regarding charges for salad dressings and the no-refill policy. I thought about talking about parking and the food in general on campus. But eventually I decided to write about the Greek organizations on campus.

While there are numerous fraternities and sororities that hold a charter at GC&SU, not all of them are known to most students. Even I do not know all of them, and most people on campus who aren’t involved in sororities could only tell you a few popular names, such as the D-Zs, the K-As, the “Pikes,” the A-D-Pis, the Kappa Sigs and maybe a few more.

The public as a whole, though, sees only the headlines. When they see a headline; such as last week’s about the “Pikes” being suspended, they just assume that all fraternities are dealing with the same problems. Now, I would like to point out that I do not belong to a fraternity. I just feel that lately and, moreover, most of the time, the Greek organizations on campus get a bad name mainly because of isolated incidents.

Last year the Kappa Sigs were suspended for hazing, and this year the “Pikes” were suspended as well. But you probably can’t think of the last time a sorority was suspended. I sure can’t.

Currently at GC&SU, five fraternities are registered with the Interfraternity council, three sororities are registered with the National Panhellenic council, and there are seven fraternities/sororities currently registered with the National Pan-Hellenic council. That makes a grand total of fifteen Greek Organizations registered at GC&SU. There are, I should point out, two “currently inactive” Greek organizations. They are Phi Beta Sigma and Omega Psi Phi.

With rush coming up for most of the Greek organizations on campus, I would urge you to look into all of your opportunities as a student at GC&SU. In addition to all the social fraternities and sororities on campus, there are also numerous clubs and even one community service co-ed sorority. The co-ed sorority Gamma Sigma Sigma is the only community service organization on campus with Greek letters for their name. On the other hand, they are not a member of any of the three Panhellenic councils and are therefore not a Greek organization. Besides organizations with Greek letters, there are plenty of groups you can be involved with at GC&SU. There are opportunities to help out at the G.I.V.E. Center, CAB, and all sorts of clubs from the History club to the Fencing club.

With so many choices of how to be involved with organizations on campus, it is a wonder why there are only as many Greek organizations as there are. I feel that one of the reasons for this is because negative press for one group too many times translates into a bad reputation for all of them. Through all this, please stay informed of what is going on at our campus and always make your decisions after you think about them.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 7 2001. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry