January 27, 2007 - To be quite honest, around this time of year not much is going on in the Greek community except one event that is all consuming to fraternities and sororities alike: RECRUITMENT!

I am sure you have seen all the eMos sporting fun Greek life facts and slogans, or even the posters now carpeting the freshmen dorms, hanging in almost every place imaginable. You may have even noticed an increase Greek-letter apparel around campus.

Fraternities are having theme parties, semi-formal parties, closed parties, and other fun things to spice up the normal weekend routines here.

Sororities are having almost daily meetings to discuss potential party ideas, run skit rehearsals, and interest parties.

…And all for what you ask? For so many of us in the Greek community, this is more than just a club or social group. It is a way of life and we as part of this community must work to keep it alive.

With the dropping numbers in new freshman coming to WVWC, there has been a change in the Greek community. Pledge classes are getting smaller. The amount of income flowing into the system has changed. We have had to change the way we do recruitment.

In an effort to save our system, we brought in a consultant who specifically coaches Greek systems on how to recruitment quality individuals. For some, there was no change, but for those who grasped the message, there has been a large degree of success.

As  the numbers have dropped, the Greek community has made an effort to clean up their act, adopting a system known nationwide as the “value-based” system. It focuses on the more noble aspects of Greek life such as academics, community service, and an emphasis on leadership opportunities.

WVWC was one of the first Greek systems to adopt the program, which is now being enacted across college campuses nationwide.

While, the WVWC greek system is not perfect yet, there have been a lot of changes, many for the better.

Grades has seen an overall improvement. The Greek community has consistently kept both the men’s and women’s GPAs well about the schools averages, and each semesters almost ever Greek-letter organization sees an improvement in their grade point averages within their active membership, new membership and overall.

The amount of community services performed within the community is astounding. In addition to working with individual philanthropies, the Greek community also works with special projects such as the Hurricane Katrina Relief buckets and Head Start Gift donations.

There was recently even the addition of an All-Greek philanthropy, the American Heart Association. Projects with that include the All-Greek HeartWalk and a bake sale done during the homecoming weekend.

This fall, there was also a push to improve the fraternity houses. Over $100,000 dollars was put into all of the fraternity houses to make safety improvements, such as updates fire systems and escape stairs.

A project is currently underway to even add fire sprinklers into the basements of all the houses.

Greek life is about much more than wearing jerseys and partying. In fact, those aspects which are so criticized by students and faculty alike as very small aspects of what we do.

Yes, there are ritual and ceremonies, which to many would seem silly, but to those participating in them, the meaning is deep and true.

We don’t buy our friends. The bond of the common ideals we share as an organization is what binds us in friendship and sisterhood/brotherhood.

Not everyone is Greek and I completely understand that, but I was once a skeptic and now I really know what it mean to be a member of the WVWC Greek Community.

Ashley Hodak