By Ashley Oades
When hearing the term “Greek Life,” it’s easy to think of movies involving fraternity parties or sorority girl shopping sprees. Movies have given a stereotypical view into the lives of these men and women who have decided to join Greek Life. The Kansas State University Greek Life community continuously aims to change the stereotypes involved with the term “Greek Life”.
“Greek Life is basically students that get involved and engaged with a student organization,” said Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life Ben Hopper. “Students who are involved do better academically. While fraternities and sororities are just some of the many student organizations that get students connected, it is a great way to meet people, create life long friendships, develop and hone leadership skills, serve the community and create memories.”
The Greek community at Kansas State University began in 1913 with the idea that the community would uphold a tradition of excellence. With 17 sororities and 28 fraternities on campus with almost 4,000 members total, Greek Life strives to push students past what is expected of them.
Sororities at Kansas State University are for the women who wish to be involved in Greek Life.
“Sorority life at K-State is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” said junior Beth Shirley. “You not only get involved on campus, you also gain connections, grow as a person a
nd a leader and you make lifelong friendships. My experience has been nothing but positive.”
Traditions run deep within the Greek community. Students take the idea of K-State family and apply it within the community in order to grow closer to each other.
“The community here is incredibly positive and the idea of ‘K-State Family’ is an underlying theme that runs strong between every member of our community,” said Shirley. “We have close friendships with each other regardless of affiliation and strive to help not only their organizations, but also other chapters as well. Joining a sorority, you not only gain sisters in your own chapter, you gain every single one of them in the community.”
Sorority life at Kansas State University is full of opportunities for women to grow as leaders and work with other women to promote what their chapter stands for.
“Being in a sorority, you get to work on philanthropy events that benefit communities of people in need. For example, my sorority is Zeta Tau Alpha and we support breast cancer education and awareness,” said Shirley. “We raise money for people impacted by breast cancer and for the education of other women to check themselves regularly. We have so many opportunities for leadership within the chapter and we promote academic success for all of our members with a pretty high success rate. K-State’s fraternity and sorority student’s GPA’s have been above the all university average for the past 50 consecutive semesters.”
Fraternities on the other hand, are for the men when they are looking at joining Greek Life.
“I came here from out of state and knew a fraternity would be a great way to have a close group of friends that I can have for the rest of my life,” said junior Shawn Michaud. “Greek Life is really a great place to build those friendships and find the connections that you need to be more successful in the future.”
The men in fraternities are held to the same standards that the women are.
“We have study hours just like the sorority houses do,” said Michaud. “We pride ourselves on our academics and our involvement in the community and making ourselves better. Since joining Alpha Tau Omega, I have gained an awesome brotherhood and have been able to focus more on my studies. The only downfall of being in a fraternity really is this idea that all we do is party.”
No matter a person’s age, Greek Life extends their welcome to all men and women who are interested in joining.
“I joined a fraternity when I was 30 years old,” said Hopper. “I became an alumni initiate and chapter advisor in 2009. I believed in the men and what they stood for. During the initiation ceremony, I learned about the ritual. It put into words what I heard and saw in the students that I had interacted with. Since initiation, I still believe in the ritual of the organization. I have seen the positive difference that fraternity can make on college men and women. My hope as director is to take our great community and make it even better.”
Student’s on K-State’s campus show overwhelming support by going to Greek philanthropy events, but that doesn’t stop some from being skeptical about what Greek Life really is about.
“I think the opinion of the Greek Community is very positive at K-State,” said Michaud. “We really are very affiliated with the community around Manhattan and we really work hard to hold ourselves to higher standards. There are however, some people that aren’t involved in Greek Life that stereotype fraternities and sororities when they don’t know what is really going on in the community.”
Opinions on Greek Life extend beyond the students on campus and reach our teachers and administration. The office of Fraternity and Sorority Life recently did a survey of faculty and staff on their overall thoughts on Greek Life.
“Some opinions were really great,” said Hopper. “Some comments however, not so much. It proves that we need to recruit great men and women. We need to develop our students to do better and to be better. The community has great support from administration but we need to continue the outreach and education of the campus community.”
For students who have chosen to not join Greek Life, one of the common misconceptions is that all students do when in a fraternity or sorority is party.
“The first thing I think of when I think of Greek Life is parties or formals and I think of the movie Neighbors and the fraternity and sorority life shown in that movie,” said sophomore Justin Brown. “For a long time, that was just how I viewed Greek Life. Since coming here and seeing how the K-State Greek community works, I have realized it is beneficial for those who are in it and it is a great way to meet lost of people and have a support system. However, as someone who is not involved in Greek Life and never wanted to join a fraternity, I just don’t see the need to be in one. Overall I think that it is great that Greek Life exists here at K-State, but I just don’t ever see myself joining.”
Students in the Greek community continually work to push past the stereotypical views of what being in a sorority or fraternity means.
“I think the best thing I can say to people and other students is to give the community a chance,” said Shirley. “Especially here at K-State, this community is nothing like the TV shows and movies make it look. Looking in as a non-Greek student, it’s easy to see a small snapshot of our lives and to stereotype them based off what you know from Hollywood producers and it is much harder to see the bigger picture. Once you see all the amazing things happening in Greek Life, it becomes very clear that we aren’t here to party. We are here to better promote ourselves and our community.”
Poor portrayal of Greek Life creates tension within the community to fight for the image that fraternities and sororities strive to achieve.
“Whenever Zac Efron puts out a movie about Greek Life, the office and community leaders have to combat the negative stereotypes portrayed in those movies,” said Hopper. “If Zac would make a movie about getting a 3.6 GPA in chemical engineering, volunteering at a hospital, picking up trash along the highway and raising money for the Red Cross, it would be a more accurate depiction of fraternity and sorority life.”
One thing that stands true within every chapter on campus is that all chapters have the same general beliefs.
“When done well, Greek Life is a beautiful thing,” said Hopper. “If you stripped each organization down to the core, really, they are all the same. Fraternity develops people into better men and women. It is pretty simple. They are groups of people bound together by a common belief in scholarship, philanthropy, service and friendship. Each organization just says that they believe in these things just a little differently.”