While most Panhellenic councils spend September arguing about recruitment compliance violations and whether a chapter's Instagram post technically counts as informal recruitment, the Divine Nine organizations are out here running food drives, hosting voter registration tables, and putting members through scholarship reviews. Every semester. Without pause. I've sat through enough IFC and Panhellenic governance meetings to know that for a lot of chapters, community service is a box you check before formal. For Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Theta, Zeta Phi Beta, and the rest of the National Pan-Hellenic Council organizations, it's apparently just... Tuesday. ... Read more

Every guy in a fraternity has heard some version of this pitch: join us, and you'll have brothers for life - brothers who will hire you, refer you, open doors for you. It sounds almost too good to be true. And honestly? Sometimes it is. But sometimes it genuinely isn't, and the difference matters a lot more than anyone in recruitment will admit. ... Read more

Nobody told me sophomore year was gonna hit like that. I had three philanthropy events, two formals, a brotherhood retreat, and intramural playoffs packed into about six weeks - and somehow I was still supposed to figure out whether I wanted to declare Economics or Communications. My advisor looked at me like I had two heads when I explained why I'd missed her office hours. She didn't get it. But if you're in a chapter right now, you do. ... Read more

Nobody told me pledge semester would hit my transcript like a freight train. Between chapter meetings three nights a week, new member education, philanthropy events, and just trying to figure out who everyone was - I watched my GPA slip in a way I hadn't expected. And I wasn't some slacker. I'd gotten good grades in high school. Greek life just has a way of filling every hour you thought you had. ... Read more

But really. There’s such a thing as the “fraternity to finance” pipeline that allegedly places certain frat members into financial positions in the Big Apple — that might be harder for any regular college graduate to obtain. No surprise there, since one of the main long-term reasons members rush is for the networking opportunities Greek life affords. ... Read more

Hundreds of men have moved on from collegiate Greek life into the glitzy and powerful ranks of society. It’s no surprise that many of the actors, billionaire CEOs, politicians and Grammy-winning musicians you know as famed celebrities are also Greek alumni. ... Read more

Greeks help others. Every chapter across the nation works hard to hold events to raise awareness and resources for their selected causes. These occasions also offer an opportunity for Greeks from different houses to come together to support each other’s efforts to make the world a better place. Here are some of the best philanthropy events of September 2016 from across the country.... Read more

There are a lot of great fraternity philanthropies. They all have worthy causes that aid brothers in living their noble creeds. Some philanthropic efforts, although, have recently been going above and beyond. Here’s a list of the top 5 fraternity philanthropies of 2015.... Read more

While there are plenty of excellent colleges without much of a Greek Life, it’s important to acknowledge the positive influence that having a strong Greek Life presence on campus offers students. From the percentage of undergraduate students involved in Greek Life to the number of chapters on each campus, the following schools have risen above the rest. Checkout the following list of colleges across the country that offer the best Greek Life experiences by the numbers:... Read more

You have made one of the biggest decisions of your life to go to college. Congratulations! However, that’s not the only decision that you’ll have to make when it comes to college life. Another important decision that you’ll probably make is the decision to go Greek in college. Greek life has lots of benefits to offer to its members – opportunities to build a network, social/community activities to participate in, a strong brotherhood bond to maintain, and many more!  However, one of the biggest challenges college guys face at the beginning of their Greek life is choosing the right fraternity for themselves.... Read more

Most chapter events don't fall apart because of bad ideas. They fall apart because nobody figured out who was actually in charge. I learned this the hard way during my first semester as an active, when what should have been a straightforward mixer with a sorority turned into two weeks of group chat chaos, three people who thought they were in charge, and a venue that got double-booked. The event still happened. It was fine. But fine isn't what anyone was going for. ... Read more

Every few years, a wave of high-profile assault cases hits the news cycle and suddenly everyone's got an opinion about whether fraternities should exist at all. The ABC News story making rounds right now is the latest version of that conversation - calls to shut down frat houses entirely as public anger over rape cases grows louder. I've heard this argument before. I've sat in Panhellenic council meetings where the exact same pressure was bleeding over into how we handled our own policies, our own relationships with IFC chapters, our own event approval processes. And I'll say what I said then: closing houses doesn't close the problem. ... Read more

There's a specific kind of chaos that hits Greek row the week before homecoming. Float builds happening at midnight. Someone's little sister from three towns over showing up unannounced. A chapter president stress-eating dining hall waffles at 2am because the banner isn't drying fast enough. I lived that chaos for four years, and I'm not even a little bit sorry about it. Homecoming week is the thing I describe to people who ask me if Greek life was worth it - and it shuts them up every time. ... Read more

Every few years, something happens at Cornell and the whole country acts like Greek life just invented itself. The New York Times is back on the beat, the op-eds are flying, and university administrators everywhere are dusting off their "embrace or ban" talking points like it's a policy debate and not a conversation about actual students. I've seen this cycle. I lived through a version of it. And honestly, the framing is what frustrates me most. ... Read more

Every Panhellenic president I've ever met has had the same reaction to Greek rank sites: eye roll, dismissal, maybe a comment about how "those sites don't reflect our values." I used to say the same thing. Then I spent two years on council watching chapters with glowing reputations internally get absolutely torched in public forums - and I started paying closer attention to what was actually being said. ... Read more