Elon University just dropped its annual Greek life achievement roundup, and honestly, it reads the way these things always read - a polished list of awards, GPA numbers, community service hours, and photo-ready moments that make the whole system look like it's running perfectly. And look, I don't say that to be cynical. Some of it is genuinely earned. But having sat on a Panhellenic council and watched how these annual reports get assembled, I have thoughts about what they actually tell us versus what they leave out.
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Elon University just handed out its Dr. Leo M. Lambert Awards, recognizing students for leadership, service, and campus impact. Good. That's the kind of thing universities should be doing. But sitting here having spent two years on Panhellenic council, watching chapters get recognition for the wrong reasons and get overlooked for the right ones, I can't just applaud and move on. These awards matter - and the way we structure recognition in Greek life tells you a lot about what we actually value versus what we say we value.
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Most of the sororities across the country hold their formal recruitment in the fall. There are many universities, although, that choose to do rush in the spring. If you haven’t already seen our rankings of the cutest pledge classes of fall recruitment 2015, check out these adorable new members from the South, West, Midwest, Northeast, and Canada. Now check out the list below of the 10 cutest pledge classes from Spring 2016....
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PNMs are constantly looking for ways to learn more about the sororities at their school, long before they actually begin the rush process. One of the most fun ways to do “research” on sororities is by checking out their tumblr pages. Sure- they don’t actually provide you with much information about the sorority , but they are cute and fun and definitely glamorous. However PNMS aren’t the only ones who love sorority tumblrs, sorority girls themselves love the feeling of being featured on their chapter’s page!...
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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:...
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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....
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Nobody hands you a manual when you join a fraternity. You show up, you shake hands, you maybe embarrass yourself at a social event, and then slowly - over the course of months - you figure out that there's a whole second layer of rules running underneath everything. Unwritten ones. The kind that older members just kind of expect you to already know, and the kind that freshmen violate constantly without realizing it until someone pulls them aside.
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The University of Iowa is investigating multiple Greek chapters for potentially violating student organization policies. That's the headline. And if you've spent any real time inside Greek life, your first reaction probably wasn't shock - it was something closer to a tired, knowing exhale.
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Every August, Panhellenic councils across the country run the same choreographed production: structured rounds, timed conversations, strict silence periods, bid day theatrics. It works. It's also exhausting, politically messy, and frankly kind of broken in ways most councils won't admit out loud. I've sat in recruitment chair meetings where grown women cried over quota numbers. I've watched chapters get penalized for a single violation that another chapter committed twice without consequence. So when people ask me whether formal or informal recruitment is better, I never give them a clean answer - because there isn't one.
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The University of Alabama runs one of the biggest, most watched sorority recruitment processes in the entire country. Thousands of potential new members. Dozens of chapters. A week that can feel like a job interview, a beauty pageant, and a marathon all compressed into a few brutal days. A recent piece in The Tuscaloosa News leaned into just how intense that process is - and brought in an expert to offer advice to women going through it. I read it, and I had thoughts. A lot of them.
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