I really do not understand why so many people hate on Greek life. I know what people say: “you pay for your friends,” “y’all are a bunch of rich white kids,” and so on, but honestly that is not true at all.   

What are you paying for in Greek life? You are paying for sisterhood or brotherhood events, events to intermix with other organizations on campus, events with and visits from nationals, the house, and to pay nationals for the ability to have a Greek organization under their name and morals. I will say that never once have I felt like I’m paying for my friends. I know that anyone in a Greek organization can say there is a person in the organization that they do not hangout with because they don’t really get along. But we are not punished for not loving everyone in the organization, and we tend to enjoy everyone because during recruitment we look for people that we think will fit into our sorority. We base recruitment off the way people carry themselves and act towards our existing members.    

To be honest, recruitment is hard. You get a week to try to find out what people will not only mold to your organization, but also be able to make it stronger. I will say that we are also growing during this time. We are trying to become better and educate ourselves on not only racial issues, but socioeconomic ones as well. We are not perfect because many of us have never been in circumstances where these factors were made visible to us. But I know that all the Greek organizations on campus are looking past these factors now at how these people carry themselves, interact with us, and how they want to contribute to the morals and standards that we have set for these organizations.  

I can’t speak for everyone on campus, but I can speak on something I know and that is my sorority, Chi Omega.  I can say that we have some very smart girls who do study way more than I ever have, but they also know how to time manage. I’m not saying that the other sororities don’t know how to do this nor am I saying that they are not smart, because I know one of the KDS senior girls last year was one of the smartest in her class. What I am saying is that people think there is only one side to us, that we are only smart or nice, but we are not just that. We have fun and let loose, and we have an amazing sisterhood that I can honestly say I would keep in touch with after I leave SLU. We are not just the weird girls on Elm St., but the girls that want the same experience as any other girl in a sorority on campus.   

Thoughts for the day… There are stigmas that go along with not only Greek life, but other individual organizations at SLU. These stigmas come from many people who have never even hung out with people in Greek life. And if you have ever hung out with them, you would realize that we are just like the rest of the student body, except we don’t live in a dorm and are able to create new friends that we may have thought we ever would. How can that be so bad?