For many Emporia State students, last Saturday was a day to give back to the Emporia community. About 80 students participated in the Big Event, a community service event hosted by Associated Student Government, Community Hornets and Greek Life.

Jonathan Rivers, acting president of ASG, said there were “tons” of students to help with the project, ranging from sophomore to the graduate levels, despite several other events in Emporia that day.

“It was a good way to meet other students,” said Kayla Flanigan, community service coordinator. “It was a fun event to be involved with – we had free donuts (and) we gave away free T-shirts and water bottles. We also did a raffling for some $50 gas cards, thanks to ASG.”

The volunteers participated in different service activities including organizing clothing items at the Salvation Army, sorting recyclables at the Recycling Center, doing yard work at the William Allen White House, spray-painting storm drains and park clean up, Flanigan said.

The student volunteers were split into groups that were assigned to each activity – the biggest group had 27 people who spray-painted “no-dumping” signs beside storm drains in designated places around Emporia, Flanigan said.

“I went to the Salvation Army. In the back of the store, there is a huge room with a mountain of clothes. We did a lot of organizing for them, even though we were only there for two hours, they were really grateful we were there,” Flanigan said.

Lainie Harber, senior communications major and the coordinator of Service Corps, helped with yard work for the William Allen White House.

“The man who runs it was so appreciative and so grateful for our work, he even gave us a tour of the house for free,” Harber said.

Flanigan said preparations for the event began in early February and that the main objective was to educate students on the idea that it is easy to get involved with the community.       Rivers said the Big Event helped break down the wall between the university and Emporia community.

Last year, Community Hornets conducted several surveys with the community.

“Many (community members) felt there was a big split between the university and the town,” Flanigan said. “If we could work together, it could be a stronger community.”

Harber said community service offers a chance for students to do something bigger than themselves and created a tie among the university, community and students.

“Community service offers students a lot of things, first-hand experience, resume builders and a lot benefits that come from there that you won’t know right away,” Flanigan said.

Flanigan said the student involvement in community service was better this year and she hoped it could continue to grow because “there is always a need.”

Huibing Lu

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From Feb. 23-26, the Panhellenic Informal Week will help students learn more about Greek Life and the four sororities on campus including Chi Omega, Alpha Sigma Alpha, Sigma Sigma Sigma and Alpha Sigma Tau.

“This event will provide a way for women to branch out, meet other women, and get to know the sorority women on campus,” said Arielle Bowhay, recruitment chair of the Panhellenic Association.

During the first two days, the attendants will meet from 6- 8p.m. in Visser Hall to visit all of the chapters in a neutral area. On Feb. 25, attendants will take a tour of each chapter area from 6 to 8 p.m. On Feb. 26, recruits and chapter members will attend a basketball game at 5:30 p.m. in White Auditorium.

The entire event is casual attire. T-shirts and jeans are appropriate and all women that are full-time students are eligible. Those interested can either go to the event or sign-up in the CSI office.

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DePriest

Greek Life has often been portrayed as a life of parties, hazing and a way to rejoin a clique after high school. On T.V. shows like “Greek” and movies like “Beta House,” they make it seem like sorority girls are dumb and frat boys only drink and haze all day. There are 10 houses on campus and each are part of a Greek community that has thrived here for years and gives a life to many students on campus.

At the beginning of the year, when asked if I considered joining a sorority, I would reply ‘no’ without even thinking. I didn’t want to be a part of something that I thought at the time was conformist and only for preppy girls who were popular in high school.

But after seeing how my friends felt getting involved in Greek Life, I decided it wasn’t bad at all. In fact, being a part of the Greek community not only made them more involved, it made them feel like they were part of something bigger. I feel that kids on campus don’t understand what is great about being part of a Greek family.

People will tell you they joined a sorority or fraternity out of legacy, or because they think it’ll get them into parties. But there’s so much more to being a part of the Greek community. The biggest thing I loved about being part of Greek Life is the feeling of family. The comfort to know that there is always someone there to back you up when you need someone to talk to or hang out with and there are people who care about your wellbeing. Your brothers or sisters will help you through the classes you find the hardest and they push you to your full potential.

Being a part of a sorority or fraternity gets you involved in community services and on campus activities, and creates a bond between you and your Greek family that lasts forever.

There are, of course, reasons that discourage people from wanting to involve themselves in Greek Life. Money is an obvious factor. It is known that being in a sorority or fraternity is not a cheap way of life. It is expensive, because the money you spend goes to house fees and the activities involved.

Some would also say that being part of a house is a useless life and that there is no point to having to pledge your name to a set of Greek letters for the rest of your life. Others would also just say they don’t have time and are not concerned with that sort of thing.

In formal recruitment, potential sorority and fraternity members visit each of the houses to find their favorite and wait for a bid, which basically says that a house wants you. Informal recruitment is pretty much the same but helps when you already know what house you want to join.

When I received my bid from Alpha Sigma Alpha, I was so excited. To have something to call a family after leaving mine behind gave me hope that I finally fit in somewhere. I accepted my bid because even though it was going to cost a bit of money, the money was worth it. I had found friends in my sisters and a sense of belonging.

Emporia State should stress the deeper commitments that come with joining the Greek community. That it is not only a way to have fun and get involved but also creates a family bond found only at home.

Emma DePriest/The Bulletin

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Jessica Owen, freshman nursing major, Shae Coffin, freshman special education major, and Morgan Williams, freshman undecided, leave the Chi Omega house on Tuesday evening after their chapter meeting. Megan Gartner/ The Bulletin

This year, national fraternities and sororities at Emporia State will celebrate 100 years on campus.

“(Greek Life is) a highly visible group of students that work together in a brotherly and sisterly way to make the university a better place,” said Roger Heineken, administrative officer in the Memorial Union.

Phi Sigma Epsilon was the first national Greek organization on campus, founded in 1910 at what was then Kansas State Normal School. Since 1910, over 20 national fraternities and sororities have had chapters at ESU.

“I think it builds institutional loyalty. Greek alumni are often big supporters of the university long after they have graduated,” Heineken said.

Heineken is a member of Phi Delta Theta and was chapter adviser for 13 years.

“Being a member of Phi Delta, a fraternity, a life experience, we say we are a Phi Delt’ because we made a commitment for life,” Heineken said.

Events in celebration of the centennial will take place during Homecoming week. Many chapters will hold their individual activities but a few all-Greek events will bring everyone together to experience the memories.

Sigma Pi, Phi Delta Theta, Sigma Tau Gamma, Sigma SigmaSigma and Chi Omega have events planned and on the schedule of events available online. Events take place Oct. 22 to Oct. 24 for individual chapters.

During the annual coffee reception a “walking timeline” will be held at 9 a.m. Oct. 23 at Memorial Union’s Main Street.

“It will have artifacts and some different things, yearbooks and things from different chapters at different decades,” said Michelle Hernandez, director of ESU Greek Life.

Other activities include an all-Greek social for alumni and current members held 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Oct. 23 at Natasha’s. A centennial float will be included in the Homecoming parade held 11 a.m. the same day on Commercial Street.

Meredith Bodyston, senior secondary English education major and member of Alpha Sigma Tau, said because of Greek Life, she is doing things she never would have done.

“I have a better sense of self awareness,” Bodyston said.

Heineken and other Greeks see the intrinsic value fraternities and sororities can play in enhancing the undergraduate experience.

“If Greeks were fly-by-night or had no value there wouldn’t be a centennial they would have fallen by the wayside a long time ago,” Heineken said.

Liz Coffey

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Emporia State graduate student Michelle Hernandez, Greek Life Coordinator at the Center for Student Involvement (CSI) for ESU, demonstrates her passion for student involvement as the interim coordinator for Greek Life.

“Through my involvement here, I have decided that I have a love for student affairs and that it is something that I would like to make my career in.” Hernandez said. “I love Greek life.”

Hernandez was always involved on campus as an Emporia State University undergraduate student. When Hernandez enrolled to obtain her master’s degree she also received a Graduate Assistant position for Greek Life in the CSI office.

“I have known Michelle for about three years when I was the director of the Union and she was an undergraduate student in Greek Life,” said Lynn Hobson, associate vice president of Student Life at ESU. “She is very outgoing, friendly and welcoming towards other people.”

Hobson said Hernandez cares about students and really wants them to have the best experience possible.

“Michelle is a really caring person and always willing to help out whenever,” said Hayley Finch, senior communication major.

Hernandez is originally from Kingman. She graduated from ESU in May 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. Hernandez is now in a master’s program for her MBA.

“Michelle is really dependable.” Hobson said. “If she said she is going to do something, she gets it done, and she gets it done on time.”

When Hernandez acted as a graduate assistant, she just jumped in and wanted to learn everything she could about the process, Hobson said.

There are six fraternities and five sororities in the ESU Greek community. Hernandez thinks that ESU has a really great community because they are so small. Hernandez was in one of the sororities when she was an undergraduate at ESU.

“They collaborate on a lot of things, and are really unified.” Hernandez said. “Since I am disaffiliated, and we want to be impartial, I can’t tell people which chapter I was in.”

According to Hernandez, joining Greek Life can help to focus on important principles like leadership, scholarship, and stewardship.

“You will find there are a lot of people who are leaders in organizations that are also Greeks.” Hernandez said. “Greek Life opens a lot of doors for students to meet a lot of people, and they can learn how to be a leader. The Greeks also all do study hours, and they all have minimum GPA requirements.”

As Interim Greek Life Coordinator, Hernandez works on advising Panhellenic Association, Interfraternity Council, the order of Omega (which is the Honor society for Greeks), Greeks Advocating Mature Management Alcohol (GAMMA) and United Greeks Association (UGA). Hernandez works with presidents of different chapters and helps by advising them about any issue that they may be having with Greek Life as a whole, or with a certain chapter.

“She may advise them how to take the next steps to make sure things go smoothly.” Hobson said. “Michelle is doing a really good job because she is still a graduate student. She is advising, and going to school.”

Yun Lauren Liu/Staff Writer

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Next year, Greek chapters will receive awards based on the Fraternal Relevance Assessment, a new program created to recognize chapters that exemplify the Greek values of leadership, scholarship, citizenship, stewardship and friendship.

The program was designed by Greek Life Director Jason Bosch and his interns and based on programs used by Indiana University and Kansas State University. This year, the chapters will be evaluated by their current programs, PAPE, or Presidents Award for Panhellenic Excellence for Sororities and Sweepstakes for Fraternities. Bosch sees many advantages to switching from these to the new program.

“The current programs that the Interfraternity Council and the Panhellenic Association were using were hard to navigate, difficult to understand and one of the biggest downfalls of the programs was that they only recognized one chapter, so unless you outscored every chapter in all of the categories, you really didn’t have an opportunity to be recognized for the areas that you are doing well in,” Bosch said. “One of the big changes with the new program is that even if they don’t score enough points in all the categories to be the top winner, they’re still going to be recognized for their strong points.”

In addition to allowing more recognition, the program will evaluate chapters based on Greek missions and values.

“All of our organizations on campus value leadership, scholarship, community service and involvement so this is going to recognize the chapters who in their day to day actions are living those values,” Bosch said. “It’s also going to help me know to be able to look at all that data and know as a Greek community where we are strong and where we can improve.”

Also, the new evaluation system allows for external feedback.

“In the previous programs there really wasn’t an opportunity for anyone outside of the Greek community to say, ‘you might look at doing this program differently’ or ‘have you considered taking on a new service project,’” Bosch said. “So with the new program we’re actually going to have a committee of faculty and staff who are going to be reviewing the applications and they’ll be the ones to score the points and give feedback.”

President of IFC Cody Pritchard, senior secondary education math major, said he hopes the new program will help to eliminate stereotypes by allowing more Greek organizations to become recognized.

“It’s something that I wish we would have had years ago and I think it’s going to do wonders for Greek life and allowing people to see what we’re really all about,” Pritchard said. “I think it will help get rid of the stereotype that Greek life gets sometimes.”

President of PHA Caroline Ewing, sophomore English major, agreed and said that the more specific categories on the assessment make it more credible.

“The Greek programs on campus really need solid proof that what they do matters,” Ewing said. “I think this is going to really show that what we do makes a positive change in a lot of different areas, so if people ever question what we do, we can actually have facts and figures to back it up.”

Bosch is excited to start assessment with the new program, but acknowledges that it may not yet be perfect.

“We’re gonna give it a shot and we may find after this first year that it needs to be tweaked a little bit,” Bosch said. “But I’m excited that the Greek community is willing to be open to change and willing to give this program a shot.”

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