THE UNIVERSITY OF DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY AUGUST 14, 2006
MONDAY, AUGUST 14, 2006
ON THE HILL
5C
Kansan file photo
Kumanani photo (above) Nick Warnemunde, Des Moines senior and member of Dupa Italien fraternity, and Jamie Wilderson, Omma senior and member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, rehearsal for Rock Chalk Revue March 8 at the Lied Center.
(right) Brett Schlaegel, Stockton sophomora, left, and Kristin Jernstrom, Leanwood sophomore, right, prepare themselves backstage for dress rehearsal on March 8 at the Lied Center. Schlaegel and Jernstrom are both members of Delta Gamma sorority. The sorority performed an act called "In the Club" for Rock Chalk Revue 2006. Rock Chalk Revue is an annual event that organizations pair up and participate in to raise money for chairty.
GREEK LIFE
Greek life offers service, community, connections
BY RACHEL PARKER
For students who want to spice up their college experience, the University of Kansas' fraternities and sororities might have a lot to offer.
The University's greek system is more than 130 years old, consists of 40 chapters and more than 3,500 undergraduate students. In fact, 20 to 22 percent of the undergraduate population is greek.
The Greek community strives to promote four basic pillars of values: leadership, academic excellence, community service and brotherhood and sisterhood.
Leadership opportunities are available for students who want to be chapter officials or part of the greek councils. The Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life has many positions for students to represent the Greek community.
Academically, greek students maintain a certain GPA set by their chapters. Students who excel can be part of the Order of Omega program, a national Greek honor society that recognizes the nation's top 3 percent.
Each chapter commits to different philanthropies to fulfill community service, where students are involved in raising money for national and local organizations. One of the biggest philanthropies is The House that Greeks Built, an activity where students labor and benefit the Lawrence Habitat for Humanity by building a house. The project that averages nearly $50,000. The Greek system is currently working toward building its fourth house, after finishing its third house in 2003.
Greek students also talk about the life-long friendships they make through their involvement with their brothers and sister because they join chapters based on their own interests, and usually live in a chapter house.
Students involved in greek life participate in different beneficial events and programs throughout the school year including a blood drive, intramural sports, a theatrical Rock Chalk Revue and weekend retreats, such as the Greek Advance. Students in these programs become more involved with their chapters, and they increase their interaction with the University and the rest of the students.
Students are informed about recruitment for fraternities and sororities at freshman orientation. There are three different councils that represent the KU greek system: Interfraternity council (IFC), Panhellenic Council (PHA), and National Pan-Hellenic council (NPHC). These councils hold leadership positions for the Greek students, as well as communicate with the national organizations.
Recruitment is a different process for each of the councils and their chapters. The IPC, which represents 20 campus fraternities, holds a summer formal recruitment for men, and an informal recruitment during the rest of the academic school year.
The PHA, which represents 13 camp sonorites, holds an eight-day recruitment process for women during the first week of school.
The NPHC, which represents seven historic African-American and recently-formed Latino fraternities and sororities, holds an informal recruitment period during the entire academic year for men and women who already have college credit. Informational sessions are also available for interested students at the beginning of the school year.
Men and women interested in learning more about the University's greek system should refer questions to the Office of Fraternity aid Sorority Life.
Kansan senior s.aff member Rachel Parker can be reached at rparkers@kansan.com
ku greek chapters
> Interfraternity Council fraternities
Alpha Epsilon Pi
Beta Theta PI
Delta Chi
Delta Sigma Phi
Delta Upsilon
Kappa Sigma
Lambda Chi Alpha
Phi Delta Theta
Phi Gamma Delta
Phi Kappa Psi
Phi Kappa Tau.
Pi Kappa Alpha
PI Kappa Phi
Sigma Alpha Epsilon
Tau Kappa Epsilon
Theta Chi
Triangle
Panhellenic Association sororities
Alpha Chi Omega
Alpha Delta Pi
AlphaGamma Delta
Delta Gamma
Delta Delta Delta
Chi Omega
Gamma Phi Beta
Kappa Alpha Theta
Kappa Delta
Kappa Kappa Gamma
Pi Beta Phi
Sigma Delta Tau
Sigma Kappa
» National Pan-Hellenic Council fraternities and sororities
Alpha Kappa Alpha
Alpha Phi Alpha
Delta Sigma Theta
Phi Beta Sigma
Sigma Lambda Beta
Sigma Lambda Gamma
Zeta Phi Beta
HUMANITIES LECTURE SERIES 2006-2007
KU HALL CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES The University of Kansas
This series is co-sponsored by Kansas Public Radio, and partial funding is provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
STUDENT LIFE
Williams: Open minds ease transition to college
KU is an atmosphere filled with diverse, friendly and helpful students, teachers and faculty.
I witnessed opportunities that KU has to offer as the student organizations, activities and even resources for helping me succeed academically. Unlike my experience, there are many college experiences that only a female student will experience at KU
BY CARNEZ WILLIAMS
For the most part, the experience fosters equal opportunities in both, yet was significantly different among males and females.
Most female students experience different education opportunities that contribute to their unique outlook on campus life at the University of Kansas.
KO.
"What female students can expect at KU is an environment where they're allowed to be women," Alexis Melville, graduate student, said. "Yet there are
This often presents problems for females on campus, even though the college atmosphere is not a place that many feel segregates the sexes.
"Getting lost in the crowd can be a problem, because many still feel it is a man's world, but my co-workers are understanding men who do not look down on me as a woman," Melville said.
In fact, I discovered that gender discrimination often took a back seat when assessing someone based on character.
"When I first came to KU from my country, I noticed that girls here are treated more equal than back home," Sara Bieme, Democratic
Also important to this experience was the equal treatment female students received.
"Getting lost in the crowd can be a problem because many still feel it is a man's world."
ALEXIS MELVILLE graduated student
still underlying tones, too, that suggest female students should be something they are not."
For this reason, many female students define their experiences by a certain level of respect and understanding they have received, both in and out of the classroom.
The more female students I talked to, the more I discovered about these underlying tones, which ranged from being expected to be polite in public, to being less opinionated. I also noted that men did not have these same restrictions.
Republic of Congo senior,
said. "Here,
females are not expected to compete with or try harder than males. The opportunities are available to everyone."
This was
also something I saw to be true this summer. As long as students, male or female, were willing to learn and work hard, there was always someone there to help them.
More importantly the experience of a female student promises equal opportunity in an environment where diversity yields individual growth, here at KU.
Kansan correspondant CarnezWIlliams can be reached at cwiliams@kansan.com
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