When young women go to college they think about who they are going to become, what they’re going to do, and the people they are going to meet. For many girls, joining a Greek organization is the perfect way to do all of these things.
A sorority pushes you to reach your goals, it provides a support system away from home and gives you life-long friends.
Like any organization, sororities are prone to stereotypes. The Panhellenic Council is the governing body of residential sororities here at Washington State University. The United Greek Council is the governing body of multicultural sororities and fraternities. There are a lot of perceived differences between these two types of sororities but in reality, they’re pretty similar.
I personally am a member of Delta Gamma, a Panhellenic sorority at WSU. I didn’t know much about multicultural sororities until I attended the UGC Yard Show, part of their recruitment process, a few months ago. Seeing these women interact made me realize how similar we truly are, so I decided to talk to some members of multicultural sororities to gain a better understanding of who these women are and to see what values we share.
UGC sororities are culturally-based. Many are Latina-based, but there are some based on other cultures as well. One of the main stereotypes of UGC sororities is that they’re just a club. Anita Mendoza, a member of Gamma Alpha Omega Sorority Incorporated, says they’re not seen as much as residentials. That’s one thing Anita says really "irks" her and her sisters because they’re also here and should be recognized.
Anita is a senior who joined her Latina based chapter in the fall of 2014. She talked to me about the recruitment process of joining a multicultural organization. Each organization in the UGC has a different recruitment week and process which includes submitting an application, interviews, and ultimately selecting the organization that best fits them. Like Panhellenic recruitment, it’s a mutual selection process, that requires both the chapter to extend a bid and the new member to accept it. After joining a chapter the changes don’t stop.
“We really strive to be better than we were yesterday and that’s academically or within our own personal growth,” said Anita. “We really try to push each other to have different leadership positons outside of our chapter to grow as a professional.”
While UGC organizations do not have residential chapter housing, many girls in the organization live together anyway because they’re friends who enjoy spending time together. This was true for Anita who lives with two of her sisters. This was also true for Vanessa Chavez, a member of the Zeta Sigma Chapter of Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority Incorporated, who lives with two of her sisters.
Vanessa is a twenty-three-year-old senior and founding sister of her chapter. Along with 21 other founding members, Vanessa brought the Lambda ladies to WSU in Spring of 2016. Vanessa considered joining a Panhellenic chapter because it was all she knew about before attending WSU. After some research, Vanessa realized it wasn’t the right fit for her because it lacked the connection to her Mexican roots.
“My favorite thing about my chapter is how just actively involved we are within our community and each other and just our bond is so strong. I mean we worked together to bring this organization to this campus these past two years we definitely had a lot of bumps in the road but I feel like we’re stronger than ever,” said Vanessa.
The Panhellenic Council President, Maddie Johnson, wants to continue creating connections between the two communities. Maddie, a junior in Alpha Omicron Pi, attended a retreat with both the Interfraternity Council and UGC just a few weeks ago.
“They’re really culturally based and they stay really true to their values,” said Maddie.
The main difference that Maddie sees between the two communities is that UGC focuses on cultural and personal values while Panhellenic focuses on just personal values. This is evident in the political statements UGC sororities, like Lambda Theta Alpha, make as a chapter. Political statements as a chapter are not seen in the Panhellenic community.
“We are similar in our values and what we strive for and making women better women, just using that sisterhood to push you to be better,” said Maddie.
Both communities focus on pushing their sisters to be better than they were yesterday which is something that the communities are hopeful to do for each other in the future.
The one thing that carried true across every woman I talked to was the love for their sisters and our community.
“It’s really empowering the group we’re in. We’re all here for the same goal but we’re all different also we all bring different traits to our chapter but together we are one,” said Vanessa.
While the Panhellenic and UGC organizations are working together it’s important that we realized change begins not from an organization but through the individual.
So, remember that your sorority is not that different from my sorority because we all have the same goal in mind, encouraging each other to be the best that we can be.
