As a prospective student, I was convinced I would never “go Greek.” It’s the same sentiment I’ve heard from dozens of other Wooster students who now sport Greek letters on a daily basis. Our Greek groups have a flavor that only Wooster students can achieve.
Some may feel that the Greek community is a blemish on the Wooster community that steals program houses, soils the landscaping, encourages angry calls from neighbors and leads people to alcoholism. On the opposite side of the spectrum, people could realize that Greek life caters to the College in the form of social entertainment, whether it be college-sponsored all-campus parties, a Greek-sponsored comedian or happy hour or events like Lip Sync. We provide this entertainment for free because we enjoy doing it, and extend this piece of our Greek experience to the student body as a whole. People realize that Greeks are involved in a broad range of leadership positions and extracurriculars on campus, and I hope that everyone is aware that all groups do at least 10 hours of service per member per semester (12 next year).
Now that we are at the end of Greek Week, most people will gather that Greeks exist and do the many different activities that I just described. But where I feel we fail is in showing who we are and why††††††††† we do it.
We always point to Greek Internal Review Board standards, which mandate that all Greeks achieve a certain level† in areas such as service hours, percentage of members involved in more than one extracurricular activity, percentage of members without a violation of the Scot’s Key and hosting at least one all-campus activity. But ultimately, the only people that hear of Greeks achieving these standards are Greeks, and the rest of the campus still does not have a firm grasp on who Greek groups are, and more importantly, why they exist.
No one has been able to articulate what the Greek community actually is because as a whole you can’t. Each group is drastically different in unique ways, but it can be hard to realize that without being within the system. Furthermore, what someone values about Greek life varies from individual to individual.
Though people may join for their own individual reasons, the Greek process allows members to become closer with other members much more quickly and effectively than most casual groups of friends. Throughout the rush process, groups search for qualities in rushes that matched as closely as possible with the group’s values. Then, through new member education, the values of the entire group are influenced by new members and reinforced in old members. These desired qualities can differ from group to group, as well as the education process.
Thus, the sole quality inherent in all groups is a niche for people who wanted more from the College and a way to form close bonds to peers within the organization. And those feelings are the ones that can never truly be put into words general enough for all Greeks to use.
It’s a frustrating cycle. While we want to be more out in the open and show the campus what we do, there is an underlying sense that our message can never really be deciphered, or our true intentions understood. We will continue to provide entertainment and service for the College while we express ourselves by wearing letters throughout our daily activities. All that we ask in return is some semblance of effort in seeing us for more than our basic surface images.
Kevin Carpenter is the President of Xi Chi Psi and can be reached for comment or questions at†††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††† KCarpenter12@wooster.edu.