Greek life is widely recognized for the many national organizations that are a fun, yet optional, part of the American college experience. At WSU, the Greek community is small but mighty, and has just grown one fraternity stronger by introducing Kappa Sigma.
Interfraternity Council
WSU’s official fraternities fall under one of two councils: the National Pan-Hellenic Council or the Interfraternity Council. This year, a lot of changes have come to the latter, with a new fraternity joining as well as one returning to the council.
Phi Mu Alpha, a music-oriented fraternity, left WSU’s IFC a long time ago. This year, they are making their return, though they follow a different recruitment process than the other fraternities in IFC.
Donnell Smith is a graduate assistant working in the Student Involvement and Leadership office at WSU. He specializes in leadership, community engagement and fraternity and sorority life. In his undergraduate, he was an active member of the Phi Kappa Tau chapter.
“We have technically one new organization that is starting trying to get chartered here on our campus. And then we have another fraternity, Phi Mu Alpha, who is now coming back to our community, so trying to get them slowly back integrated and feeling like they're a part of our Greek community,” Smith said.
Like Smith, going Greek during a student’s undergraduate years can open up opportunities for individuals, such as scholarships and career opportunities.
Making a mark
The process of starting up a new chapter is long, as Smith explained when talking about the addition of Kappa Sigma to WSU.
“The biggest thing is just making sure everyone's following the rules,” Smith said.
The first step is for members to join, and then they will be classified as an interest group. After a while of being an interest group, they can be chartered, which can take a few semesters or years. Once chartered, they will become an associate chapter.
“It's been very, very nice, really, having a new chapter here, and then having somebody who's like, we're trying to do all the right steps and get established here,” Smith said.
Sam Williams works for Kappa Sigma’s national headquarters, which allows him to travel between universities to share the message of his fraternity. Initiated at Capital University, Williams shared that the four pillars of his fraternity are fellowship, leadership, scholarship and service.
“Military heroes is our national philanthropy. Now we don't tell universities where to send their money, we just say somewhere military. So with us being both in the United States and Canada, our Canadian chapters get to send money to their national military, not the United States military,” Williams said.
Greek life is about more than just money, though. It is also important for members to work hands-on.
“I did [a service event] at Capital called Veteran Companion Animal Services, where we buy and train up a dog to be a service animal for a veteran. So it's really dependent on the university what you guys want to do, but naturally, it's our philanthropy,” Williams said.
Ethan Schul is a freshman at WSU this year, and is one of the first students to commit himself to the Kappa Sigma brotherhood being created at WSU.
“We're starting up. That's kind of like a, I mean, everything's kind of a democracy within the organization itself. So people will vote on that, so nobody's positions are sat right now, which I think is a good thing,” Schul said.
Right now, there are a good number of men who are interested in joining Kappa Sigma, but things are still fluid for the fraternity for the time being. As fraternity rush goes on, and Kappa Sigma picks up more interested members, things will solidify.
“I did get out of the Marine Corps, so when I got out, I wanted to come back to school. But when I came back, I didn't want to just come back to school and that's it. I also wanted to kind of get back to what I believe to be my community, and through Greek life, I have found kind of like a hole to be able to do that,” Schul said.
It is stories like this that often shape a person’s experience in deciding to go Greek.
Addressing stereotypes
It does not take a lot of deep diving to learn about the negative assumptions that a lot of people have surrounding fraternities and Greek life. However, at WSU, the community being smaller also makes it higher quality.
“One thing about our community is- which I think really brings us together- is the fact that we don't have houses,” Smith said.
Fraternity houses are infamous due to the stories that are told. By not having housing, WSU avoids this drama and can focus on brotherhood and leadership instead.
“We stay on top of our academics. We're getting better at doing service and philanthropy, but, like, their brotherhoods are really strong. They're really holding each other accountable, pushing them to be better. And then it's like, those stereotypes [that everyone is drinking]. That's not our community. [I] won't speak for any other community, but for our community at [WSU], that's just not what it is,” Smith said.
Williams, as a national representative of Kappa Sigma, shared his stances on stereotypes as well.
“So I'd say, for here, [the] best thing I can say is take whatever stereotypes or prejudices you have against fraternities and just kick them to the curb. And just come see it for yourself, because a lot of people think fraternities are bad, and the hazing and the hierarchy and everything's just terrible. But what I could say with us starting here, first off, there's the no hazing, there's no hierarchy. There's no nothing,” Williams said.
At WSU, Greek life is a truly positive experience for the majority of its members. Having the community grow by an additional chapter is great to see.
