After the start of a new semester, there is new student interest in joining Greek Life organizations.
Keene State College is home to five Greek organizations: three fraternities and two sororities. Each semester new members are recruited into one of those organizations. Greek Life members are holding events and tabling to gauge interest in their fall recruitment efforts.
“We already had all of our … fall events,” said sophomore Andre Nickerson, director of recruitment and a new member educator for the fraternity Delta Tau Delta. “It was a week-long process, this was a couple of weeks ago.”
Delta Tau Delta held different events over a week, including a “Meet the Brothers” event, a volleyball game, and a barbecue. These types of events are done by many Greek Life organizations on campus, to get students interested in their organization and to help give out information about it.
The members of the sorority Delta Phi Epsilon have also been tabling to gain interest and to help out around campus.
“Right now, we’re tabling for our feminine product drive,” said senior Lauren Lindberg, president of Delta Phi Epsilon. “We’re collaborating with FemCo [Feminist Collective] and we’re just collecting different products and we’re going to give them to FemCo to spread around campus.”
Lindberg also mentioned that Delta Phi Epsilon is planning to do a voter education tabling event in the future.
“We’re tabling in two weeks for that,” said junior Lia Ospina, Vice President of Equity and Belonging for Delta Phi Epsilon. “We’re going to have our laptops on the tables and any Keene State student … can check their registration if they’re registered in-state or out-of-state. And I’ll also have pamphlets on the table [showing] how to vote, how to do it out-of-state.”
“Educating myself and others is the main idea of that tabling,” continued Ospina.
Both Lindberg and Nickerson stated that the fall semester is usually slower in terms of recruitment. Despite this, both have reported a good amount of student interest.
“Fall is definitely a little bit slower because you have to at least have completed your first semester here at Keene to join a fraternity,” said Nickerson. “We have a PNM [possible new members] class right now, it consists of three or four people right now, which is about the same as my class when I joined last year.”
“[Student interest] has actually been really good,” said Lindberg. “Usually fall is kind of a weird time, because freshmen just coming in are not allowed to join any Greek Life organizations. But recently, this fall was a really great turnout. We have eight new members officially, so that’s really exciting.”
Greek life organizations get involved both on and off campus. For example, they often will hold tabling events on campus to raise money for their philanthropy.
Each fraternity and sorority has philanthropies, which are non-profit organizations they help to raise money and awareness for. Delta Phi Epsilon’s main philanthropies are Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF) and Anorexia Nervosa & Related Disorders (ANAD), and Delta Tau Delta’s is JDRF, which provides funds for research into type 1 diabetes.
Nickerson also stated that KSC Greek Life isn’t like the Greek Life in the movies.
“We’re a smaller campus, so it’s not like a bigger school, it’s not like the stereotypical Greek life in general,” said Nickerson. “There’s a lot of different people in all the organizations, my brothers are all very different people and that’s good.”
“We’re a very welcoming and friendly group, I feel like that’s becoming more known on campus,” said Lindberg. “People are less scared because we’re very open, and same with the rest of the sororities too.”
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