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Organizations
still face diversity issues
Diversity
continues to be an issue among Greek fraternities and
sororities as organizations are formed to meet students’
needs.
By
Stacey Grant
After
going through rush her sophomore year, junior marketing
major Lisa Cano decided to form a new sorority on campus.
Cano said she enjoyed the feeling of sisterhood from her
rush experience, but desired a sorority that was smaller
and more culturally diverse.
Along with Gina Redondo, Cano looked at other organizations
in Texas and decided to establish a chapter of the national
Latina sorority Chi Upsilon Sigma last spring.
For the past year, she has been getting the constitution
and bylaws set up, Cano said. She and Redondo hope to
have their first pledge class this semester.
Cano said she felt the need to form a Latin sorority because
there weren’t enough options for her on campus besides
Panhellenic sororities, which she said tend to not be
very racially diverse.
“As for being diverse, as in having minorities in
their organizations, I mean, technically they don’t,”
Cano said. “That’s one of the reasons that I
felt the need to have this sorority … I didn’t
feel like things were really open to me.”
TCU’s campus also has a local Latina sorority, but
Cano said she was interested in forming a sorority with
national roots. Chi Upsilon Sigma currently has 27 chapters
nationwide.
Currently, there are four African-American Greek organizations
and four Latin organizations on campus, in addition to
the 10 Interfraternity Council and 10 Panhellenic Council
organizations.
Cano said that even though Greek organizations are not
very diverse, the problem as a whole begins with TCU.
According to the TCU Fact Book for Fall 2003, TCU students
were 76.7 percent white, 6.1 percent Hispanic, 5.5 percent
black, 2 percent Asian, 0.5 percent American Indian, 4.7
percent nonresident and 4.5 percent unknown.
Charlie Stephan, Pi Kappa Phi president, said diversity
among Greek organizations is a complicated issue, but
one that needs to be addressed.
Stephan, a sophomore advertising/public relations major,
said organizations try their hardest to recruit any member
who would improve their chapter. It’s sometimes difficult
to achieve this goal, however, as some students feel a
societal pressure to join their minority’s fraternity
or sorority, Stephan said.
“There is an unwritten and unfair pressure on students
who are interested in Greek life to filter themselves
into certain Greek organizations based on the color of
their skin,” Stephan said.
Stephan said, however, that an increase in diversity among
Greek organizations would definitely lead to a greater
understanding of other cultures and ideas.
“Greek organizations aren’t about making homogenous
cookie-cutter members, they are about making better leaders
in the community,” Stephan said.
James Parker, assistant dean of Campus Life, said diversity
among Greek organizations can always be improved to attract
students from all walks of life.
“I believe it’s important to always take a look
at diversity and reach out to others,” Parker said.
Parker said he hasn’t been approached by any students
who haven’t found what they need on this campus.
Tiffany Abbott, director of fraternity and sorority affairs,
said she thinks Greek organizations have always been diverse
as a whole.
“I think some people don’t necessarily see beyond
the general ‘look’ of an organization,”
she said. “People need to see more of who people
are and what they can bring to different organizations.”
The IFC and Panhellenic organizations try to be as inclusive
as possible and include the people they feel would best
connect with their organizations, Abbott said. All the
organizations on campus are open, even if they are not
predominantly African-American or Latino, she said. People
are going to join the one they feel most comfortable in,
Abbott said.
Cano said she has seen a lot of changes in the past few
years concerning Panhellenic and IFC’s diversity.
“It’s changed a lot because they [the Panhellenic
sororities and IFC fraternities] are working with the
smaller Greek organizations now, which typically are the
minority organizations,” Cano said. “But as
for being diverse themselves, I think they have a long
way to go.”
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Sarah
Chacko/Photo Editor
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radio-TV-film major Eugenia Redondo (left) and marketing
and management major Lisa Cano (right), founders
of the TCU chapter of Chi Upsilon Sigma, plan Founders
Week Thursday in the Student Center. |
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