Greeks prominent on campus
TCU’s Greek scene ranked 15th in country
By Andrew Donovan
Staff Reporter

When Stephen Gebren, a senior speech communication major, first transferred from Louisiana State University two years ago, he said he was overwhelmed by the strong Greek presence on campus.

Gebren said he now realizes the perception was somewhat of an illusion. He said fraternities and sororities seem to dominate here because of the size of TCU.

“The Greek system is known here a lot more mainly because it is a smaller school,” Gebren said. “At LSU, there were about 42,000 students. There is no way you could have almost half the students be Greek.”

The Princeton Review recently ranked TCU’s campus as the 15th biggest “Major Frat and Sorority Scene” in the country, according to its annual “The Best 351 Colleges” book, which came out in August.

TCU may be ranked as one of the top scenes, but Tiffany Abbott, director of fraternity and sorority affairs, said only about 40 percent of the close to 7,000 undergraduate students are currently in the Greek system.
Abbott said despite the fact that not even half of the student body is Greek, fraternities and sororities still make a huge impact on campus. She said the popularity is a reflection of the long history of the Greek system at TCU, which began in 1955.

“I think it has a lot to do with the deep tradition of Greeks at TCU,” Abbott said. “Alumni are a huge piece of it. They are kind of products of the system, so their children see that and want to be part of (Greek life) too.”

Abbott said the popularity of Greeks on campus goes through cycles. She said it is definitely on an upswing this year, because TCU had one of the largest pledging classes ever.

TCU Panhellenic Council President and Chi Omega member Emily Marriott said the popularity of fraternities and sororities shows just how involved they are with the university.

“It definitely shows that our Greek life is strong on campus,” Marriott, a junior accounting and finance major, said. “We tend not to be focused around only one thing.”

Junior marketing major Lindsay Robertson said that since she has been at TCU, she has been amazed with the prevalence of the Greek system.

“They are very proud of being Greek, and it is definitely all over campus,” Robertson said.

Robertson said she initially wanted to join a sorority her freshman year, but things didn’t work out as she planned.

“I didn’t like it all,” Robertson said of her rush experience. “I hated having everyone picking at everything in your life.”

Although she may be opposed to the Greek system, Robertson said fraternities and sororities do appear to make a big impact on the campus.

Whatever the reason may be for its popularity, Gebren said the Greek system here is unlike any he has ever seen on a college campus.

“It is definitely a way of life here at TCU,” Gebren said.