Your guide to Pitt’s Greek side

Seldom do Pitt freshmen know about Greek life beyond what they see in the row of fraternity… Seldom do Pitt freshmen know about Greek life beyond what they see in the row of fraternity houses surrounding Pennsylvania and Sutherland Halls and hoards of girls wearing shirts with those funky-looking letters that seem to constantly spurt out of Amos Hall.

Perceptions of fraternities and sororities often come from movies like “Animal House,” “Old School” or “Legally Blonde” in which the Greek guys are labeled as party boys and alcoholics and the sorority girls wear a lot of pink.

At Pitt, however, these are exactly the kind of assumptions that many in the Greek system work hard to refute. Vice president of Sigma Alpha Epsilon Seth Wakefield mentioned that the stereotypes about Greek life and the reality of Pitt Greek life are two totally different things.

Greek adviser Chris Meaner agreed that the negative perceptions about joining fraternities and sororities have traditionally affected recruitment. However, he can rattle off numerous benefits to being in these organizations that many students probably wouldn’t think of.

Meaner became Greek adviser last August and with his help in the past year, the Greek community has improved its recruitment numbers, done more philanthropy and worked toward greater unity between the three Greek governance councils.

Greek Life: the basics

About 10 percent of all Pitt students are involved in Greek life and, of those students, many of them are very active. Almost the entire Student Government Board is affiliated with Greek life. Board President Brian Kelly and board members Jarrod Baker, Liz Blasi, Dilinus Harris, Joe Pasquilichio and Zachary Ransom are involved with Greek organizations. There are Greek members in the Black Action Society, Rainbow Alliance and other leadership positions in various student organizations throughout the university.

Three governance councils oversee the sororities and fraternities on campus: the Interfraternity Council, the Panhellenic Association and the National Pan-Hellenic Council.

The IFC overlooks 15 active fraternities, seven of which have official fraternity houses located on upper campus, and many others have unrecognized, off-campus fraternity houses, where many live and hold social events.

Eleven sororities comprise the Pan-Hellenic Association. Nine of those sororities have suites in Amos Hall to hold social functions and house a number of sisters. Theta Phi Alpha moved last year from McCormick Hall to a brand new suite in Bruce Hall. Kappa Kappa Gamma has the only sorority house, located in North Oakland.

The National Pan-Hellenic Council governs the historically black fraternities and sororities, but now include students of all races. Pitt has seven NPHC organizations, usually smaller in number than the IFC or Panhel groups. Most of the NPHC organizations are citywide chapters with students from Duquesne, Robert Morris and other local colleges involved with Pitt students. The NPHC chapters do not have any university housing per se, but some of the chapters have houses for their citywide chapters located off campus.

Greek organizations recruit in the fall and spring. Each organization requires a few hundred dollars a semester for membership, but many organizations offer scholarships. Fall recruitment is usually more formal than spring recruitment, and the majority of students go through recruitment in the fall.

Interested students can come to a “Meet the Greeks” event to ask questions and sign up to go through rush for IFC and Panhel. Once recruitment begins, interested girls can tour each of the sorority residences, talk to the sisters and get acquainted with Greek life. The sororities decide which potential members fit the best with their sorority, and then the chosen girls are given a bid.

They celebrate this with having a bid night, where potential sorority sisters ask new members to sign their bid and then meet up with hoards of screaming sisters outside of the William Pitt Union. These potential sisters have to go through a new-member period before they can call themselves actual sisters.

IFC rush is a little less formalized, with the majority of the fraternities hosting events in a single week for interested men to attend. These events usually include free food, and become more exclusive each night — the last event is usually invite-only. Interested men are given bids throughout the week, rather than at the same time, and new members then go through the new-member period until their brotherhood initiation. Sigma Phi Epsilon has a notable exception: a Balanced Man Program, through which new members automatically become brothers for life.

NPHC organizations, because of their smaller size, have a question and answer session, instead of a “Meet the Greeks,” to inform interested students. NPHC organizations often seek out their particular members instead of the new members seeking out NPHC.

Greek recruitment has gone down in the past few years and NPHC was even asked to increase each organizations’ membership by 10 or potentially face not being recognized by the University. But this year recruitment has gone up with approximately 1,200 students being involved in Greek life at Pitt.

“They just focused more on getting the Greek name out,” Meaner said, giving an explanation for the climb in recruitment.

Greek Unity

Meaner chose unity as one of the goals to improve the Greek system. While IFC and Panhel have recently paired up to coordinate many events, NPHC has gotten more involved this year. For Greek Sing, the pinnacle event of “Greek Week,” the steppers from Kappa Alpha Psi, Inc. performed a step show. Individual members of IFC and Panhel groups also attended the NPHC annual Step Show to show support for the performers and the organizations.

Next year, Meaner hopes for this trend to continue. He said that Panhel has decided to include the single multicultural sorority Theta Nu Xi under their umbrella of organizations. Theta Nu Xi had solely been recognized as a student organization and was not, until now, officially affiliated with Greek life. He also hoped to work on events that would get Greeks from other schools involved, mentioning the potential of working with schools such as Duquesne and West Virginia University, and, of course, work on more ways that the three Pitt Greek governance councils can work together.

Greek Week

While each fraternity and sorority fundraises on its own for charities, “Greek Week”, which is more like Greek year because the events never all fall within a week of each other, is a way for all Greek organizations to collaborate and help the community. Each year, a charity is selected, and all Greek Week proceeds go to that organization. The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation has benefited from Pitt’s Greek community for the past two years.

This year, the Greeks and independents (a term coined for students who are non-Greek) raised $110,000 to go toward this philanthropy by attending events such as the Brother/Sister Auction, Greek God and Goddess and Greek Sing. Next year, they have a goal set to raise over $100,000 again, as well as to choose a charity that may help more people in western Pennsylvania instead of nationally.

Chris Meaner’s Progress

Meaner began in August and took over the position that had been vacant since last March when Greek adviser Anita Triggs left the University for “professional reasons,” and former Associate Dean of Student Affairs Birney Harrigan filled in for a Greek adviser over the summer. Meaner, who first came to Pitt as an undergraduate student, was familiar with both Pitt and Pitt Greek life from his brotherhood in Pi Kappa Phi his sophomore year. He also received his master’s degree from Pitt in public administration and worked as the assistant coordinator of PittStart and the coordinator for the Freshman Peer Counselor program.

Meaner’s first year has been fairly conflict-free in comparison to the tumultuous 2003-2004 school year. This year, the adviser said “nothing has come to fruition,” regarding any rumors of hazing, and has formed a committee to meet over the summer to discuss any other risk management concerns. “Risk management,” a term used to describe issues like hazing and partying, had been more problematic the year before.

When Meaner took over, he was given a Greek community that had recently lost two of its fraternities because of hazing problems and had another on extended probation.

In the fall of 2003, Delta Sigma Phi lost both their university recognition and their charter from nationals because of a hazing incident and subsequent probation. This year, another fraternity, Delta Chi, gained full recognition and acquired the Green Mansion, a term used to describe Delta Sigma Phi’s unofficial, green-painted house, which they repainted red as their unofficial fraternity house.

In February 2004, a similar incident happened at Tau Kappa Epsilon, when the mother of a student complained to Triggs about her son’s binge drinking, which she considered hazing. When an investigation took place, the pledge admitted that he had voluntarily consumed alcohol and helped construct a beer pong table. The fraternity’s president verified the accusation.

The University’s judicial board recommended a punishment for the fraternity. However, Provost for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Jack Daniel heightened their punishment, and put them on probation for a year. Tau Kappa Epsilon was taken off probation this spring, and now can recruit members and participate in Greek Week events.

Daniel gave another fraternity already in trouble, Zeta Beta Tau, another semester’s probation for vandalizing their custodial supply closet at their fraternity house. While on probation, many brothers left the fraternity. Although, the fraternity has increased in number and won first place in Greek Sing for an airliner-themed song and dance performance with Chi Omega since being active again.

This year, many of the fraternities on the hill have been put on social probation for minor alcohol violations; however, Meaner explained that this is fairly typical. He hopes to come up with new regulations through the office of student life during the summer to help address some of these risk management concerns.

The Pitt Greek system has gone through many changes in the past year, and Meaner hopes that Greek life will continue to improve in areas of recruitment, unity and risk management. He hopes students will realize that Greek life is not just about social events and partying, but that Greeks do many good things for the Pittsburgh community and beyond.