Greek Life has become more popular than it has ever been at Kent State over the past year. The sense of comradery throughout campus is stronger than ever, and according to a graph provided by Meredith Bielaska, assistant director of Greek Affairs, there has been an increase of almost 1,000 students since 2008.

Robert Janezic, Pi Kappa Alpha sophomore, thinks that Greek Life at Kent is becoming more popular due to how welcoming the community has been.

“I never thought I’d want to join a fraternity,” Janezic said. “I just remember meeting the PIKE [Pi Kappa Alpha] guys and how nice it felt to be part of a community with a bunch of great people.”

Janezic joined PIKE at the end of his freshman year about a year after the chapter was brought to Kent State.

“The Greek community is really welcoming to everyone,” Janezic said. “I think the increase is just simply because all of the great people involved at this point in time. Everyone that’s in the process of joining right now are great people as well, so I just see the trend growing continuously over the next couple years.”

Roman Waked, Alpha Tau Omega sophomore, said he joined his fraternity because the guys showed a great sense of moral and purpose in the community.

“What really drew me in was the fact that all these guys had a goal to give back to the community, focus on schoolwork and basically just do good things in general,” Waked said. “I think it’s really nice that we as a brotherhood can accomplish a bunch of great things and still find the time to fool around and joke around with each other.”

Promotional strategies have been used in a much more effective way this past year, Waked said.

“I think the increase in numbers, isn’t entirely due to an increase in quality,” Waked said. “Even our [Alpha Tau Omega] recruiting numbers have increased this past semester, and I wouldn’t say we’re leaps and bounds better than we were last semester, but I think as a whole all of Greek Life at Kent State has done a way better job of promoting themselves.”

Alexandre Pinney, Phi Mu sophomore, joined the new sorority that was brought to Kent State last year to expand the Greek Life.

“Joining Phi Mu was a great opportunity to join a brand new chapter,” Pinney said. “It was great to first of all be a founder of something and second of all to help increase the growing numbers of Greeks at Kent State.”

Pinney said that Greek Life is a great way to meet the people you will know for the rest of your life.

“College is so big and you have a hard time meeting people sometimes,” Pinney said. “Greek Life gives you a smaller setting. It was a chance to find my friends, future bridesmaids and just people that will be here with me the rest of my life, I think that’s the most important thing about being here.”

For more information on chapters at Kent State, visit: http://www.kentstategreeklife.com/.

Contact Justin Graci at [email protected].