Members of Greek Life organizations say they allow incoming students to develop themselves and demonstrate their commitment to service. Despite these efforts, negative stereotypes draw some away from recruitment. 

Members of Greek Life at Kent State University said they have made it their mission to eliminate negative perceptions and create an inclusive environment. 

One member of the Panhellenic Council aiming to emphasize inclusivity and advocacy is Mack Coe, Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. 

In her position, Coe said her mission is creating a more inclusive recruitment process focused on outreach, such as talking to incoming students at events like KSU Blastoff. Blastoff is Kent State’s club fair and is put on at the beginning of every fall semester. 

“When we recruit, we don’t just focus on recruiting the same type of people,” Coe said. “We do a lot of outreach on people who may not think about joining Greek Life.” 

Small steps can lead to a big impact, and the senior fashion merchandising major is attempting to create a more inclusive community. 

“We have really shifted recruitment,” Coe said. “Chapters are required to have a bias training during their work week, and we just changed sisterhood round to values round for a more authentic approach.”

She also said that members of the Panhellenic council and individual Greek Life chapters are making efforts to work together, specifically during philanthropy events. 

“We are more of a community instead of individual chapters,” Coe said. “As a council, one of our goals we set was to have every chapter be friends with the other chapters.”

On the other hand, students interested in joining a fraternity may have concerns and questions about the process. 

To create transparency, Mason Evans, Interfraternity Council director of new member education, is educating students about topics such as anti-hazing and alcohol abuse. 

“We try to do as much education as possible,” the junior mechatronics engineering major said. “We also hammer down on being open about what’s going on to eliminate negative perceptions.” 

Evans put his ideas into action by tabling for the Center for Student Involvement during Destination Kent State. Destination Kent State is an orientation for incoming students to learn more about campus life and their first year experience. During the event, Evans reassured people about Kent’s policies on hazing.

“I was able to talk to families who are interested in going Greek and educated them on how we prevent certain things and how we don’t allow that kind of stuff to go on here,” Evans said. 

As a member of the Eta Sigma chapter of Alpha Sigma Phi, Evans is transparent with potential new members during his chapter’s recruitment process. 

“During recruitment, we try to tell students about what we’re about and are very open and clear about what the process looks like,” Evans said. “We also talk about all the things we stand for and how to prevent certain situations.”

Despite his commitment to combating these negative perceptions, Evans said they primarily come from people who are not in Greek Life. 

“They don’t actually know what goes on in Greek Life and they already come in with a stereotype,” Evans said. “They refuse to really listen and see what’s actually going on.”

In addition to creating a welcoming environment, members of Greek Life are prioritizing mental health. Seth Young, Kent State Fraternity and Sorority Life intern and Interfraternity Council president, is addressing the importance of mental health through numerous efforts. 

“The IFC Executive Board just created a mental health committee, which will be composed of a director from every fraternity,” Young said. “Having a group of people speak about that can really define who we are as people, rather than the stereotypes that define us.”

Along with mental health, the senior neuroscience and pre-med major is creating a unified and accountable Greek Life at Kent State. 

“The Greek Life community builds off of each other here, but COVID definitely affected that,” Young said. “We’re trying to emphasize DE&I initiatives, risk management, academic excellence and community service.”

As a result, all members of fraternities at Kent State are required to complete 10 hours of community service, attend DE&I sessions and have 80% attendance at all mandatory events. 

“We are trying to encourage more participation at our speaker events,” Young said. “We’ve made great connections with people such as Billy Boulden and Christina Parle at our Association of Fraternal Leadership & Values Conference, so we plan to bring them in and have them talk about topics like alcohol abuse and DE&I.”

In addition to the Panhellenic and Interfraternity Council, members of individual Greek Life chapters are combating stereotypes. 

Hazing is something that can deter people from joining a fraternity, but to combat this, Chance Duffy, treasurer of the Zeta Gamma chapter of Sigma Nu, is open about his recruitment experience to potential new members. 

“Telling people about my honest experience with recruitment and the things our chapter does not stand for has helped our process tremendously,” Duffy said. 

With Sigma Nu in the process of becoming chartered at Kent State, the senior political science major and his fellow brothers are continuing to advocate for anti-hazing messages. 

“Hazing is a problem in some places, but it does not happen within our fraternity,” Duffy said. “We want to get to know people and ultimately work to do good within the campus community.”

Blake Serrano is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected].