When we think of the American college experience, the idea of Greek life is a prominent and vibrant factor that comes to mind. The colorful loud expression of school spirit and close-knit groups encompassing a mutual motto and values of sisterhood and brotherhood make up this social college environment.
Greek life is a significant factor in contributing to collective school pride, and charitable activities, and can provide scholarship and networking opportunities for many students across the country. However, despite the impactful presence of Greek life on American campuses membership has declined in recent years, and it’s exceedingly significant to smaller college campuses. Culver- Stockton is made up of nine Greek life organizations with over 35% of students participating in Greek life.
The Wire spoke to both Greek and non-Greek members to better understand their perspectives and notions on this matter.
Gabby Beffa, a junior majoring in Political Science who is also President of her sorority Chi Omega shared her observations and journey with Greek life development on Culver-Stockton’s campus. “One of the biggest developments I have seen is the change in interest in Greek Life as a whole. Especially for the sorority side of Greek Life women coming to campus their freshman year are not as open to joining Greek Life. For a small school like Culver, this makes the recruitment process ten times harder. Even in my three short years on campus, I have seen a rapid decrease in efforts to join clubs as a whole,” says Beffa.
Despite Beffa emphasizing the decline, she strongly believes the low participation trend in Greek Life can be broken. Beffa, being in a leadership role within her Greek life organization touched on the involvement, influence, and support of of administration. She positively highlighted the school’s efforts and encouragement to support sorority events, and philanthropy to help maintain Chi Omega’s purposes and message across campus. “Administration has contributed to my Greek experience with Chi Omega positively. Culver’s administration is beyond supportive of Chi Omega and we could not be more grateful. From supporting our philanthropic efforts, attending our events when possible, and supporting our members during difficult times administration has left a positive impact on Mu Gamma,” says Beffa.
In contrast, The Wire spoke to a non-affiliated Greek life student, Mikayla Gioia, a sophomore majoring in Psychology expressed her experience and outside view perspective, stating she has no interest in joining Greek life. However, Gioia highlighted the impactful positives of Greek life’s role at larger colleges. She touched on finances being a factor in the decline as well as drama that could occur between individuals. “Based on what I have seen on social media and hearing it through friends or teammates, it seems like Greek life continues to grow and expand every year. There’s always a new group of people bringing in new and fresh personalities and perspectives on things and it makes Greek life a really positive experience,” says Gioia.
A major factor that contributes to Greek presence is the use of social media platforms. The capacity to influence posts to thousands is significant in a growing interest for new members and maintaining the image of Greek life. Social media platforms are essential to keeping alumni in touch with new members and chapters. Both Beffa and Gioia spoke on the influence and importance of social media impact. Beffa stated it can be a challenge to represent an image well, however, this goes into any business or organization. “One of the largest challenges is having your group properly represented on social media and having that information spread. Thousands of posts come across your phone a day, the question is how do we get potential new members to see our organization,” says Beffa.
Gioia also spoke on the topic stating, “I think that social media has a lot to do with recruitment and how Greek life is seen. You can post what you want about Greek life so you let people see what you want them to see so even if there’s negative stuff happening within, you don’t have to show that,” says Gioia.
Despite highlighting the decline of Greek life across colleges in America, from the few students’ perspectives and statements on the topic, it appears Greek life is still surviving on the Culver- Stockton campus.
