For those of you who don't know, the National Panhellenic Conference is an organization that brings together all international sororities and women's fraternities. Most colleges have a Panhellenic Council where members from each of the campus' sororities meet once a week and work together to make decisions about the Greek community.
Even though this organization is in place, sororities can still be distant from one another, which is what I want to minimize. I believe that having a better relationship with all sororities on campus could help each and every Greek member grow as a person and make the Greek experience more appealing to those thinking of joining.
So how do we make a closer bond?
- We need to stop with the stereotypes.
Sometimes we judge others by their appearance. I've been judged for my appearance. We've all been judged because of our appearance. Does it feel good to be told, "I thought you were going to be so mean just because you wore nice clothes" or anything of that sort? No, it doesn't. When someone said that to me, I was shocked! But you know, if I didn't dress that way, I'd still be getting judged for something else. People do the same thing with sororities. We need to start getting to know the members on a more personal level instead of judging them right off the bat.
- We need more one on one interactions.
Like I said before, we need to get to know other sorority members on a more personal level. We should have laid back nights when we just hang out with the members of other sororities. We should go to dinner with them once a month or have a fun service project together. Usually, if you didn't know the person before you joined different sororities, you'll have a preconceived misconception about them and never take a chance to get to know them. Having these sorority get togethers would be a way to make that happen.
- We need to respect each other.
We each joined different sororities because we all have different values. If we live out these values, we should be unique from other sororities; however, just because we may think differently, doesn't mean we should alienate ourselves from each other. We need to respect and accept other sororities values and missions. Each individual member of each sorority has their own way of carrying out these ideas. We need to respect those as well.
- We need to be better than ourselves instead of trying to be better than others.
We're all competitive. I know we are. A little friendly competition can be fun, but we can't take it too far. Greek Games can quickly turn into campus rivals if we don't handle it correctly. Soon after, every little thing, whether it be recruitment or how well a philanthropy event goes can evolve into a competition to see who's best. This isn't how we should be acting. We shouldn't be constantly trying to be better than other sororities. We need to be striving to better ourselves instead.
Why should we work on making a bond?
Well who wants to be part of something that just hates on everyone else? Prospective ladies wanting to join sororities are looking for a family away from home to support them in everything they do. If they see the sororities judging each other and not getting along, they aren't going to want to join. Plus, this whole process would give us a great opportunity to prepare for the future. We're going to need these skills to work with others at our jobs, so why not start now?
We need to stop all the shenanigans, make amends, and begin to really get to know each other. We need some "Panhellenic Love."
