Representatives from several Greek organizations came together on campus Nov. 19 to discuss racial profiling at the university, sharing their overall experiences at UT and with their own groups.
The event was hosted by Texas Together and the Society for Cultural Unity. The event was moderated by Student Body President Kori Rady and panelists included Zeta Tau Alpha's Chelsei Brown, Interfraternity Council President and Pi Kappa Phi Edwin Qian, and Silver Spurs member and Sigma Alpha Mu Vernon Shanker. All three are minority students in a predominately white Greek system.
Although they all agreed that racism exists in many areas on campus, they all said that they don’t believe it is present in their organizations. Brown, a part of the small but growing number of African-American girls in sororities, said she does not believe there is any discrimination in Zeta Tau Alpha, going on to point out that she was recently named the "assistant treasurer and area rush captain" of the sorority. Brown said, however, that she has encountered racism from other parts of UT.
She said that earlier in the year she was made aware of offensive posts about her race on Yik Yak, a social media app that allows users to post to a message board specific to their area.
Qian said that with the Interfraternity Council’s new member list, which students interested in getting involved with the Interfraternity Council can add their information to, "if [a rushee] has a white-sounding name, the probability of him getting contacted by fraternities is much higher.”
Despite this, he said he believes that many of the stereotypes about fraternities being racist aren't true and come out of media websites like Total Frat Move that show almost exclusively white fraternity members engaging in stereotypical fraternity culture.
Shanker said he has seen a shift in Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity's rush process since arriving to UT. "There's a lot more guys coming around [to rush events] that aren't white,” Shanker said. He said his fraternity is "very serious” about recruitment and frequently gives out bids to prospective members that aren’t white. He went on to praise minority students for trying to get involved in "predominately white organizations."
Shanker said him and Qian are examples of fraternities becoming more aggressive and giving more opportunities to minorities.
It is obvious that race relations on campus still have a ways to go. However, these three prove that minority students are joining Greek organizations at an increasing rate, and this serves to further strengthen the Greek system at UT.
