In my infographic, I wanted to address the popular belief that people in greek life are often unsuccessful due to the universal stereotypes that all greeks do is party. This info gram shows just how successful greeks can be, showing statistics that illustrate that many of our nations leaders were in fact, greek!
My infographic captures attention because of the color that pops out. Each fact has a different color popping out on top of the colorful map of the United States. Also, the general facts make it something that people would be interested in reading and completely understand.
The information can be found on almost any college website, but I chose Cornell’s greek life section for my statistics. The citation can be found on the bottom left corner.
This map shows the origins of the fraternities and sororities that are currently on our University of Tampa campus! They all came a long way to be established here.
Greek life at the University of Tampa has been, and probably will be a constant tug of war for students, especially ones new to campus such as freshman or transfer students. There are some who are absolutely for greek life, while others are against it. There are also those known as “flip-floppers” who may have mixed feelings for reasons like being scared of stereotypes, or not having their parents approval. With the freshman incoming class having over 1600 students, the 2013-2014 greek life year seems very promising. The fall semester, thus far, has turned out extremely well, with the sororities taking in anywhere from 40-70 new members and the fraternities taking in close to 20-30, a noticeable jump from previous years. Even more, a new sorority joined camps this year, attracting over 100 girls and counting. The University of Tampa Coordinator of Fraternity and Sorority Life, Brent Grunig, says there are many reasons for new students to choose to become part of greek life or turn away from it. “People join to find a connection or community. Some may be leaving home for the first time and greek life provides them with a family. They find friends with common interests as well as comfort from their organizations.”
Freshman Nick Forcellese agrees with that statement saying, “I came to school alone meaning I knew no one. I wanted to be part of an organization to meet new friends.” Being one of the many males to join greek life this semester he continues on to say, “greek life has the most fun on campus, but they also make a difference. You evolve during the process into a better man or woman and are taught leadership skills in addition to helping other with philanthropy.” Nick has just started a philanthropy volunteering at the Boys and Girls club on Friday’s for an hour and loves it. He loves the sense of community he has found through greek life. “I like that everyone has made me feel welcome and that it can bring complete strangers together in a way that I’ve never experienced. I’m thankful everyday that I was extended a bid and given an opportunity to join.”
Nick’s pledge brother, Eamonn Keenan, a transfer student, has similar feelings about greek life and the welcoming he felt when he decided that greek life was the right choice. For him, greek life seemed interested because of what he witnessed on campus his first few weeks at school. He said that, “I could tell by watching them interact and that their friendship is real which is something everyone wants to have.”
While these guys seem to shed light on the great parts of fraternities, there are girls who feel opposite when it comes to sororities. Whether it is boys being boys or girls being girls, there is a difference. Brent thinks that a lot of new students don’t join greek life is because of the negative stereotypes they may be exposed to. These can be seen in movies, the news, or rumors from parents when they were in college. He admits, “while there are stereotypes out there nationally, things could still improve. They’re college kids; they will make mistakes.” Those mistakes keep freshman Talia Ashby and Faith Ponti out of the hands of greek life. Talia believes that since she had a group of friends, she didn’t need to joint greek life, but she did have mixed impressions. “I have some incredible friends who are a part of sororities and they love it and have some serious interest in building other girls up. But I also got the impression from some people that being a part of greek life is a big popularity contest.” The idea of the popularity contest seems to be a fear in a lot of new students being exposed to greek life. Faith Ponti originally joined the new sorority on campus and couldn’t have been more excited, but now has strong feelings against it. She said starting out she liked the diversity of the girls, and that there was no “cookie-cutter image” involved, which she appreciated. “I soon realized that whether I was in DZ or SDT or Pi Phi (*sororities on campus), I would still have been with a bunch of girls in the same room, and with that inevitable comes doses of drama, gossip, and the desire to gain power and influence over others.” She added that there was an issue with the financial obligations as well stating, “I didn’t like the idea of paying for these girls to be my friends, especially after finding out that my schedule would barely allow for my participation in the sorority at all.” Although her experience turned sour, Faith illustrates how greek life can have its highs and lows depending on the person. The University of Tampa is always making changes to greek life, and the organizations are making individual changes as well, making sure everyone who chooses to “go greek” has the feeling that they are welcome and happy to be there.
Greek life has many different angles of opinions here at the University of Tampa. Since there are so many views, I plan to get various freshman to illustrate their first impressions about being exposed to greek life. For each of the three topics listed below, I hope to have a male and female for each category, representing different social greek life groups on campus.
– “Pro-Greeks”: One or more freshman will talk about how they were all for greek life, why it interested them, their hopes for her future in it, and more about why they are pro-greek life
– “Anti-Greeks”: Another freshman(s) will be the complete opposite. Much like when I was a freshman, I was totally against greek life. I had heard about rumors of hazing, I didn’t get along with girls well, and my crafting skills were not exactly up to par. I will have a freshman explain their similar feelings!
– “Flip-floppers”: This freshman or group of freshman will be people who either were extremely into greek life and changed their minds about it or vice versa.
This is Faith! She’s a Flip-flopper. She joined the sorority new to campus, Pi Beta Phi, but dropped out after a week and a half.
Chip Wiener, photo journalist, spoke to students at the University of Tampa, giving tips for hopeful and future journalists. He gave a lot of good pointers, talking about how to be smart, well-rounded, and how to make it as a journalist. One of my favorite things he said was that anyone can make money as a journalist, but not many can make a career of it. I also liked the examples he gave of famous photographs, questioning the ethics behind them. I’m not sure I liked how much he tried to involve the audience. I personally was enjoying just listening to him as a speaker, but he was a little aggressive about getting a response. Regardless, I think it was very informative and definitely interesting to attend.
jessie lehrbaum 