University of Tampa is constantly a growing campus filled with intelligent students, exciting organizations, and greek life.
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. Typical stereotypes involve hazing, paying for friends, and low academic grades.
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.” Typically, all fraternities and sororities participate in a philanthropy project, social events on campus, and fundraising. They can cost anywhere from $300 – $1000 dollars per semester, and each bill is broken down differently. With nine fraternities and nine sororities on campus, approximately 10% of students at UT are involved in social groups of greek life.
Freshman Nick Forcellese agrees with Grunig’s 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 others with philanthropy.”
Nick has just started participating in philanthropy by volunteering at the Boys and Girls Club on Friday’s for an hour. 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 interesting 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 was 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 doesn’t need to join 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 inevitably 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.
Greek life has its positives and negatives and each person, greek or not, views it their own way. There are many aspects that tend to be overlooked and those that are looked at too heavily. Regardless, greek life at UT is something that is always growing.
Photo Gallery
Interactive Map
See the journeys the fraternities and sororities took to get all the way down to Tampa, FL.
https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=zaSavB_ITRt0.klvFBWZTb6yI
Infographic
Check out some fun statistics about greek life! I bet you won’t believe some of these!
jessie lehrbaum 