In many towns across the nation, greek life is seen as nothing more than drunken rowdiness and a place for drugs. In such a tumultuous state of affairs, I would ask you how you would rate the greek life on this campus. Well, after the Northeast Greek Leadership Awards, I would have to say that Rensselaer greek life is ahead of many of the other campuses. While there are stories of chapters in other Northeastern states losing their charters for drug violations, our chapters and our greeks are winning regional awards. In the meantime, the E-boards of both Panhel and IFC are working hard to continue to improve the greek life on this campus.
So how good is our system? Panhel won both of the awards it applied for, the council management and the community service and philanthropic awards. There were also several individual awards given to Rensselaer students. Skyla Loomis, former president of the Panhellenic council, and Ray Lutzsky, former president of IFC, both won the Greek Leaders of Distinction award. Jennifer Spear, current president of the Panhellenic Council, won a scholarship from the National Panhellenic Council. In addition to this, Rensselaer’s chapter of Order of Omega, the Omega Mu chapter, won the National Order of Omega 2001 Outstanding Chapter of the Year’ award. Only one of these awards is given in each of the six regions. In addition to student awards, our greek advisor for the Dean of Students Office Travis Apgar, won the Philippi Outstanding Advisor award. It seems that Rensselaer has one of the best greek systems in the Northeast.
So what does this mean for the average person at Rensselaer? You probably think it doesn’t mean anything, yet it does. The greek system at any school is about trying to make the community we live in a better place by being leaders in classes, student government, community service, and many other aspects of college life. As the greek system gets stronger, so does the potential for the school at large. So help us to make this campus a little bit better by supporting our programs and philanthropy. You never know how much of a difference it could make.
