The Greeks met students virtually this year

By Tiye Bracy | Published by September 22, 2020

The Greek Senate held its first virtual Meet the Greeks event on Sept. 16.

“This year, Meet the Greeks was 100% virtual using the feature of Virtual Fairs on Cougar Link,” said Graduate Intern of Greek Affairs Gabriella Lapointe.

The Greek Senate is greek life which encourages members of the organization to promote and preserve their brotherhood and sisterhood.

There are usually two Meet the Greeks events every academic year, one each in the fall and spring semesters. However, the Greek Senate had to follow certain rules this semester regarding events.

“This year we obviously had to consider that given the typical size of our event, which is usually over 1500 people, we could not have this take place in person with the state regulations,” Lapointe said.

Students were able to join the Zoom or Google Hangouts meetings of the different sororities and fraternities. The event was publicized on the @keangreeks Instagram page and Cougar Link.

Students started to trickle in around 6:50 p.m on the Meet the Greeks Google Doc. The document indicated all of the organizations that were attending the event and the Zoom or Google hangout link to join the meeting.

“For the students that did attend, they were able to visit all 23 organizations that were present to learn what they are all about,” Lapointe said.

During the meetings, the sororities would present a short powerpoint about the organization’s history, colors, mottos, philanthropy and other elements. 

The sorority of Lambda Tau Omega had a virtual meeting that encouraged people to participate with icebreakers. Participants were able to ask questions and learn more about the foundation of the sisterhood. 

The second meeting was with Omega Phi Chi at 8:30 p.m. on the Google Hangouts platform. The meeting was shorter, starting with a brief overview of the sorority. Both sororities had QR codes on the powerpoint for students to fill out a short contact form. 

The main difference this year was the number of students that attended the event compared to the event this past spring.

“I think students were able to get the same experience of learning about the organizations but they were not able to have the experience and excitement of watching all the performances that take place at our typical event,” Lapointe said. 

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