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Show Wednesday, September 6, 2000 THE SIGNPOST Page 7 (Bir(3(sEz sMeim Urns EdfisttGDirncmll fgdgdGs By Melissa Mikesell features editor The Signpost What is referred to as "Greek life" on campuses across the nation started back in the late 1700s to early 1800s when small groups of college-age individuals met for social gatherings. "They wanted to put everything in secret code and one of the things that happened during that era of education is that they read the Greek classics like Aristotle and Plato in the original Greek," said Russ Rampton, coordinator for student organizations at Weber State University. "It was part of the curriculum for these people to learn the Greek alphabet and Greek Greek Alphabet A alpha & B beta P P gamma y A delta S E epsilon Z zeta C H heta 1 0 theta 0 1 iota t K kappa k A lambda A, M mu i N nu v . xi s O omicron o n pi ic P rho P E sigma & T tao t Y upsilon v 0 phi 4 X chi X lP psi V D omega language," Rampton said. "So they realized it was a really cool form of code and they named their organizations with a Greek letter or initials of a Greek phrase." One example of a secret phrase is Sigma Alpha Epsilon, one of the fraternities on campus. The name stands for something in Greek, but only the initiated members know what it is. "They get the Greek name because they are all Greek letter organizations, specifically the fraternities," Rampton said. "That gets kind of goofy on our campus because LaDianaeda is actually Latin, Otyokwa has Native American roots and Sharmea is French." According to Rampton, in the 1930s, people weren't familiar with Greek. When chapters on Weber State College's campus were started, they just chose names that sounded good. Today there are four fraternities and four sororities on campus. Some haven't been around as long as others, but each is special and unique with different goals and ideas. "The Greek organizations on our campus really have an interesting history," Rampton said. "Back during the days ... there were a number of small social clubs that were formed on WSU's campus. Most of them were just local societies, and they weren't affiliated with any national organizations because it was just a junior college," he said. Since WSU was only a junior college at that time, the national fraternities and sororities didn't want to take time to establish any chap ters in the area. Fortunately, that changed for a number of the social clubs when WSC became a bigger school. "During the time that it started to grow into a four year school, a number of the men's social clubs became affiliated with national fraternities," Rampton said. The story of the sororities is just a little different. "For whatever reason, these female social clubs' from back in the old days, as long ago as 1932 and 1935, have more or less with a few interruptions remained constant until today," Rampton said. Of the four sororities on campus, only one of them is affiliated with a national organization."We're lucky in the fact that these local sororities just continue to thrive and do great things as outstanding organizations," Rampton said. Rush week begins Sept. 13 for the women and Sept. 15 for the men. The phrase "rush week" was termed due to an actual rush of people during the early 1900s. "There was a literal rush of fraternity and sorority members that went to the train station for the incoming freshman to convince them to join their organizations instead of somebody else's," Rampton said. The phrase is now on the list of Greek terminology and is still used by organizations today."You get all of these terms that are out-dated and archaic, but we still use them," he said. "A lot of universities ... are changing some of the terminology to kind of modernize it. "Rush is a recruitment drive, and more than anything else it is so that fraternities and sororities and individuals wanting to join fraternities and sororities can make sure they make a good fit with compatible interest," Rampton said. "Rush is a tradition that has been around for quite awhile on Weber's campus," said Shauni Stewart, Greek Council president. "As far as I know, rush has had the same kind of procedures since the beginning."This semester, the goal for the rush is to bolster the number of members in these organizations. Membership is not at its highest, partly because WSU is a commuter school and many students don't have the time to join. "We have strong organizations, but some are just kind of going through lean times," Rampton said. "Most of the chapters top out somewhere in the 30s or 40s. For our campus, if you've got a fraternity or sorority with about 40 members, that's a big organization." There are hopes for fraternity and sorority housing to be integrated onto campus sometime in the future, which may help the situation of some of the small groups. By being a part of these organizations, life-long friends are made. According to Rampton, members, or brothers and sisters as they prefer to call them, take care of each other. They study together, play together, do service together and much more. "It's those kinds of experiences that are fun to look back on," Rampton said. """ "" " "'' & ! "YiVHii inf. I,-, I. ...... Which frat do you fit? "i Vv:"''$:V -' 4 ( .'.v "We have what we call SLAG - scholars, leaders, athletes and gentlemen. If we get people that fit one or two of those categories that's cool, and then someone else that fits the other two categories, we feel we'll have a well-rounded fraternity. I just encourage people to rush." -Scott Kafer Pi Kappa Alpha President "We want to maintain all the good aspects of Creek life and dispell the stereotypes that some fraternities have had previously. We're interested in guys who want to enhance their school experience by doing activities and being involved. We cater toward service projects, fund-raisers and academics more than anything else." -Brandon Pierce Sigma Chi Omega President "We're looking for guys who want to have a good time, guys who are looking to be well-rounded, and this is why I think guys want to join us. We are pretty diverse, but at the same time we have a strong sense of unity everybody gels. We are very inclusive." -Travis Brown Sigma Alpha Epsilon Vice President "Sigma Gamma Chi is open to everybody. We have certain standards and stuff. We are organized from the L.D.S. church and we uphold those standards that they have. We have a lot of fun with everybody and we always have exchanges and meet a lot of girls that way." -Courtney Allen Sigma Gamma Chi Vice President |