Northwestern’s four Greek councils kicked off this year’s recruitment season with a collaborative campaign aimed at building relationships with one another.
This fall, NU’s Interfraternity Council, Panhellenic Assocation, Multicultural Greek Council and National Pan-Hellenic Council launched the “We Are Greek” campaign, representing the first time that all four Greek councils have come together for fall recruitment. The campaign, which aims to showcase the Greek community’s involvement with the larger student body, consists of three components: “I am Greek,” “We Are Greek” and “Will you be Greek.” The first two portions of the campaign launched this fall, and “Will you be Greek” launches in November.
The campaign’s website, Twitter account and fliers promote a variety of facts about Greek life. Student profiles demonstrate how Greek students contribute to other parts of the NU community.
“We have a very unique Greek community at Northwestern because people are so involved in Northwestern community as well as their Greek community,” said Medill senior Sophie Friedman, vice president of membership for PHA. “We just really wanted to highlight some of those involvements.”
Although the four councils have worked together in the past, council leaders decided to make reinforcing relationships among them a top priority this year. Last April, IFC and PHA released a joint letter pledging to improve ties with MGC and NPHC.
“This campaign was a really big step toward us getting to know everyone better on all the different councils and working together as a unit,” said Weinberg junior Lauren Pollack, vice president of public relations for the PHA.
IFC also plans to partner with the other councils this year on more philanthropy events, said Andrew Brugman, IFC’s vice president of recruitment.
“One big thing that IFC specifically kind of struggles with is service opportunities, and so we’ll pair with Panhellenic or Multicultural and get together and do service together,” the Weinberg senior said. “I think that that’s a really unique opportunity for us to learn from the other councils.”
In addition to the campaign, Greek councils worked together for Sorority Recruitment Kickoff. PHA, MGC and NPHC held a forum Sunday introducing Greek life to female students. Although the forum is an annual event, the councils worked more closely this past summer to better tailor the event to accurately reflect sorority life.
“In those joint events it means a lot, because you get to meet a lot of different people, and you build networks that way and build collaboration,” said Kerease Epps, SESP senior and president of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. “So I feel like those types of events have made us a lot closer.”
