The annual Greek Luau was held on the Great Lawn on Sept. 1, where dozens of fraternities and sororities had the chance to promote their organizations to interested students, particularly to the freshman class.
The Interfraternity Council, the Panhellenic Council and the African and Latino Fraternal/Sororal Alliance sponsored the event.
Each organization had its own table or booth, each with flyers, photos, information and sign up sheets to try to have as many students as possible sign up for a chance to join.
Any interested student could walk up and look around at all the different sororities and fraternities they might be interested in joining and sign up to be contacted in regards to the events and recruitment activities of each organization.
Students could also speak to current members of the organizations that they might be interested in to get a better idea of what the fraternity/sorority has to offer.
Will Chen, a member of Sigma Chi Beta, said he felt the luau was an essential part of the University Greek Life.
“The luau is a great asset to Greek life at St. John’s University,” he said. “It’s just one way of showing who we are as a fraternity.”
Joan Moore, a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. also said that the luau was an important part of looking for new members and promoting her organization.
“The luau gave us the opportunity to talk to the St. John’s community about what our cultural organization does and how we give back to the community,” she said.
“At the fair I got to come together with all of my sorority sisters and represent our organization. It was a great time.”
In addition to trying to recruit students, current Greek members were given the opportunity to intermingle with those interested through a variety of activities on the Great Lawn. Chen said he enjoyed getting the opportunity to interact with a few of the interested students.
“[The luau] gives us the opportunity to interact with them by playing games like canjam and volleyball,” he said.
Freshman Taylor Allen felt the event was successful in making her more likely to join a Greek organization in the future.
“It’s really nice to see all of what my school has to offer,” she said.
“It’s nice to be here and get to expand myself and pick which organizations I feel most comfortable joining in the future.”
Serenity • Sep 20, 2012 at 6:26 am
Here, here, Alex.Greek alumni are very conrecned that the administration may be returning to the Draconian ways of Roger Hull and U2K after a decade of repairing ties with Greek alumni. Fraternities and sororities are subject to the same rules and regulations as all other campus bodies, but they should also have the same rights as other students and not all be painted with the same brush. At the same time, Greek organizations need to bring academics and community service focus to at least the same level as social engagement. Alcohol has indeed become much more of a focus than it should be and it is also up to the Greek system to lead in social education. However, the administration should not let recent unfortunate events shape its opinion on the entire Greek system. All houses are not the same and those who have not been in violation of school policy should not be subject to the loss of their student rights as well. We do not understand why greeks are held to a higher standard than theme houses, but if that is the case, the IFC and Pan Hellenic need to reshape opinion. I promise you that greek alumni are looking very closely at Union’s response and its treatment of fraternities and sororities as a whole in the wake of this incident. As greek alumni ties have slowly been re-established, it would be a shame to have the Annual Fund affected by extreme measures brought against the Mother of Fraternities yet again.