eGreek Forum Newsletter

by Kevin Tomera, Greeks Go Green Committee

As Greeks Go Green concludes its second semester, we’re implementing a variety of exciting opportunities for chapters and individuals across campus to become more sustainable.

As part of Earth Week, we held a sustainable clothing swap on April 20th in Willard Straight from 12:00-4:00pm where anyone can come and swap their old gently used clothing for other articles dropped off by chapters and individuals.

A local group of green enthusiasts, Sew Green, presented on how to turn recycled bits of fabric into new clothing, as well as other green ways to reuse old clothes. Greeks Go Green also worked with other sustainability groups on campus to help host Earth Day on Ho Plaza.

To help promote chapter sustainability we held a Sustainability Summit on April 24th from 1:00-5:00pm at the Robert Purcell Community Center Auditorium. All chapter sustainability chairs were present at the summit and any members of the Greek community interested were also welcomed to attend.

In addition to presenting how to implement recycling and composting systems, initiate green purchasing, and utilize green event planning, there were several guest speakers present from the Cornell faculty.

The summit presented an environmentally friendly way to run nearly all aspects of any sorority or fraternity, and we hosted discussions on how to best implement the ideas presented.

Finally, the summit also unveiled our new green rating system, designed to award chapters for being environmentally responsible chapters. The Greeks Go Green Rating System will be in the next issue.

Every year, Cornell’s Tri-Council is the proud host of Greek Freak; a stepping show which pits the stepping talents of fraternities & sororities at Cornell and other schools in the form of a competition.

Cornell University’s Greek Freak is the largest step show in upstate New York and has grown to become one of the premier stepping competitions in the North East. It is the perfect venue for the multicultural Greek community to display the passion and pride in their organizations history in innovative and entertaining ways that involve chants, steps, and other coordinated interpretive dance moves.

This year’s competition was held on April 17, 2010 in the State Street Theater.  Greek Freak prides itself in putting on a spectacular show for the audience, and awarding all its proceeds in the form of multiple book scholarships to graduating high school seniors in the Ithaca area.

This year's first place winner for Greek Freak went to the Kappa Xi Chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. Second place went to the Alpha Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

Congratulations and a job well done to all those who participated.

by B.J. Michaels '12, Sigma Alpha Mu and Rachel Leopold ‘13, Sigma Delta Tau

On Sunday, April 11th Big Red Relief hosted their annual benefit concert in Barton Hall. 

This year, due to the recent earthquake in Haiti and the large outcry of support on campus, Big Red Relief decided to donate all of the money raised to the GHESKIO clinic in Port-au-Prince and named their concert “Help Heal Haiti.” 

The GHESKIO clinic usually deals with HIV and AIDS but is currently functioning as a health clinic and refugee camp and is affiliated with Cornell Weill Medical College.The concert was the end result of months of planning, which involved choosing the acts, working with a production team, raising awareness and funds, while actively promoting the concert through word of mouth, posters, and tabling across campus. 

With aid from Alpha Epsilon Phi, Kappa Alpha Theta, Alpha Sigma Phi (Rockledge), Sigma Alpha Mu, Sigma Delta Tau, Alpha Phi Omega, as well as many other campus groups, Big Red Relief was able to raise over $2000. They were also able to throw an amazing concert hosting 10 of the biggest performance groups on campus such as Cayuga’s Waiters, Bhangra, Chordials, and BASE for a crowd of about 200 people.  Big Red Relief also sold “Help Heal Haiti” livestrong style bracelets designed by Sigma Alpha Mu whose proceeds also went to the GHESKIO clinic. 

by Crissy Aguilera, Lambda Theta Alpha Sorority, Inc.

Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority, Inc., in collaboration with Lambda Theta Phi Latin Fraternity, Inc. as sisters and brothers across the country joined forces to assist those affected by the recent earthquake in Haiti.

Relief efforts range from student networking events to selling pins and candle light vigils to school supply drives. Here on Cornell’s campus, Lambda Theta Alpha and Lambda Theta Phi organized a clothing drive throughout the month of February. Boxes, bins, and bags full of clothing were collected at the end of each week from sorority and fraternity houses and the community centers of Robert Purcell Community Center and Appel Commons.

Thanks to the many donations of students all over campus, Lambda Theta Alpha and Lambda Theta Phi were able to collect clothing for more than 150 people.

Clothing not shipped to Haiti was also put to good use and sent to the Catholic Charities of Tompkins County as well as the Salvation Army of Tompkins County.

by Anna Sims, Panhellenic Council Sisterhood Chair

Sisterhood was in the air when women from all eleven chapters in the Panhellenic community gathered for a relaxing and tasty hour of cupcake decorating.

The delegates from Alpha Chi Omega, Alpha Xi Delta, Sigma Delta Tau, and Alpha Epsilon Phi assisted the Panhellenic council in planning the event that Alpha Xi Delta very generously hosted at their lovely new home.

Almost three hundred mini-cupcakes were baked the night before to be decorated with icing and fun toppings. The event offered a stress-free break from studying and was a great opportunity for Panhellenic women, and new members in particular, to meet women from other sororities.

The Panhellenic community is continuing to encourage positive relations among all chapters by providing a relaxed setting for girls to bond with women in all chapters.

The success of the cupcake decorating event has the Panhellenic council very excited for future sisterhood events currently being planned to take place during study week.

Each spring the sisters of Kappa Kappa Gamma team up with the brothers of Alpha Tau Omega (ATO) in an effort to sell daffodils for the fraternity's national philanthropy, the American Cancer Society.

For a week the girls work with ATO outside major spots on campus to sell bundles of daffodils and to promote and raise funds for the American Cancer Society.  

Daffodil Days is a national event for ATO and chapters all across the country participate. This year the Cornell chapter held this event March 16-19, and in that time was able to raise over $1500 with the help of Kappa Kappa Gamma. 

This is a great way for ATO to stay connected to their nationals and for Kappa to help out another Greek house on campus.

The Multicultural Greek Letter Council took over The Spot! early this month. The Spot! is a weekly event held by Community Center Programs in RPCC that allows the North Campus community to relax and enjoy music and dancing while drinking mocktails in a NYC Club atmosphere. The MGLC community Co- Hosted the event and showcased different chapters by having an exhibition of different strolling and saluting performances. Freshman from North Campus witnessed first hand the third prong of Cornell’s Greek community, and MGLC will continue to promote the councils chapters by hosting more events on North campus in order to increase MGLC’s branding and visibility.

by Hannah Deixler, Sigma Delta Tau Sorority

In April, the Sigma Delta Tau 2010 pledge class joined forces with Sigma Pi to raise money for First Book Cornell in our annual event “Bowling for Books.”  We rented out Helen Newman for the evening and invited anyone we could to come bowl and have a good time.  We had an amazing turnout—besides the members of both of our respective chapters, people from all over campus (Greeks and non-Greeks) came out to support this cause.

First Book Cornell is an organization that works to provide underprivileged children in the Ithaca and Tompkins County area with books.  It is part of the First Book Advisory Board that does this work all over the country.  In the past 8 years, First Book Cornell has distributed 9500 books to local programs helping needy children.  We raised over $500 at Bowling for Books, which will certainly help the organization continue to grow. 

We are very proud of all the work that was put into the evening, and even prouder of the results.  We look forward to a lasting alliance with First Book Cornell, as the work they have done in our local schools and programs is commendable.  Thanks to everyone who made time in your busy schedules to bowl with us and help purchase books!  We had a great time, and we look forward to making an even larger donation next year!

On the afternoon of Saturday, April 17th, APAC (The Alumnae Panhellenic Advisory Council) sponsored a bus tour to provide the women of the Ithaca area with some insight into the Panhellenic Community here at Cornell. 

The bus tour started at Kappa Delta, where the women went on a house tour, enjoyed fruit and coffee, and learned about the Multicultural Greek Letter Council from their president Evelyn Ambriz. 

The women then boarded the bus, where they heard brief histories and updates about the current activities of Delta Gamma, Pi Beta Phi, Alpha Epsilon Phi and Kappa Kappa Gamma from members of the Panhellenic Executive Board, as each house was passed.  

The bus then made a stop at Alpha Phi, where the participants were given lunch, a house tour, and a more in depth explanation of the chapter’s history, philanthropy, and activity of its sisters. 

After re-boarding the bus, additional histories and updates of Alpha Chi Omega, Sigma Delta Tau, Alpha Xi Delta, and Kappa Alpha Theta were delivered.  After passing each of these houses, the final stop was made at Delta Delta Delta.At Delta Delta Delta, the participants received their third house tour, snacked on desserts and took part in a question and answer session about the activities of the Panhellenic community as a whole. 

All of the host chapters were very welcoming and accommodating.  The participants enjoyed the tour very much, learned a lot about Panhellenic community that they may not have know before and left with a strong sense of appreciation for the Panhellenic community and all that we do.