Greek Council Poised to Promote Sexual Justice and Diversity

Students gathered at the Greek U leadership retreat
on March 22 (photo by Jacob Tingle) 

By KaDarius Lee

At their first meeting of this year on Monday, Trinity's Greek Council discussed collaboration with university and city organizations to promote sexual justice and diversity on campus.

Ten members of the Greek Council Executive Board as well as two representatives from each sorority and fraternity on campus attended the meeting. Tayler Weathers, communications chair for Greek Council, said Trinity University’s Coalition for Sexual Justice and the San Antonio Rape Crisis Center "are interested in collaborating with Greek organizations in order to help in the fight for sexual justice on campus."

These organizations have reached out to Greek Council about collaborating and having a sit down with organizations to discuss how to raise awareness and tackle sexual justice issues on campus.

Also interested in working with Trinity’s Greek organizations was the office for Diversity and Inclusion. The office plans to hold workshops with leaders of Greek Life. “This has the potential to be something huge for Greek Life,” says Mia Quintanilla, diversity and inclusion chair of Greek Council.

In an attempt to be more inclusive, Elizabeth Bertsch, Greek Council women's chair, mentioned that Jamie Thompson, director for student involvement, was looking to create a learning community to bring various Greek organizations together. Traditionally, each Greek organization tends to socialize within its own circle.

The meeting also discussed plans of sending out an email survey to the student body on ways to improve Greek Life recruitment. Greek Life participation has seen a steady decline in the past years partly due to the stigmas related to alcohol and hazing incidents. “Greek Council is constantly looking for ways to make the recruitment process safer and better for all of those involved,” says Cristina Kodadek, the rush and orientation chair for sororities.

The meeting ended on a positive note when Bertsch reported that the GPA for Greek life members exceeded the average GPA of Trinity students in fall 2018, with 3.15 for men and 3.38 for women, comparing with the average GPA of 3.137 and 3.338, for men and women respectively.