Greek Life Blog

Community Service Recognition

2009-04-18T00:09:00.000-07:00

by Laura Jane Hudson

This semester, 5 social greek organizations have stepped up to devote hours to a good cause. K Phis, Dom-I-Nechers, Lambs, ABXers, and the Dopes have all devoted a lot of time to help build the House of Hope. Kappa Phi Alpha devoted 52 hours; Dom I Necher, 50 hours; Beta Lambda Zeta, 50 hours; Alpha Beta Chi, 50 hours; and Delta Omicron Pi, 15 hours.

Greek Advisor Todd Clark says he is "impressed with the greek chapters involvement with House of Hope and Cardboard City." He says he believes service is a core value to greek life at Emory & Henry. When asked if community service should be required, Clark expressed that requiring service would be the easiest way to ensure a minimum amount of service but would not be a successful way to have greeks going above and beyond.

Clark has always shown pride in the social greek organizations and a wants to establish strong relationships with them. "My initial suggestion would be to better understand what service is actually happening with greeks and try to put recognition and other systems in place to allow the chapters to inspire groups to take ownership and get invested in service projects. That may take more work than setting a requirement, but it falls more in line with my value of working together with students, believing in students talents, and avoiding top-down decisions," Clark said.

AirBand

2009-03-31T20:11:00.000-07:00

AirBand is officially on....

Tuesday, April 28th

8:00 pm

Get your act together!!

Contact Kayla Morelock to enter your own act into airband at kmorelock05@ehc.edu

It's your own local, Emory & Henry talent show.

Even if you dont want to participate, you can come watch!

ABX Airband

2009-03-16T05:43:00.001-07:00

by Laura Jane Hudson

Now is the time to start thinking of your act!

ABX Airband is just around the corner. It's important that everyone knows that Airband is a talent show sponsored by Alpha Beta Chi - NOT and exclusive event. We want to make it clear that it is open to anyone who wants to participate - organizations, groups, or individuals. If you don't want to be in it thats ok, too. Come watch - it's always amusing. There are games in between some acts that provide audience participation where you can win bragging rights.

Airband, which is usually held on a Wednesday or Thursday, is also a fundraising event. Last year, Alpha Beta Chi collected canned food as part of the admission to the event and donated them to Second Harvest Food Pantry.

So, come join the event to have a good time and donate to a good cause!

GreekBlog will update you on specifics of ABX Airband as soon as we know! THANKS!

How do You feel about Social Greek Life?

2009-03-02T10:20:00.000-08:00

by Laura Jane Hudson

The Greek Life Task Force wants to learn more about how students feel about greek life - this survey is more directed toward the effect of social greek organizations - those that are not directly associated with academic organizations or departments of Emory & Henry but still have a Charter through the college.

They want to know what both greek and non-greek members of the community think about the greek life system. This may give them an avenue to knock out stereotypes as well as fix potentially existing problems.

The Task force posted their own blog with this information but since I have had such good feed back from you all on mine I figured that I could get you to go to their blog and post your ideas. We would really appreciate any feedback at Greek Blog Survey (all comments will remain anonymous if you so choose).

Some of the questions the Task Force asks you to consider as you comment are...

How connected do you feel to the E&H Community?

How important is it to you to feel a sense of community at E&H?

How would you describe the influence that social greek organizations are for the social life of campus?

Do you believe the social greek organizations at E&H project a good image of the college to those outside the community?

To see the rest of the questions please visit the Task Force Survey and comment.

Also, feel free to leave comments on this blog and I will be glad to send them on to the Task Force.

Thanks for your participation!

End of Pledge Week Post

2009-02-22T12:48:00.000-08:00

by Laura Jane Hudson

This blog post invites greeks and non-greeks to comment on any congratualtions or concerns they have from the Spring 2009 pledge week. Feel free to comment anything you feel may arise some robust discussion.

First, I would like to say "Congratulations to the new pledge classes of Spring 2009!"

Also, a reminder for you to check for new greek life blog posts every monday.
If anyone wants something posted on the blog for advertising or any other reason please contact me at lhudson05@gmail.com

FINALS by Lacey May

2008-12-03T16:27:00.000-08:00

FINALS

Yes Greek people it is time for finals. Time to go back in time and try to learn the week+ of material you missed during pledge week. Time when you realize F*#% I Never Actually Learned this S*%#!
Ok. Breathe, buckle down, and take into consideration that your grades may be more important than a gathering with certain beverages for one night. Yes I am telling you to cut back on the social gatherings and to focus on things that may affect the rest of your life- you know, graduation, job opportunities, your future, etc. Now, while these things may seem small in comparison to a good time, they are in fact something to keep in mind when considering the real world.
I know, I'm a Debbie Downer, but seriously this is important. I'm not going to reference you to counseling centers or tutors or anything- I'm just going to say that studying is usually a positive thing.
As a person with three jobs, I know it's hard to find the time to do the study thing and maintain some semblance of a social life. Everyone needs to make sacrifices every now and then.
Finals are your opportunity to prove that even though you may have bombed every test and quiz during pledge week, you really do have a functioning brain that does, in fact, retain information.
So, dig deep and get ready to go through the most stressful time of a college student's life. Finals are hard, but an education is worth it. Let's make it a good one.
If anyone has tips about studying or what works best for them feel free to comment. In the meantime- show up to class and make an effort.

Lemonade from Lemons

2008-11-26T13:53:00.000-08:00

by Laura Jane Hudson

After receiving an email from Todd Clark, in response to my blog, I decided to do another post. Todd was very concerned with how we were affected by the trees being cut down. He said he had not realized our connections with the trees - mainly because he has not been here long enough to see a lot of our traditions. Todd suggested contacting Chad Gentry from the physical plant in order to "preserve the wood from the trees and find some way to do some quality wood work with it for use by the K-Phi's and Sigs." The wood is going to be given away to anyone who contacts Gentry for firewood. If we want to save some of the trees that have been the base of some of our traditions we need to take action by saving the pieces that are left. If any Greeks have any questions or concerns or even want to take action feel free to contact Todd Clark at tclark@ehc.edu

This is our opportunity to make Lemonade out of Lemons... or a nice paddle out of a tree that has been standing beside us since our organizations were founded. Lets take some action.

UPDATE: Todd has contacted Chad in order to preserve some of the "finest" pieces left of the sentimental trees. Todd Has also requested forewarning for any other trees that may be cut down in the Wiley Jackson lawn area because he know that there are other trees that hold significance in the area. He understands that "there is a sense of loss that goes beyond a standing tree" for these two organizations and doesn't want any more fraternities or sororities to be blind-sided by such an event again.

Special Thanks to Todd Clark for your willingness to help and involvement.

The Tree Follow Up

2008-11-25T09:48:00.001-08:00

by Laura Jane Hudson

An ireport image from Lacey May

I thought that this would give some more people a little perspective on the size of these trees. When one of the workers who cut the tree down was standing beside the newly cut log he was barely as tall as the log lying on the ground in this image.

Tree Massacre

2008-11-24T05:35:00.000-08:00

by Laura Jane Hudson

So, I was sitting in class - I could hear the chain saws buzzing all day. I knew they were trimming dangerous or over crowded limbs from the trees on campus. However, I never expected to come out of class and see one of the oldest, largest trees on campus in pieces lying on the ground. The pieces of this massive tree were wider than the men who cut it down were tall. This tree - that once stood on the Wiley-side lawn of the chapel - was here before anything else that we see today in that area. The railroad was not here, no buildings, no roads - just that tree and the mountains, the grass, the earth. How can we cut down something so old and historic? The trees on this campus are half (yes, half) the reason Emory & Henry College got my money every year!

Then, they continue to cut down more trees. Nor do any of these trees appear dead or dying? I would rather let this historic tree - over 800 years old - fall on one of these hideous, in-need-of-restoration buildings before I would cut it down before it was actually dead.

Another thing about these trees being cut down all over campus is that they have significance to people -especially Greek organizations. The fraternity Sigma Iota has met their new pledges under the tree in front of the Kelly Library since 1926. Now that tree is gone. This tree was not dead either!

The tree in front of the Chapel was also a greek significant tree. The sorority Kappa Phi Alpha met under this tree at Running of the Bulls. Another old tradition that has now been all but ruined due to the killing of this tree.

Administration - or whoever sanctioned the cutting - needs to give some reasoning for their actions beyond the trees were dead because they were in full bloom this past spring and summer. They are slowly killing the aesthetic of this campus - you can't just put back history that deep. Those trees are gone, no one else will ever have the chance of marveling at the massive trees that once stood - and imagine the history of that tree, imagine what that tree stood through and saw happen. I makes me sick to think that something that old is gone and we can never get it back.

What are they thinking??

All Campus Event

2008-11-10T14:04:00.000-08:00

by Laura Jane Hudson

So, topic of the week: Getting Involved.

Greek life is sponsoring an "All Campus Event" where there is going to be a big bonfire at the Tobias Smith Cabin (thats the little cabin behind Wiley Hall). It's from 8 - 10 p.m. so everyone is invited. Since no one has told me what this event is about I think it is to promote campus involvement in greek life. We, as greek members, want the non-greek members on campus to know that they are more than welcome to rush - also to know that they will not be judged if they don't rush. We believe in being yourself and if that doesn't involve greek life we are more than willing to accept that.

Sorry guys, there will be no alcoholic beverages at the Tobias Smith Cabin bonfire... since we are a dry campus (even though it rains a lot).

Well.... since so far no one has responded to my blog I am going to try to reach out to people through email and other methods of spreading word around! So, tell your friends that there is an amazing blog on EHCWired that they should check out.

Thanks - LJ

Greek Life Blog Opening!

2008-10-21T12:38:00.000-07:00

by Laura Jane Hudson

As an involved and enthusiastic member of greek life, I decided that I would start a a greek life blog spot on EHCWired. I guess this has a little to do with my avid FaceBook checking and AIM usage as well. I figure that this blog would be a great place for greek members to voice their opinions on events and happenings in the greek world. Also, this blog will serve as an eye opener for some of you out there thinking about joining greek life. This weeks blog is merely an opener for topic ideas and free discussion. Throughout the rest of the semester I will be taking topic ideas from anyone who wants to send me something - anything (positive, negative, whatever).

To submit a topic idea email me at lhudson05@ehc.edu - be sure you give me some sort of description of your topic.