When all 35 greek chapters convened at a retreat Sept. 15, they were shocked when their knowledge of each other did not extend beyond their own chapters.
"We spent about one and a half hours talking about who each of us are, and we went over a lot of key terms," said Sheldon Maye, NPHC vice president. "We should go back to the chapters and tell each other about each other."
The communication underscores increasing interaction among the Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Council and the National Panhellenic Council��all of which will sponsor next week's Greek Week. Previously, the minority-based NPHC and non-affiliated multicultural fraternities and sororities held their own Greek Week.
Duke Student Government President Joshua Jean-Baptiste said he hopes the three will work more hand-in-hand. "I envision all students feeling comfortable," he said. "I hope to have more co-sponsorships and interactions between the fraternities and sororities."
The unity, spurred in part by the consolidation of student affairs support through the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life, is providing some greek leaders with hope that mutual understanding is achievable. Ashley Falcon, president of the Latina Promoviendo Comunidad Lambda Pi Chi sorority, said she hopes students take time to learn more about her sorority and the Latino community in general. Her chapter, like many of the multicultural greek organizations, is relatively new, and was founded in 1998.
"I know there have been times in the past when people have been not aware of us and jump to conclusions about who we are and what we're about," Falcon said. "It's a matter of everyone understanding everyone else."
Understanding may come in part though more organization. Nicole Manley, OFSL program coordinator, said multicultural greek groups need an umbrella organization to call their own. "They need to have a more encompassing organization for what they represent," she said.
"The multicultural greek fraternity is a label that the University slapped on us temporarily because we are not under a formal umbrella group," said Francisco Folgar, president of La Unidad Latina Lambda Upsilon Lambda fraternity. "We're working with the administration to figure out what we want to do."
Folgar's fraternity, an NPHC affiliate until the NPHC adopted a national policy last year to limit its membership to the original black letter organizations, still has close ties to NPHC, as do many of the floating cultural greek-letter organizations that have emerged over the past decade.
Falcon emphasized that even together, the multicultural groups still have limited resources. "We do a lot of co-sponsoring," she said. "We work really closely with the Latino fraternity [and] with the Latino community to put forth our initiatives."
But even as a central greek life office, greater communication and interaction point to progress, each side is finding that the traditional IFC/Panhel greek experience and the traditional NPHC and multicultural greek experience are markedly different��right down to their vocabulary.
"When we hear the term rush, we automatically think that's what the white greeks do," Maye said. "It's just because it's not in our dialect."
"Intake," rather is the NPHC term for the recruitment of new members. Maye said the NPHC intake process is much less decentralized than the IFC and Panhel rush, as each group has its own criteria and format to conduct intake how it sees fit.
Maye added that the fraternities and sororities sponsor informational meetings for potential members to begin the application process. Unlike rushing an IFC or a Panhel chapter, students are discouraged from pursuing more than one chapter.
"You commit yourself to one from the beginning," Maye said. "It's kind of taboo if you try to go to one and then go to another."
Falcon said her sorority intake procedure resembles the NPHC system, although the process begins during the sophomore year, not the spring semester of the freshman year.
But perhaps the most visible distinction between the two is the lack of NPHC and multicultural group campus housing. Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity is the only NPHC fraternity with West Campus residential housing. Maye said that many greek members block together on Central Campus. He said Central's location is satisfactory, but West Campus housing would give groups resources like a commons room and a quad fund. A task force, headed by OFSL director Todd Adams is currently looking at the process through which selective groups can apply for housing.
In the meanwhile, Maye said multicultural groups are thriving on their own. "I'm very comfortable living off campus, and the process of getting housing would be difficult," he said. "We don't need to get West Campus [housing] to survive or to get our name out there."
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