{"id":1077,"date":"2016-02-17T16:13:08","date_gmt":"2016-02-17T21:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/2016\/02\/17\/past-present-and-future-the-direction-of-furman-greek-life\/"},"modified":"2022-11-07T14:17:52","modified_gmt":"2022-11-07T19:17:52","slug":"past-present-and-future-the-direction-of-furman-greek-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/past-present-and-future-the-direction-of-furman-greek-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Past, present and future: the direction of Furman Greek life"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Sara Morano \u201913, Contributing Writer \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I came here, a lot of what I did at first was just ask; \u2018What\u2019s the way we\u2019ve always done it\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n

Cameron Smith took a moment to explain her position as assistant director for student organizations and Greek life on Tuesday. It was a rare respite for her from the past few busy weeks. Furman\u2019s first \u201cGreek Week\u201d in 11 years wrapped Thursday. Sorority Bid Day ended the formal recruitment process on January 20. At the moment, every fraternity and sorority chapter on campus is transitioning its newest members to become initiated sometime later this spring.<\/p>\n

It has really been a rush since Smith came to campus last July, but she says she has found a \u201crich history\u201d of Greek-letter organizations at Furman to build and grow. The first social fraternities appeared at Furman in 1892. Among the 14 active chapters on campus today, two are \u201csingle letter chapters,\u201d some of the oldest chapters of their kind in the nation. A strong tradition is also reflected in the large number who choose to \u201cgo Greek\u201d today \u2013\u00a0more than half of Furman\u2019s 2,800 students.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have room to grow as a community, not necessarily in numbers, but in the way we conduct ourselves,\u201d says Smith, who is looking to lead organizations on campus to \u201cnot just meet what Furman expects, but meet what we [Greek organizations] expect ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

While each group has its own unique rituals making them distinct from others on campus, Smith says all Greek organizations provide their members common principles and standards to uphold.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiving up to these principles allows you to have a better collegiate experience,\u201d says Smith, a sorority alumnae of Virginia Tech, adding that beyond a set of common principles, organizations create accountability, the ability to self-govern, a sense of belonging and the opportunity to work well with a diverse group of people.<\/p>\n

The return of Greek Week this month was a sort of \u201cplatform to express what Furman\u2019s Greek-letter community is capable of doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The competition, which took place between teams of four and five organizations in a design intended to promote teamwork among various chapters, held the most successful blood drive in campus history by collecting 91 pints. A sculpture contest brought in more than 1,000 cans for the Berea Baptist Food Bank. A light-hearted clue-hunt around campus promoted Furman spirit by having teams tweet pictures of campus landmarks like the rose garden, library fountain, and Belltower path @FuGreekLife.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of times we have this idea of pride in a specific organization,\u201d said Smith of campus groups. She’d like to see a shift for Greeks and independents alike to embrace a kind of pride that comes from “just being at Furman.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Sara Morano \u201913, Contributing Writer<\/p>\n

Cameron Smith, who joined Furman in July as assistant director for student organizations and Greek life, has just wrapped up her first fraternity and sorority rush. She has made a few changes to Greek life.\u00a0 This year, for example, the university hosted a \u201cGreek Week\u201d that promoted charity and friendly competitions. The event helped collect 91 pints in a blood drive. Too, more than 1,000 cans were donated to the Berea Baptist Food Bank.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":1078,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,38,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-administrative","category-greek-life","category-student-life"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}