NSE 21
The Michigan Daily
I
I
Greek execs push
for racil un1
Frats, sororities seek
to bury legacy of
segregation
By ALEX DZIADOSZ
Daily Staff Reporter
When Randal Seriguchi, the
National Pan-Hellenic Council's
vice president, talks about the
Greek system's capacity to culti-
vate campus diversity, he is more
blunt than most executives.
"It's kind of inherently known
by students that Greeks have a
great deal of influence within the
student body," he said. "But I don't
think a lot of Greeks exercise that
influence - correctly, anyway."
Seriguchi seems determined to
change this.
A movement toward integration
that encompasses all four Greek
councils is growing - from the
culture-specific chapters of the
relatively young Multicultural
Greek Council to the centuries-old
majority-white houses of the mas-
sive Interfraternity Council.
Jared Averbuch, president of the
IFC, said the integration move-
ment is occurring on two fronts:
across the Greek system's four
councils and within its individual
chapters.
ACROSS COUNCILS
Ask Greek executives to identify
the keyto an integrated system and
most will tell you it is interaction
between the different councils.
Press for specifics and the conver-
sation will inevitably wind toward
Greek Week, the mid-March burst
of activity that transforms cam-
pus into a playground of volleyball
tournaments, Diag dunk tanks and
dance contests.
Traditionally, Greek Week has
been the domain of the mostly
white Interfraternity Council and
Panhellenic Association. But other
chapters are increasingly eager to
join in.
Last year, Kappa Alpha Psi was
the only historically black group
to participate. Even this was a step
forward, said Tony Saunders, the
president of the National Pan-Hel-
lenic Council.
Kappa Alpha Psi partnered with
Alpha Chi Omega, a Panhellenic
Association sorority that was ini-
tially unfamiliar with the other's
mission and history.
Over the course of the week,
Saunders said, the sorority's inter-
est in the fraternity blossomed,
setting a positive precedent for
future involvement.
According to Seriguchi, at least
four NPHC chapters will partici-
pate next March.
Multicultural Greek Council
President Sejal Tailor said that
MGC chapters were also enthusi-
astic, but that the chapters' small
sizes often constrict their ability
to build adequately large teams to
compete in the Greek Week activi-
ties.
This year, Brian Millman, IFC's
vice president of public relations,
and his Panhel counterpart, Andi
Reich, said they were aggressively
reaching out to MGC and NPHC
chapters.
Both described an increasing
trend toward integration within
the councils, citing mutual pro-
gramming.
Over the past year, NPHC has
planned and staged involvement
with K-Grams and the School of
Education, often incorporating
the other councils.
"Historically, this has never
happened before," Saunders said.
"All of our four councils getting
together and doing actual work
together to benefit the broader U
of M community - a step in the
right direction."
Seriguchi, for example, main-
tains a list of planned joint pro-
grams, includinga Chinese auction
- a raffle-like fundraising event.
With time, he hopes it will
involve all four of the Greek sys-
tem's councils - regardless of
their cultural or ethnic focus.
WITHIN CHAPTERS
Reid Benjamin, president and
main founder of the year-old
University chapter of Pi Lambda
Phi, lives with three of his frater-
nity brothers in a Wilmot Court
house's living room.
Since its birth at Yale Univer-
sity in 1895, Pi Lambda Phi has
billed itself as a "fraternity in
which ability, open-mindedness,
farsightedness, and a progres-
sive, forward-looking attitude
would be recognized as basic
attributes."
Near the end of fall semester
last year, Benjamin and a group
of Mary Markley and Alice Lloyd
residents brought the chapter and
its mission to the University.
Yesterday, gathered in the
living room were 12 of the fra-
ternity's 32 members, a broad
spectrum of skin tones and tal-
ents. One was a champion bowler,
another an expert piano player,
another an accomplished aero-
nautics engineer.
Most, he said, stray far from the
"Animal House" stigma associated
with traditional fraternities.
Each member of the house's
pioneering class had flirted with a
more traditional role in the Greek
system.
Pi Lambda Phi is different, he
said.
Boyer was raised in a subur-
ban school in Rochester, with one
black student in his graduating
class. Now, he said, he's found his
role reversed. Next year, he'll be
the lone white student in a house
of four.
LSA freshman Keith Binion,
who is black and was raised in
Detroit, attended a Grosse Pointe
high school. After four years, he
was tired of jugglingtwo divergent
racial landscapes: Grosse Pointe
and Detroit.
Early freshman year, he con-
sidered joining Phi Beta Sigma, an
PETER SCHOTTENFELS/Daly
LSA freshman Keith Binion (left) and LSA sophomore Seth Wittman (right), members of Pi Lambda Phi, in their house on
Wilmont Court. The fraternity was founded in 1985 at Yale University with commitments to diversity and open-mindedness,
NPHC house. But Pi Lambda Phi's
diverse atmosphere won him over,
he said.
Some fraternity members
struggled as they sought to pro-
vide anecdotes about the house's
diversity.
"You have to kind of extract it
from us," Benjamin said. "We're
not really conscious of it."
Diversity, they said, is not their
explicit goal. Diversity should
proceed naturally from their com-
mitment to "unity without confor-
mity," he said.
"Yeah, I'm never conscious of
the race of my brothers. Except
when I tell Hecky (Powell) that
he hates white people," said
LSA sophomore Dustin Frankel,
motioning to Powell.
Laughter filled the living room.
As with most friends, Benjamin
said, humor brings them together.
"What you just saw Dustin do
just there - that's a good exam-
ple," he said.
LSA sophomore Tony Nguy-
en said one of the best bonding
moments the fraternity brothers
had had as a group was a night
they spent making racial jokes.
Some may decry their joking as
insensitive, but they say the atmo-
sphere of familiarity and brother-
hood disintegrates the barriers
and hostilities that might other-
wise exist.
Somewhat ironically, the most
effective weapon for engaging the
damage wrought by stereotyping
and labeling may itself be a label:
Greek.
LESSONS LEARNED
In Angell Hall a few weeks ago,
Seriguchi was on his way to Greek
101, anot-for-credit class designed
to introduce Hellenic leaders to
University Greek life.
It's programs like this one,
where Greeks foster personal rela-
tionships, that are integral to suc-
cess in bridging racial division in
the system, the NPHC vice presi-
dent said.
"If you're cool with people,
you're more likely to call them for
events you're doing," he said.
Many executives cited Pike's
Halloween party - where hun-
dreds of Greeks and non-Greeks
of several races mingled - as evi-
dence of what can proceed from
personal bonds.
Averbuch and Jarrett Smith,
president of Phi Beta Sigma, the
traditionally black fraternity that
cosponsored the Halloween party,
met through LeaderShape, a six-
day program run by the Office of
Student Activities and Leadership
to nurture students' organization-
al skills.
"It makes me feel like the Greek
system is trying to collaborate,"
Tailor said of the party's success.
Like all student organizations,
the Greek system is constantly
pressured by its leaders' often
chaotic academic schedules and
impending graduations. Imprint-
ing new traditions on institutional
memory can be daunting.
To combat this, Averbuch sug-
gested making the Halloween
party an annual event.
Tailor said she would leave her
successor with tips on formaliz-
ing MGC's relationships with the
other councils' leaders.
The Greek system's wide social
appeal and more than 2,000 mem-
bers make it a more viable instru-
ment than most campus groups,
Averbuch said.
"All we have to do is provide a
vision,".Averbuch said. "We have
all the resources."
This article originally
ran on Dec. 4, 2006.
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