By Joey Wilkerson
This week’s campus spotlight shines on the Panhellenic Council. The Panhellenic Council is the governing body of 26 national sororities, six of which are found right here at the University of Louisville. Panhellenic boasts councils on over 600 university campuses and over 5,300 alumnae associations across North America and Canada. The Panhellenic Council was formed in 1902 in order to ensure that sorority recruitment was being enforced. Recruitment is one of the council’s main focuses. U of L’s Greek advisor, Joni Burke, explained some of the council’s responsibilities. “The major focus of Panhellenic is to recruit girls for our sororities,” she said. “The council is in charge of sending mailings to the incoming freshmen girls. They have an active part in campus preview day, and they produce the Greek rush book, which features information on not just our groups, but also info on the IFC fraternities and the NPHC groups,” continues Burke. The council also has a team of girls called the Greek seekers, who go to local high schools to promote interest in Greek life.
Panhellenic is also very active in the field of community service. They participate in the Greek Community Service Board, which is a group composed of the community service chairperson from each fraternity and sorority on campus. The purpose of this council is to respond to the community’s service needs. The Panhellenic Council also participates in the Adopt-A-School program; the council adopted Lassiter Middle School and helps them plan campus visits. On November 18, Panhellenic will team up with the Interfraternity Council for a joint fundraiser, which will benefit the Dare to Care Foundation. “Each year, Panhellenic does about 18,000 hours of community service,” said Burke.
Grades are a major focus too. Panhellenic ensures that all of its members maintain a certain GPA, putting the group’s GPA higher than the campus all-women’s GPA year after year.
One of the most important aspects of Panhellenic is the sisterhood that is shared by the girls in the council. “Sisterhood is the coming together of all the girls to work as a team,” said Jordan Osborne, who is the Public Relations/Awards chair. Each year, Panhellenic matches up each sorority with another to be “sister sororities.” Throughout the year, the sister sororities do various activities together, such as community service projects. Another thing that builds sisterhood between the girls is the summer recruitment program. “In the summer, the president, internal vice president, treasurer, recruitment chair and communications chair all must disaffiliate from their chapters in order to help along with the Rho Gammas (two girls from each sorority who also disaffiliate in order to do recruitment) during orientation,” said Osborne. “We get together and do team building exercises, but we also hang out with each other, too. Sometimes we’ll go to Denny’s. Sometimes we’ll just hang out in a girl’s room and talk all night. I think the summer really brought me closer with all of the other girls.”
Panhellenic recently celebrated its hundredth anniversary. At the ceremony, a candle was lit for each of the 26 sororities represented in the council. “This ceremony represents a hundred years of sisterhood and service, and hopefully a hundred years more,” stated Burke.
