Community service, new friendships and lifelong connections carry the benefits of Otterbein Greek life past what a student would receive at a larger school.
At a larger school, mansions line the sides of the road and tower over the people that walk past them. At the beginning of every semester, hundreds of students will line up outside these mansions to try to join one of the Greek life organizations. This is the scene of fall and spring rush at a large university.
That is not the scene at Otterbein University.
“At Otterbein,” says Carter Wheat, a senior biochemistry and molecular biology major and the president of local fraternity Eta Phi Mu, “[Greek life] is a lot more intimate. You’re with 20, 30, 40 of your best friends. You know everybody.”
Many members at large schools tend to find themselves falling under the radar. Often, most members do not know every person within their organization because of the vast number of people within it. “It’s just different here,” Wheat continues. “Your best friends and your support group become all in the same place. I always say, you get out of this fraternity what you’re willing to put into it.”
A large portion of people go into Greek life with the assumption that the experience is all about the party rather than the education. A study conducted by the North American Interfraternity Conference shows that students involved in Greek life are 20 percent more likely to graduate than those not a part of an organization. Nationally, Greek life encompasses over nine million students and at Otterbein about 25 percent of the student population is involved.
While it is commonly believed that Greek life is all about the party, community service is a portion of Greek life that is often overlooked. “A lot of guys come into this expecting to party all the time, but there’s just so much more than that to being a part of a fraternity,” Wheat said.
Often, particularly at Otterbein, people search for Greek life as a means to get more involved. “It’s a quick way to make friends and get involved in the community,” Nelson explained.
For most students at Otterbein, the experience is about the friendships and bonds they can make through shared memories. “I have friends who are in upper classes who raved about how much they loved Greek life,” said Madelyn Nelson, a sophomore communication studies and a member of Sigma Alpha Tau. “It let me get more involved and establish deeper connections with people. I only expected to meet a few new friends, not the eighty that I now have.”
There are lessons in Greek life that many do not understand unless they are a part of the program. “In the joining process, you learn to be open-minded,” Nelson said.
With many people coming from different backgrounds, Greek life is an opportunity for many students to not only make friends, but to learn to become better people through their peers and the service opportunities that are offered to them.
“If you put yourself into the organization, it’s really going to give back to you and be incredibly fulfilling,” Wheat finished.
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