The Brown & White

Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, Lambda Theta Alpha sorority and Lambda Sigma Upsilon fraternity have come together to create the Multicultural Greek Council.

The council held an event, "Meet the Greeks," on Sept. 15 on the University Center front lawn to introduce the chapters to the campus community.

"Meet the Greeks" was the first event held by the council. The event gave each chapter a chance to market themselves and their events.

Kappa Alpha Psi is a traditionally black fraternity and was established at Lehigh in 1987 and received a charter in 2001. The chapter has four undergraduate members and one graduate member.

Lambda Theta Alpha and Lambda Sigma Upsilon were established relatively recently; Lambda Theta Alpha in the spring of 2008 and Lambda Sigma Upsilon last semester. Both of these chapters traditionally represent Latino students.

Lambda Sigma Upsilon and its five members represent six nationalities. Lambda Theta Alpha currently has three members. None of the three chapters are residential.

The Multicultural Greek Council was created in the spring of 2009 to unite the multicultural Greek chapters at Lehigh, but meetings became regular this school year.

The council has five executive positions: President Greg Anderson '10, Vice President Mario Paredes '11, Treasurer Randy Tavarez '10, two Social Chairs, Zahir Carrington, '10 and Leslie Ezeta '11 and a Community Service Chair, Felix Pinto '11.

"It was founded in order to cater to the needs of diverse chapters on campus. We were waiting for three organizations to be founded. We [Lambda Sigma Upsilon] were the last ones. Once we came on board the Multicultural Greek Council was finalized. We could all tend to our needs and how we run our organizations," said Paredes.

Anderson said the council is about more than just promoting diversity.

"We are trying to bring a different mindset to the table, trying to offer fresh and new ideas," he said. "Since we don't have houses we operate differently. We are trying to show that you don't have to live in a house to be Greek."

The Multicultural Greek Council's purpose is to satisfy some of the issues that weren't being covered in meetings with other Greek associations like the Interfraternity Council and the Panhellenic Council.

Anderson said that many of the issues discussed at Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Council meetings are on-campus issues and the Multicultural Greek Council was necessary because the chapters involved do not have houses.

Another major difference is in recruitment methods. Since the chapters involved in the Multicultural Greek Council don't have on-campus living, they have to hold interest meetings on campus rather than at a house.

Also, because these chapters are much smaller than residential chapters at Lehigh, uniting made their numbers larger, Paredes said.

Ezeta said that by coming together these multicultural chapters will have an easier time promoting themselves to the rest of the campus community.

"We don't really have the problems that came up at IFC. Our problems are about recruitment, how will we double our numbers and getting our names out there to freshmen," Ezeta said. "Many of the problems that Greeks have are about their houses, and we couldn't really relate to that."

The council meets every Thursday to plan events like "Meet The Greeks." Paredes also hopes to have the council sponsor a philanthropy event for this semester. The Multicultural Greek Council is also trying to plan an event for the spring semester.