The Brown & White

Lehigh's eight Panhellenic Sororities hosted each other in a series of Progressive Dinners from Nov.9 to Nov.13.

The Junior Panhellenic Council (J.P.C), with the help of the Panhellenic Council, organized the event to create a stronger unity among the sororities and a more concentrated support for each sorority's philanthropic endeavors.

The J.P.C members are nominated by their sorority to represent their whole house. Members are elected from January, when they first join their sorority, to the following December when they are in their sophomore year.

Members begin learning about what it means to be a leader in the Greek community, so that when they come back to Lehigh in the fall, they have the tools to run programs like the Progressive Dinners.

"I wanted them to be not only leaders in their chapter but a leader in all eight chapters," said Becca Raphael, vice president of Panhellenic Council, who played a large role in restructuring the agenda for the J.P.C. "I want them to have the mindset that they can be a real role model and leave a mark by the time they are done at Lehigh."

"This year, the Panhellenic Council is using the J.P.C to be more effective in the Greek community," said Emma McGraw, '12 a sister Alpha Chi Omega and a J.P.C delegate.

For each course, sorority representatives went to a different sorority houses and listened to the hosting house give a presentation on their house's philanthropy.

"This is a good time to represent our house in a good light," Alexandrea Jackson, '12, philanthropy chair for Pi Beta Phi said. "We are meeting the girls and seeing what they are all about beyond stereotypes."

After each house's philanthropy's presentation, the sisters gave suggestions on how to improve each other's philanthropic events.

Some suggestions that came up were opening up some of the fundraising events to non-Greeks, moving fundraising events to the Asa Packer Campus versus the hill, more aggressive advertising and better communication between the Greeks about fundraising event.

"A lot of sororities and frats have separate events," said Nicole Driscoll, '12, from Gamma Phi Beta."If they were better advertised, sororities and frats will be more involved with each other."

After the dinner, each sorority representative went back to their house to present what they learned about the other houses.

Each house had two sorority representatives at each of the three dinners. Sorority representatives signed up for the dinners for an array of reasons.

Some wanted to revisit some of the houses they have not seen since rush season, while others wanted to get reacquainted with their friends from other sororities.

"I volunteered because I wanted to see the inside of all the house," said Megan Bigley, '12, of Phi Beta Phi.

"I got to reconnect with girls I had not seen since last year," McGraw, '12, said.

"I wanted to learn about the philanthropy for the other houses," Katherine Covachio, '12, of Phi Beta Phi. "It is so important to show support for the Greek system."

During Alpha Omicron Pi's presentation on Friday, Tiernan Kiefer, '11, AOPi's philanthropy chair, announced that Lehigh's AOPi won the Jessie Wallace Hughan award.

The Jessie Wallace Hughan award is awarded every two years to the chapter that upholds the highest level of standard in every different category they are evaluated on.

"We have been considered the best AOPi in the world," Kiefer, '11, said.

While the Progressive dinners ran smoothly, Raphael noted that there will be some improvements to make it an increasingly successful annual event.

"We want to re-evaluate who will attend the dinners," Raphael said. "So far it has been a huge success but there are lots of things we can step back and rebuild to make what is good event even better."

Lauren Harte, '10, president of Panhellenic Council, expressed her hopes for the outcome of the Progressive dinners.

"Personally what I would like to see come out of these dinners is someone feeling inclined to hang out with another chapter house," she said. "I would like to see an increase in attendance at each chapter's philanthropy events, now that there is a better understanding about the meaning behind it."