UIC fraternities and sororities provide connection, friendship and enjoyable

On a chilly Wednesday this month, UIC Fraternity and Sorority Life held an aptly named occasion at Student Center East: Warm Up with FSL.

The Inner Circle on the second flooring was full of laughter, chatter and thumping beats from two DJs as college students from UIC’s 26 fraternity and sorority chapters talked with potential members to assist them gauge whether or not fraternity or sorority life is correct for them.

Unlike at schools the place most college students reside on campus, at UIC there aren’t conventional fraternity and sorority homes the place members reside collectively. Yet UIC does have sororities and fraternities, though many college students may not know they exist right here.

They do. Members meet on campus or off to volunteer collectively in the neighborhood, fundraise for their chosen causes, maintain basketball tournaments or just socialize over espresso.

With 700 energetic members, fraternities and sororities at UIC are distinctive. According to Kevin Cane, director of Fraternity and Sorority Life at UIC, “a number of organizations have active members who choose to live together in small pockets of their own communities and allow their space to gather for meetings.”

“We encourage all students to explore potential membership as an outlet that fosters a deep sense of belonging as well as access to an enhanced network that supports active growth in scholarship, service and personal development,” Cane added.

Many of UIC’s fraternities and sororities are chapters of nationwide organizations. Others, like Chi Sigma Omega, are solely at UIC. This sorority holds weekly chapter conferences and social occasions to debate what they’re doing and spend time with each other.

Sofia Annerino, president of the sorority, sought out sisterhood when she transferred to UIC.

“When I was in high school, I always wanted to be in a sorority, because I loved the idea of sisterhood,” mentioned Annerino, a fourth-year biomedical engineering pupil. But at the neighborhood school she transferred from, there was little or no socializing, she mentioned. “So I was really itching to make friends and build a community.”

Most if not all of the sororities and fraternities at UIC do some neighborhood service or charity fundraising. Around the winter holidays, some organizations gathered and donated coats for individuals experiencing homelessness and arranged Christmas items and Thanksgiving turkeys for households in want, for instance.

Chi Sigma Omega, cofounded in 2009 by the daughter of a mom with a number of sclerosis, raises cash for the Multiple Sclerosis Society, together with by taking part in an annual fundraising stroll. But in addition they get collectively simply to hang around, to get doughnuts and occasional or make photograph albums collectively, Annerino mentioned.

At the core of every sorority and fraternity at UIC is a dedication to 4 values: educational excellence; range, fairness and inclusion; private and organizational growth; and civic engagement.

The Theta Lambda Beta Fraternity’s civic engagement stretches nationally and internationally, in line with the fraternity’s president, John Paradela, a third-year computer science pupil.

The autoimmune illness lupus is certainly one of their causes, they usually companion with the Lupus Society of Illinois. But in addition they made care packages and raised over $1,300 for catastrophe aid in the Philippines.

One of the annual highlights for members, Paradela mentioned, is the fraternity’s Fall Foolishness basketball match, full with a simulated draft, group captains, jerseys and even a trophy.

“It’s the one time of year where all our alumni, even our founders, come out and play,” Paradela mentioned. “We do it every single year. It’s one of my favorite events.”

Fraternal organizations have been at UIC lengthy earlier than the present campus opened in 1965, and lots of of those are chapters of longstanding nationwide organizations. They embrace chapters of 9 traditionally Black organizations, additionally referred to as the National Pan-Hellenic Council and also known as the Divine Nine.

For instance, the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity was based in 1906 at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and at UIC, the Theta chapter dates again to 1910. A more moderen UIC member of the Divine Nine is the Beta chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. The chapter is greater than a century outdated and is city-wide, encompassing UIC, Loyola University and three different Chicago colleges.

Unity and friendship, service to the neighborhood and social justice are all drivers for the sorority. But one other issue that impressed fourth-year biomedical engineering pupil Alena Morrissette to affix was her dad’s blissful reminiscences of his time as a fraternity member in school.

“He always talked about how he used to hang out with his (fraternity) bros and they were always together,” she mentioned. “It was a good time because he got to help his community, and I wanted something like that at UIC.”

If you have an interest in becoming a member of a fraternity or sorority at UIC, membership alternatives start firstly of the autumn and spring semesters. Many chapters have began or will quickly begin recruiting for this semester. 

A superb place to seek out out extra, together with contact info and recruitment dates, is on the Fraternity and Sorority Life website, or by way of UIC Connection by looking out fraternity or sorority beneath teams.

— Kyle Hillman, Strategic Marketing and Communications