During the first two weeks of classes, thousands of students roamed Cal State Long Beach and donned bright blue T-shirts with the words “Be Greek” written across their chests.
They are members of CSULB’s Greek community, and with this semester’s recruitment results, membership is recorded at the highest it’s ever been.
The Greek community composes roughly 7 percent of CSULB’s student population, significantly larger than the 2 percent in 2005, according to Assistant Director of Student Life and Development and CSULB’s Greek Adviser Caitlin Roberts.
“Overall, we’ve tripled in size,” Roberts said, noting that since 2005, nine fraternities have either started or returned to CSULB.
President of Pi Kappa Phi Chris Myter said the rise in membership may be a result of better marketing techniques.
“In my opinion, it’s probably because of better recruitment strategies as a whole from [Interfraternity Council] and [Panhellenic Council],” Myter said.
On-campus Interfraternity Council (IFC) is the governing council of Greek fraternities, while Panhellenic is the governing council for Greek sororities.
This year, 445 women registered for Panhellenic Council’s sorority recruitment and 387 men registered for IFC’s fraternity recruitment.
The university now has a total of 40 Greek-connected organizations: seven nationally-linked Greek sororities and 13 fraternities, as well as 13 cultural and seven black sororities and fraternities, according to Roberts.
Lily Contreras, Panhellenic’s vice president of recruitment, said she thinks the “Be Greek” slogan aided in the growth of the Greek system by helping to promote awareness about it.
“Before [the] ‘Be Greek’ [slogan], we only had ‘Greek Life,’ and it wasn’t known about as much … ‘Be Greek’ started in 2008, and it only got bigger from there,” Contreras said.
In addition to producing T-shirts and information tables, Panhellenic took to social media websites this semester to promote recruitment, and the results were record-breaking, according to Contreras.
“We actively used Facebook and Instagram, and it ended up being the biggest it’s ever been,” Contreras said.
President of Alpha Phi Sorority Erica Hsu said she agrees with Contreras about the impact social media has had on recruitment.
“It’s a gateway for people who are on the fence about joining to get a glimpse of what we’re all about,” Hsu said.
Hsu said that her chapter also utilized social media during recruitment, but they mainly focused on encouraging interested girls to “Be Greek” instead of just being a member of Alpha Phi.
Alpha Phi is now the campus’ largest sorority with 128 members compared to 30 members in 2005; Pi Kappa Phi stands as the school’s largest fraternity with 97 members, according to Myter.
Hsu said she hopes social media can counter negative portrayals of Greeks, such as those in the TV show “Greek,” and highlight ways that CSULB Greeks benefit the community.
For instance, according to the Greek Office, fraternities and sororities donated more than 23,000 hours of service as well as more than $122,000 to charity last year; studies also show that members of fraternities and sororities have a higher graduation rate than non-Greek-affiliated students, Roberts said.
“Fraternities and sororities have all sorts of services to offer at this school,” Myter said. “It is such a heavy commuter school, and students are looking for something to be a part of.”
Hsu said there have been rumors of possibly adding another sorority at CSULB because the campus total, the maximum number of members a fraternity or sorority can have, is currently the highest it’s ever been. Contreras said she thinks CSULB’s Greek community will continue to grow.