Connector Editor

“A lot more people are coming to school looking to join Greek Life,” said Kristina Murray, president of the Greek Council at UMass Lowell and member of AO, a sorority on campus. “Now, it’s more that people are seeking us out, not us seeking them out.”

Friday’s Open Skate at the Tsongas Center provided a perfect example of people “seeking” Greek Life out. The line for skates went out the door as students were allowed to skate on the ice rink and speak with representatives from the various fraternities and sororities at UMass Lowell.

“This is always a good event for us because people trickle in and out,” said Murray. “It’s just a good way to get our name out there.”

The Open Skate, which is an event Greek Life has put on for the past two years, is the final event of Greek Week. It began with Wet and Wild, which took place on the Campus Recreation Center lawn.

“We had a pretty good turnout, ‘cause a lot of people came in; it was…a four hour event,” said Murray.

Greek Life also sponsored a karaoke night earlier that week

“It was a good event. It was a different event. We’ve never done it before, but it went well. We just kind of went with it,” said Murray.

While the Open Skate signaled the end of Greek Week, that doesn’t mean the organizations will not be busy in the future. “Next week, we’re doing an informational where people can come and learn,” said Murray. “We’ll start it off with information about Greek Life at UMass Lowell now, and then we’re going to break off into groups so the girls can go to the sororities and they can learn about each organization, and the same for the guys.”

The informational is not only a place to learn about the organization for you, but also to meet others from other organizations. “Just because you’re in one organization doesn’t mean you can’t have friends in another, and we want to make sure that we’re showing people that right off the bat,” said Murray.

Murray was pleased to see the increase in attendance at these events. “I think it has a lot to do with the fact that we do a lot of on campus events. Last year, we did the Up Till Dawn event which we got a lot of publicity for.” Up Till Dawn is a charity event sponsored by St. Jude’s Hospital. Greek Life will be participating in this event this year as well.

“I’ve heard a lot of people say that their view of Greek Life has changed,” said Murray.