There's great momentum to re-launch Greek Allies at Lehigh!! For more information on the program and how you can get involved, please read on.
Greek Allies is a program that existed at Lehigh, but died out when the former members graduated. This year, we're bringing it back, but in a whole new way. Our overall goal is to help create a Greek community that is accepting of all types of people, both members and nonmembers. We want to start with a focus on LGBTQIA issues, but this also includes dealing with race, religion, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status.
In order to do that, we have a lot of ideas. We see four major areas that we want to work on.
- Recruitment: These are important issues that affect everyone, so we want to get everyone involved. We plan to have two Chapter Allies from each Greek organization that will act as liaisons bringing information back and forth between their chapter and the Greek Allies. They'll be the ones helping us spread the word about events and engaging in discussions to help us best serve our community. In addition, we'll have an application process for Greek Allies. These members will be formally trained to serve as a support system and a resource for anyone who needs them.
- Campus relations: There are a lot of great organizations on campus that are already doing a lot of amazing work in regards to gender and sexual identity. We want to be able to spread the word about their events as well as our own, getting Greeks involved in what's going on around campus regarding these issues.
- Internal education: Part of working to create a more inclusive Greek community will rely on actually taking positive action to foster that. We want to be able to educate chapters by putting on programs at their request, working with each organization individually to help them in whatever areas they need.
- External education: While it's important that we become more accepting of our members, we also want to work on showing the Lehigh community that we're inclusive of nonmembers as well. Our perception on campus is not a positive one, and we want to change that.
The members of Greek Allies are really amazing, passionate people. We have a great opportunity to make positive changes on Lehigh's campus, so we want as many Greek voices as possible. If you want to become a part of Greek Allies, email Elizabeth Campbell at elc215@lehigh.edu. We’re having elections at our next meeting so it’s not too late to get involved!