Last semester’s members of the Interfraternity, Panhellenic and National PanHellenic councils voted to institute the Multicultural Greek Alliance on campus.
Even though two other international organizations exist on campus, Keri Danna-Link, assistant director of leadership and Greek life, said more groups have received permission to organize at VCU.
“There are two (organizations) established – a South Asian sorority and South Asian fraternity,” Danna-Link said. “And then we have three (groups) that have been given permission by the Greek Council to come on (campus) – a Latino group, a Latina (group) and another south Asian sorority.”
Before becoming a fraternity or sorority, groups must go through a colonization process to complete requirements specified by their national chapters. After completing the requirements, the colony becomes a Greek organization.
“The three interest groups will be full-fledged colonies by the end of the semester,” Danna-Link said.
With the probability of five international Greek organizations on campus, the governing bodies of VCU Greeks last semester saw the need to establish the Multicultural Greek Alliance to assist with the growing needs of these groups.
“The students were waiting for a critical mass of cultural organizations before the MGA is formed,” Danna-Link said. “With three additional organizations slated to colonize, the existing organization thought it was time to form the governing body.”
The alliance ranks as the fourth governing body for the Greek organizations on campus. Chandni Desai, a junior business administration major and vice president of the group, said the alliance will act as a mouthpiece for VCU’s growing international Greek population.
“We just govern over the multicultural ones (fraternities and sororities),” Desai said. “The Greek Council as a whole will govern over all of them.”
The alliance, Desai said, has given new power to the international groups on campus.
“There were a lot of things we couldn’t participate in before – even though we were welcome – because we were just affiliates,” Desai said. “It kind of gives us a home.”
Although many who participate in international Greek organizations are of minority ethnicity, Danna-Link said being of ethnic origin is not a prerequisite for joining one of these groups.
“Historically… they just saw a need from the populations on campuses where they founded that wasn’t being met with a typical Greek population, so they established those,” Danna-Link said. “On our campus, the two that are established already have different ethnicities in them.”