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Statistics show CSULB Greek community increases, members disagree

Although members of the Greek community have expressed concern with their fellow brothers and sisters leaving their fraternity or sorority, statistics show an increase in the interest in Greek life.

Approximately 200 men attended the information session for the Interfraternity Council and an increase of 12 percent of women registered for the Panhellenic Council this year, the Daily 49er reported last month.

However, sorority and fraternity members have displayed concern over the fact that a number of their active members have slowly resigned in recent years.

“We started with 40 girls, and now they ended up with only 13 members,” said Jennifer Reyes, who resigned from Kappa Phi Epsilon due to academic reasons.

According to junior Rachel Hamlet, who works in the Student Life and Development office, membership for the National Panhellenic Council has decreased by 5 percent in the last few years, due to poor economic times and a lack of student interest.

“Total membership is decreasing for sure, especially from last semester,” said Desmonde Meas, who is currently inactive this semester. “But, by the number of pledges, it varies, so rush week makes a big difference.”

Some students claim that the total number of members has decreased because of its dependence on class sizes each year.

For example, in 2009, when a large amount of Greek members graduated, those designated sororities and fraternities accepted a larger number of pledges to fill the open seats.

“A lot of our older members just graduated in the spring and a couple decided they wanted to pursue something different outside of school,” said Jeffrey Joya, the rush chairman of Zeta Phi Rho.

Nicole Baeza, an active member of Tri Delta, said it typically seems like more members are dropping than really are.

“Yeah, we’re all like, ‘Oh no, all these girls are dropping,’ but it’s just usually only one or two girls that leave for personal reasons,” Baeza said.

According to Caitlin Roberts, Greek adviser and assistant director of Student Life and Development, memberships in sororities and fraternities are actually increasing by 6 percent of the student population — compared to 2005, when it was less than 2 percent of the student body.

 


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