Service greeks put socializing aside

For every fraternity and sorority on campus, philanthropic work is just one component to joining. But for some nontraditional greek houses, community service is the driving force.

Senior Ryan Jochim is the president of Alpha Phi Omega, one of the bigger service fraternities on campus, with about 150 members.

“It’s a fraternity that specializes in community service, mostly around the Bloomington area,” Jochim said.

Colleen Rose and Leslie Fasone are assistant directors for student organizations on campus, from traditional greek houses to service houses.

Fasone said that most greek houses are considered social organizations because they encompass “the whole person.” They also fall under the jurisdiction of one of the greek councils on campus.

“The organizations that are in the four councils are part of the larger fraternity and sorority social community,” Fasone said.

Rose said another aspect that separates the service fraternities from the rest of the greek system is that their main purpose is community service.

“All (greek houses) have something about service, but that’s not the only driving force, whereas with APO, that’s the primary focus,” Rose said. “Just doing community
service.”

Because of this, the houses have mandatory community service hours. In the case of APO, each pledge must complete 20 hours and each active member 30 per semester.
The houses are also typically coed despite being a “fraternity” or “sorority,” Rose said. She said the service houses are more of a separate system.

The service fraternities and sororities even have their own rush process.

“We have a two-week rush period where we just have call-out meetings,” Jochim said, “Then we usually have some sort of social after each one or some sort of example service.”

Senior Felicia Wisniewski is the president of a service sorority for music students, Tau Beta Sigma, which focuses on the various school bands at IU and promoting women in music.

She heard about Tau Beta Sigma through her involvement in band and said its rush process is similar to APO’s.

“People express interest, come to our activities and then at some point ... we just pretty much offer it to anyone who is interested,” Wisniewski said. “And most people will accept it. Some people won’t.”

Wisniewski said her sorority focuses on supporting the bands, giving them candy after performing during games and serving concessions at band concerts.

She said the service was what drew her to join Tau Beta Sigma, and she probably wouldn’t have joined a traditional sorority.

“I personally don’t hold up the same sort of moral standards a lot of sororities promote,” Wisniewski said. “A lot of things that I do wouldn’t necessarily be the same or be viewed the same way.”

Members of service sororities and fraternities can also be members of traditional greek houses, and many of them are.

Houses from the traditional greek community sometimes reach out to APO, Jochim said.

“We don’t hate them or anything, but we’re just indifferent to them because we do have brothers who are members of fraternities and sororities,” Jochim said. “If some of them come to us with a project that they’re doing ... we help them a little bit with that.”

Although APO does not revolve around major events like Homecoming or Little 500, Jochim said, in the past, the traditional greek community has tried to get APO involved in Little 500 as well, but it declined.

“Someone actually asked us to be paired with them for Little Five last year,” Jochim said. “They only wanted to invite the girls over to their social, and we were like, ‘No, we have guys too.’”

Wisniewski said members of her sorority have expressed interest in participating in traditionally greek events like Little 500.

They also work closely with the coed band fraternity Kappa Kappa Psi.

Rose said despite their names, greek service fraternities and sororities are different, and they are distinct from the typical greek community.

“They’re greek letter organizations,” Rose said, “They’re not greek in the way that is commonly thought of as greek.”