IU’s first environmental professional fraternity, Epsilon Eta, started recruitment Wednesday and hopes to bring community and sustainability to the Bloomington campus.
Epsilon Eta President Brynn Granger, a sophomore studying economic consulting and sustainable business, said she founded the fraternity after finding a lack of meaningful community within IU’s environmental programs. She recalls going home discouraged one weekend and meeting up with a friend who encouraged her to start a fraternity chapter.
“I thought that it was crazy, like that’s a lot of work, to just, like, start an organization,” Granger said. “I just got to work. It was a 19-step process. So even as I was starting the first few steps, I was like, ‘am I really going to do this? Am I going to do something that's this big?’”
Epsilon Eta was founded in 2006 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, becoming the first professional environmental fraternity in the country, according to the Epsilon Eta website. Though it lacks a national organization, there are 18 chapters across the country.
“Organizations like Epsilon Eta help people, in general, understand that environmentalism is so much more than recycling and composting,” Rian Tuzcu, president of the original chapter of Epsilon Eta at North Carolina Chapel Hill, said. “It's learning how to serve the environment in your basic day-to-day job that might not be inherently environmental.”
Pre-professional fraternities focus on providing resources and community in a certain career field and are often co-ed. Pre-professional fraternities are not included in the Office of Sorority and Fraternity Life. Currently existing pre-professional fraternities at IU include business, real estate and pre-law.
Epsilon Eta was founded on five main pillars: volunteerism, sustainability, professional development, social connection, and diversity, equity and inclusion.
“Our goal is to enable people who are going into this specific field of study to be able to do that as best that they can,” Granger said.
The chapter is officially affiliated with the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. The fraternity hopes to collaborate with other on campus organizations like the Sustainable Finance Club, a club exploring the intersection of environmental practice and finance and IU Student Government, where Epsilon Eta currently has a seat in the Sustainability Affairs department, Granger said. This department is responsible for advocating for sustainability and creating environmental stewardship events for the student body.
Northern Indiana Public Service Company, a natural gas and electric distribution company, is sponsoring the fraternity and will be involved in future club events.
Epsilon Eta is encouraging composting around campus in collaboration with student government and is gathering data on food waste from dining halls. Granger said she hopes to increase available transportation to bring compost to larger processing facilities outside Bloomington. According to the IU Office of Sustainability, the compost processor that previously served the campus before the COVID-19 pandemic “has since ceased operations.”
Granger said Epsilon Eta creates community through professional development and weekly chapter meetings, helping members get to know each other.
“We can make tangible good if we all work together,” Granger said. “I really want friendships to come from this too. I want to think that I could have been a part of something that helps someone find their best friend.”
The recruitment process started Wednesday with the group accepting applicants through its their website. Students hoping to join must register, submit a written application by 5 p.m. Jan. 25 and attend at least one callout meeting on Jan. 21 or 22 from 6 to 7 p.m. The group’s Instagram page also has more information on recruitment.
Granger said Epsilon Eta is looking for “passionate human beings who are really passionate about the environment in general.”
“As you're looking for that brotherhood and you care generally about environment, that's kind of all we need,” Vice President of Finance Anvi Bhagavatula said.
In the next few years, Granger said she hopes to build Epsilon Eta into a community known for its camaraderie and service.
“I know how I felt when I was looking for a sense of community and had the drive to want to help the environment and didn't know how,” Granger said. “So, however many people I can give that to be there and facilitate the brotherhood and contribute to the college, come on in.”
