The wide assortment of multi-cultural organizations on the UR campus make it a better place through a wide array of community service. All of the organizations of the Multicultural Greek Council fit this bill, and four good examples can be found in fraternities Alpha Phi Alpha and Pi Delta Psi, and the Lambda Pi Chi and Omega Phi Beta sororities.
Established in 1977, AFA’s Rochester chapter is split between UR and RIT. Dedicated to community service, they “do a series of events,” says this semester’s lone UR representative and Take Five scholar Curtis Evrard.
These events include working with the Ronald McDonald house and helping kids learn how to read. AFA also organizes the Black and Gold Ball every year. The Ball is basically a talent contest dedicated to “the upliftment of minority women,” says Evrard.
Another multi-cultural fraternity is PDY. An Asian-cultural organization, it was founded when, in 1997, the founder “saw a lack of Asian awareness and unity,” says current member and senior Edmund Tu. “There were some organizations on campus for Asians, but there was a lot of clustering.” Hence, PDY, and its current 16 members, came to be.
Throughout the year they’ll “throw events that try to raise Asian awareness,” says Tu, “and help out other groups.” Coming up on April 11 in Wilson Commons is the PDY sponsored Cultural Exchange. Last year at the Asian Exchange, “we weren’t expecting a lot,” says Tu. Pleasantly, it turned out to be relatively popular, “so now we’re trying to make it into an annual thing,” he said.
A third multi-cultural organization improving our campus is the Latinas Promoviendo Comunidad ? LPC. Started in 1988 at Cornell, its goal is “to transcend the college experience by compounding the experiences of all women of all backgrounds,” senior member Vanessa Pisano said.
Geared not toward Latinos but toward women, there are currently 10 members in the local chapter, which includes UR, RIT, and SUNY Brockport. Some of the events these ladies participate in are “helping out in events for children, and cleaning shelters,” Pisano said. They also set up “a whole array” of educational programs, including fliers about Aids awareness.
Every year on the week of March 20 LPC does 7 straight days of community service. This year the program is called The Operation and, according to Pisano, is presentations are meant to “raise awareness of the US Governments role in the naturalization of Puerto Rican woman from the 1940s to the 60s and how they were used in the testing of birth control pills and contraceptives.” Past programs have included the topics of female circumcision and woman abuse in third world countries.
OPB is another example. Founded nationally in 1989, UR claimed its first member in spring of 1999. Some of the services this sorority performs, said senior Lanyn Perez, current President and one of the founders, are “breast cancer walks and the adoption of a highway.” They also cosponsor Calentura, an annual fundraiser party that goes towards getting speakers to come to campus. The UR-RIT chapter currently has five members.
Overseeing all of the multi-cultural fraternities and sororites is the Multicultural Greek Council. It acts as a contact and regulatory board for all its members. “We attempt to bring everyone together to do community service as a whole,” current Speaker Perez said. “Habitat for Humanity is one of the projects we work on.” Working on the idea that two heads are better than one, the main purpose of the MGC is unify all the organizations “instead of being all scattered,” Perez said.
These four organizations are by no means the only Multi-cultural fraternities or sororities on campus dedicated to community service. The Multicultural Greek Council also includes Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, Delta Sigma Theta sorority, the Lambda Pi Chi sorority, Lambda Upsilon Lambda fraternity, Omega Phi Beta sorority, Phi Iota Alpha fraternity, Pi Delta Psi fraternity, and Sigma Psi Zeta sorority.