Greek life discusses future at summit

With the recent death of Cal Poly student and Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity pledge Carson Starkey hanging over them, leaders of the Cal Poly greek community met in Cambria for this past weekend’s annual Greek Summit to discuss the realities of greek life. Normal greek activities, which had been suspended since mid-December, were reinstated; however, formal winter rush has been suspended for the time being.

Cal Poly’s Pan-Hellenic Association, Interfraternity Council (IFC), United Sorority and Fraternity Council (USFC), along with each campus fraternity and sorority president were present at Saturday’s meeting.

Greek Summit is a retreat for the three organizations – Pan-Hellenic, IFC and USFC – and the fraternity and sorority presidents that take office every January.

“The purpose of this weekend was to come together as a greek community and address the negative areas that sometimes overshadow all the good we do,” said Anton de Leon, Interfraternity Council President and business senior.

The organizations aimed to have open conversations about sensitive topics, including hazing.

One goal the organizations had for the summit was to re-evaluate what Cal Poly greek life stands for. This includes changing the way fraternities and sororities inaugurate new members.

“It’s definitely going to be a very long process, but I feel like this weekend was the first step in achieving what we need to get done,” de Leon said.

“Something we did accomplish is we came together and after identifying the issues, those underlying, sensitive issues that are really tough to talk about, we came together and quantified some goals,” said Kristen Bowman, city and regional planning junior and Pan-Hellenic Association President.

The Greek Summit produced an emotional response from Bowman, who felt this particular meeting was a landmark for the greek community.

“People were opening up. They were willing to change,” she said. “It was moving. It was one of the most moving experiences I have ever had.

“Honestly, being in this room with all these strong leaders from the Cal Poly campus and in the greek community, I had chills running up and down my body,” she added.