The most important thing about Greeks is to become a familiar face. I used to go to Greek meetings and make announcements regarding upcoming Hillel events, especially at the beginning of each semester. However, it is important to go to the meetings frequently over the course of each semester as well. In addition, I made myself available to help with any of their functions (for example, AEPhi planned Shabbat services with AEPie) as well as help plan something at Hillel if a Greek student was interested. I would also drop by the houses every couple weeks with flyers and/or calendars. The main Greek houses we target (because they have the largest Jewish populations) are AEPie, AEPhi, Alpha Phi, Zeta Beta Tau, Chi Omega, and Sigma Delta Tau. I also put effort into Pie Lamda Phi, but they were less responsive.
This year I tried to plan a “Greek Speed Dating” function, and in the process formed a coalition of about 14 Greek students (the list of these students is on file with Hillel), most of whom were freshmen and sophomores. This groups of students are really energetic. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get enough funding. However, the group is still very interested in seeing this event happen in the fall. The upside, is that we have already done all the groundwork. It is in my grant proposal (also on file), which explains the event in great detail. Your biggest challenge is finding funding. I suggest re-applying for the Kolker-Saxon-Hallock grant (ask Jamie for more details). Feel free to use my grant as a guideline. However, don’t rely solely on the grant. Look for other sources.
Other great programming categories for Greeks are volunteering, social, religious, political, community or inter-house. For example, in terms of religious and and inter-house programming, AEPhi, hosted AEPie for Shabbat services and Oneg. Rabbi Andrea and I helped them organize the evening and run the service.
On another note, schedule dates in advance. Greek houses inherently fill up their social calendars quickly. Try to find at least 3 possible dates, so that one date can be chosen once the logistics of an event have been determined.
Our target Greek houses in Madison, with the highest Jewish populations are: AEPie, ZBT, AEPhi, Sigma Delta Tau, Alpha Phi and Chi Omega. To find information on each of these houses go to the campus resources page.
A couple quick tips: Although it is important to be known to the Greek population as a whole, it is much more important to target individual Greek students with interest in Hillel and the Jewish community. It is rare that a house, as a whole, will decide to contact you. It is much easier to have one or two members of a house, or one of two members of all our target houses plan an event and then each individual will encourage their houses to become involved.
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