Albion’s student-run newspaper, The Albion Pleiad has a very important announcement to make. As of April 1, 2014, the organization has made the executive decision among members to join the Greek life on campus. The Pleiad plans to turn itself into a full-fledged fraternity by next semester bearing the letters PEΔ [Rho Epsilon Delta].
The college has plans to build an addition to the Kellogg Center to accommodate the members of the new fraternity within the building. All the staff members of The Pleiad will be required to board there for at least two semesters during their stay at Albion to fully immerse themselves in Greek life.
The idea came to The Pleiad staff last year during Greek week, when many staff members became enraged that they as an organization could not participate in the festivities. The staff has worked all year round to form a new Greek society and erect the very first chapter of PEΔ in the nation, with plans to construct several others at surrounding institutions. A fellow staff writer weighed in about the decision.
“I’m not sure that this is a good idea,” said Jennifer Jones, Iron Mountain first-year. “I think it’s just going to complicate a lot of things, and also I don’t really want to live with the rest of the staff.”
The aim of PEΔ is to give student journalists a nationwide organization in which they can network, share ideas, and join the major American Greek system. PEΔ will continue to publish The Pleiad three days a week, as well as taking on more philanthropy projects. The living quarters will give staff members even more opportunity to immerse themselves into their stories and articles at the Pleiad.
PEΔ will act like all other social Greek systems on campus. Each of the older members will have an opportunity to take on a “little” and embarrass the crap out of them for a week before they finally reveal to the little their identity. Instead of leaving gifts for their littles though, PEΔ has decided to take it one step further and grant their littles killer pitch ideas each day, as well as examples of the best writing The Pleiad has done in the past five years. Not only will this system avoid spoiling the new staff members, it will also prepare them more fully to take on the responsibilities of their job at The Pleiad.
Because The Pleiad is adapting into a Greek organization, the staff writers and editors will no longer be paid. Instead, to pay for both the new lodging and the Greek house, the staff members will have to pay upwards of $500 per semester in order to stay a member of PEΔ. By having the full support of the student newspaper behind them, PEΔ will be able to promote themselves almost every week in their articles in order to stir up interest not only on campus, but state-wide to encourage other college publications to follow in their footsteps.
Many students around campus felt the need to weigh in about the news.
“I don’t really understand why they would go Greek,” said John Smith, Kalamazoo sophomore. “I thought that a lot of the staff members were already a part of a house.”
Max Thurwall, Grand Rapids junior, thinks that the new organization could be revolutionary for Albion’s Greek life.
“Personally, I think it would be cool to have a co-ed fraternity,” Thurwall said. “Wait, what even is The Pleiad?”
In order to work out some of the kinks involved in turning The Pleiad into a Greek organization, the college has decided to place The Pleiad on a moratorium for the entirety of the fall semester. This time off is designed to give PEΔ an opportunity to establish themselves socially on campus and gain the respect of their fellow Greeks. By this time next year, Albion’s first co-ed social fraternity will have become a huge part of campus culture.
Photo courtesy of feminspire.com
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