Fraternity & Sorority Affairs

Greek Life Diversity and Inclusiveness Education Initiative

Overview

The Lehigh University fraternity and sorority community is one of diverse backgrounds, ethnicities, religious practices, and all of these individuals come together to creates our own Lehigh fraternity and sorority community culture.  But part of bringing so many different people together is the charge of helping those individuals develop skills to assist them in learning to understand one another and work together.  The ever-changing demographic of the Lehigh University student population, and the fraternity and sorority community making up almost 40% of this population, makes it a must for the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs to take the lead in working with chapters represented at Lehigh to ensure they are leading the charge in creating a more accepting and inclusive atmosphere for everyone at the university.

History of Lehigh’s Inclusivity and Diversity Initiatives

In 2004, the Strengthening Greek Life Initiative proposed a number of action steps in order to work towards the advancement of a more diverse Fraternity and Sorority Community, to develop and implement opportunities for chapters and councils to understand and appreciate differences, and to foster a more inclusive environment by seeking opportunities for programming partnership and education. From this stemmed the following results, among others:

Furthering the Vision

In 2008 and 2009, the initiatives of Inclusivity and Diversity were readdressed with the following completed action steps:

Student Resources, Optional Involvement and Educational Opportunities:

For more information about diversity and inlcusion programming, please contact Christa Wessels at caw408@lehigh.edu