On a cold Wednesday this month, UIC Fraternity and Sorority Life held an aptly named event at Student Center East: Warm Up with FSL.
The Inner Circle on the second floor was filled with laughter, chatter and thumping beats from two DJs as students from UIC’s 26 fraternity and sorority chapters talked with prospective members to help them gauge whether fraternity or sorority life is right for them.
Unlike at colleges where most students live on campus, at UIC there aren’t traditional fraternity and sorority houses where members live together. Yet UIC does have sororities and fraternities, although many students might not know they exist here.
They do. Members meet on campus or off to volunteer together in the community, fundraise for their chosen causes, hold basketball tournaments or simply socialize over coffee.
With 700 active members, fraternities and sororities at UIC are unique. According to Kevin Cane, director of Fraternity and Sorority Life at UIC, “a number of organizations have active members who choose to live together in small pockets of their own communities and allow their space to gather for meetings.”
“We encourage all students to explore potential membership as an outlet that fosters a deep sense of belonging as well as access to an enhanced network that supports active growth in scholarship, service and personal development,” Cane added.
Many of UIC’s fraternities and sororities are chapters of national organizations. Others, like Chi Sigma Omega, are only at UIC. This sorority holds weekly chapter meetings and social events to discuss what they are doing and spend time with one another.
Sofia Annerino, president of the sorority, sought out sisterhood when she transferred to UIC.
“When I was in high school, I always wanted to be in a sorority, because I loved the idea of sisterhood,” said Annerino, a fourth-year biomedical engineering student. But at the community college she transferred from, there was very little socializing, she said. “So I was really itching to make friends and build a community.”
Most if not all the sororities and fraternities at UIC do some community service or charity fundraising. Around the winter holidays, some organizations gathered and donated coats for people experiencing homelessness and organized Christmas gifts and Thanksgiving turkeys for families in need, for example.
Chi Sigma Omega, cofounded in 2009 by the daughter of a mother with multiple sclerosis, raises money for the Multiple Sclerosis Society, including by participating in an annual fundraising walk. But they also get together just to hang out, to get doughnuts and coffee or make photo albums together, Annerino said.
At the core of each sorority and fraternity at UIC is a commitment to four values: academic excellence; diversity, equity and inclusion; personal and organizational development; and civic engagement.
The Theta Lambda Beta Fraternity’s civic engagement stretches nationally and internationally, according to the fraternity’s president, John Paradela, a third-year computer science student.
The autoimmune disease lupus is one of their causes, and they partner with the Lupus Society of Illinois. But they also made care packages and raised over $1,300 for disaster relief in the Philippines.
One of the annual highlights for members, Paradela said, is the fraternity’s Fall Foolishness basketball tournament, complete with a simulated draft, team captains, jerseys and even a trophy.
“It’s the one time of year where all our alumni, even our founders, come out and play,” Paradela said. “We do it every single year. It’s one of my favorite events.”
Fraternal organizations have been at UIC long before the current campus opened in 1965, and many of these are chapters of longstanding national organizations. They include chapters of nine historically Black organizations, also called the National Pan-Hellenic Council and often referred to as the Divine Nine.
For example, the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity was founded in 1906 at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and at UIC, the Theta chapter dates back to 1910. A more recent UIC member of the Divine Nine is the Beta chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. The chapter is more than a century old and is city-wide, encompassing UIC, Loyola University and three other Chicago schools.
Unity and friendship, service to the community and social justice are all drivers for the sorority. But another factor that inspired fourth-year biomedical engineering student Alena Morrissette to join was her dad’s happy memories of his time as a fraternity member in college.
“He always talked about how he used to hang out with his (fraternity) bros and they were always together,” she said. “It was a good time because he got to help his community, and I wanted something like that at UIC.”
If you are interested in joining a fraternity or sorority at UIC, membership opportunities begin at the start of the fall and spring semesters. Many chapters have started or will soon start recruiting for this semester.
A good place to find out more, including contact information and recruitment dates, is on the Fraternity and Sorority Life website, or through UIC Connection by searching fraternity or sorority under groups.
