As students of NIU settled into the new semester, they had the opportunity to learn more about Greek life at the second annual Fraternity Student Life Cookout. The cookout offered students an opportunity to interact with fraternities and sororities all while enjoying food and making friends.
Held from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday at the Huskie Den, the cookout was part of NIU’s Week of Welcome events, made to introduce new students to NIU through community-centered activities. .
Vicki Gerentes, director of Fraternity and Sorority Life, said the FSL Cookout is an important part of Week of Welcome because it allows Greek organizations a chance to introduce students to their traditions and the presence they have on campus.
“I think fraternity and sorority life has been at NIU for a long time. There’s a lot of traditions, things like Tugs that students know about,” Gerentes said. “We’ve been here for a very long time, and we have so many organizations. And so sometimes when students see Greek letters, they don’t really know what that means, what that’s about.”
At the event, over a hundred students packed the Huskie Den, with a line stretching back to the OASIS as students waited to get in.
The cookout featured a DJ who had attendees running to the dance floor for songs like “Wobble” by V.I.C. Attendees also had the option to play pool or eat barbeque-style food such as hot dogs, burgers, chips, cookies and drinks.
The main portion of the event began at 7 p.m., when fraternities and sororities that presented at the event introduced their organization to the crowd. Some of the organizations also performed salutes, step shows and strolls for the hundreds of students in attendance.
Organizations such as Lambda Theta Phi, the first nationally recognized Latino Greek-letter social fraternity in the U.S performed their salute and Kappa Phi Alpha, an Asian interest sorority, who performed a dance routine.
Hunter Hall, a senior political science major and member of Sigma Nu said he attended the event because of the food and ability to hang out with his friends.
Hall also touched on what being involved in Greek life meant to him.
“This is more of a brotherhood than like a big group of friends. I feel like I’m closer with them than I have been with other people in the past,” Hall said.
Elias Berthelsen, a first-year kinesiology major, attended the event for an opportunity to meet people and get out of the dorm.
