Few students will note the absence of The Odyssey from fraternity and sorority houses on campus as the publication continues its hiatus.
Nevertheless, the discontinuation of the Greek community’s newspaper could lead to a worsening of cross-council collaboration within the Greek community.
Though it is often presented as an insular, monolithic entity, the Greek community at UNC is actually a collection of disparate organizations from four different councils, plus St. Anthony Hall, an arts fraternity and UNC’s only coed Greek organization.
The largest two councils are the Panhellenic and Interfraternity Councils, which are composed of mostly white social sororities and fraternities, respectively.
The Greek Alliance Council is made up of multicultural and religious-based organizations, and the National Pan-Hellenic Council comprises UNC’s chapters of national historically black fraternities and sororities.
With more than 50 organizations dedicated to different aims, the Greek community is clearly diverse. But many of the chapters are not.
The Odyssey may be on a hiatus, but the various councils in UNC’s Greek community should still continue efforts to connect with one another.
The publication had contributors from each of the councils, so it presented a relatively good cross section of the Greek community’s many perspectives.
Without this outlet for cross-council collaboration, leaders of the various councils should make a point of picking up the slack.
