UNC greek newspaper halts operations

The Greek system has hit a bump in its Odyssey.

The Odyssey, a free weekly newspaper written by members of UNC’s fraternities and sororities, has recently halted operations until it hires more staff.

“Anytime we don’t think we have the right people on board or that we need to hire more people, we take a hiatus,” said Adrian France, chief creative officer of Olympia Media Group, which manages 54 different campus publications of The Odyssey across the nation.

The Odyssey is in its second year of publication.

While France declined to comment on the newspaper’s cost of production, she said production is entirely funded by advertisement sales.

Writers studying abroad during the spring semester is one significant reason for staff overturn, France said.

She added that such mid-semester hiatuses are common and have occurred at other universities in years past, but UNC is currently one of only two schools with a publication delay.

Senior Lindsay McVicar, a member of the sorority Delta Delta Delta, said while she only reads the newspaper a few times each semester, she believes a stall in publication has its drawbacks.

“For people who do a lot of philanthropy events in the spring, it might be harder to publicize those because it’s on hold,” McVicar said.

Contributing editor for UNC’s Odyssey Alexa Burrell cited the desire for more involvement from different Greek chapters as an additional reason for the pause in publication.

“We are always looking for new writers because one of our main goals is to have every chapter represented, and right now we don’t exactly have the variety we want,” Burrell said.

A little more than half of the Panhellenic sorority chapters have members involved with the newspaper, and only a couple fraternities in the Interfraternity Council, Burrell said.

“It is something (chapters) want to be a part of because it’s a positive thing for the Greek community to be able to share the message about your chapter,” she said.

But getting more chapters involved with the newspaper has been easier said than done, she said.

“It’s just hard when you’re asking an entire chapter to step up and do something,” Burrell said. “There are so many people who will say, ‘Oh, somebody else will do it,’ so it’s hard to communicate that with chapters.”

While no exact return date has been established, staff writers of The Odyssey hope to have an issue published before spring break once the hiring process is complete, Burrell said.

Contact the University Editor at university@dailytarheel.com.