This year, Virginia Wesleyan College awarded Chi Beta Psi, a new fraternity established at VWC last year, their own chapter house. Due to the fact that the house Chi Beta Psi was given, was not equipped with metal letters signifying their fraternity, the college is going to bring down all the metal letters off the Greek Life houses and replace them with decals.
I personally think this is a good idea. First off, this is going to add more character to each of the sorority and fraternity houses on campus. These decals are going to be the colors of the frats or sororities. For example, Sigma Nu’s decal are black and gold. It also is going to add character because it is going to be in front of the house instead of on the house in a location not viewable from all view-points.
In the past years, the metal letters were above the entrance hanging on the house. These letters were a very bland silver and some people may have never even noticed they were up there. I know I didn’t see them the first few times I walked through Village III as a freshman three years ago. The new decals will be going on the front columns of the house and will be directly at eye level with every student walking through Village III.
From the pictures I have seen, the colors are very vibrant. Because of this, students will still be able to see them at night time when they are looking for a specific house during rush events, pledge events and mixers with other fraternities and sororities. Due to all the trees that surround Village III, at night it was sometimes difficult to find the letters on every house. This made finding specific sorority and fraternity houses difficult.
Another positive for Greek Life is the decals breathe new life into the community. The old letters were very bland and boring. These new decals give the community something new to look at and makes that part of campus appear more inviting. Additionally, with the new space given, frats and sororities have a new place to hang funny banners like you see on social media. For example, Sigma Nu could hang one that said “Sig Nu is for Yu.”
Lastly, with the addition of the decals, the college won’t have to pay for the metal to build the letters that go on the houses of future new Greek chapters. The college will be able to save some money that will hopefully go back into the Greek community and will allow them more opportunities to host events. This could aid in promotion of Greek Life by showcasing what it offers to its current members and to the students thinking about making the choice to join.
Corey King
ckking1@vwc.edu
(Photo: Anthony Dellamura | Marlin Chronicle)
