Hundreds of UT fraternity and sorority members came together Oct. 14 to assist three Austin ISD schools in beautifying their campuses.
Jack Tanner, an aerospace engineering junior and president of the Texas Interfraternity Council (IFC), said the event was an effort to unify the diverse Greek life around campus. The idea began after attending a Southeastern Greek Leadership Association Conference earlier this year, where he met other council executives of the University’s Greek life for the first time.
“We shouldn’t be operating on campus at UT without knowledge of these other councils that are doing great things (that) maybe don’t operate as publicly as we do,” Tanner said. “That’s where the idea was born to essentially plan an event that unified the councils.”
Tanner said IFC and UT Center for Community Engagement worked with the administrators of Rodriguez, Widén and Langford elementary schools to coordinate dates and wish lists of what they wanted done before the event.
Anton Simieou, a biomedical engineering senior and vice president of UT’s National Pan-Hellenic Council, said groups worked on painting various items and murals and transforming an overgrown garden into a more usable space. He said his group improved the garden by cutting an overgrown tree, removing weeds and adding more bricks to the area.
“We wanted to make sure that we had the people, and people who were capable of doing the work needed to be done … it didn’t matter what fraternity or sorority you (were in),” Simieou said.
Elle Grinnell, a journalism junior and NPHC president, said the collective effort by the groups she oversaw was a nice way to unite everyone.
“(When) you’re painting a table together, or next to each other, and you have to use the same supplies, that automatically makes you work with each other and talk to each other,” Grinnell said. “I feel like a lot of people were automatically getting to know people and other groups, and that was nice to see.”
The group’s pride in their work and collaboration to assist the community was their most significant takeaway.
“It was really fulfilling,” Grinnell said. “It felt good to come in and do these things for the school and make it look how we would want an elementary school to look when we went.”
The success of the event is inspiring IFC to continue planning the day of service for years to come, Tanner said.
“My goal has always been to make this an annual event,” Tanner said. “(There’s) always room for improvement, and we couldn’t be more excited to plan it again next year.”
