First things first, welcome to Washington State University, and congratulations on making the best decision of your life. You are now a part of a Cougar family that has provided unique experiences to students for the past 125 years. In your time here, you will be presented with many different opportunities both on-campus and off. Very few of these opportunities will maximize your potential as a student, and help you grow as an individual, quite like going Greek will.

There are plenty of statistics that I could share with you that show the academic advantages to going Greek, or how many community service hours we complete, or our higher graduation and retention percentages, the list goes on. However, you could look all of that information up online, and that’s not why I’m here today. the benefits of Greek life are more significant than any statistic could ever represent. Choosing to go Greek is choosing to become a part of something that is bigger than any one person, or chapter. By becoming a part of the Greek community you are surrounding yourself with men and women that have stood where you now stand and wanted to make a positive impact, not only on their lives, but also on everyone around them. By joining a fraternity or sorority you will also join a century of Greek history at WSU, and you will be immersed in a brotherhood or sisterhood that feels like family.

My name is Zak Cherif and I am the president of the Interfraternity Council, better known as the IFC. The IFC is the governing body of the 26 IFC fraternities at WSU and we essentially act as the bridge between university officials and the chapters we represent. The council is comprised of 9 men, myself included, who oversee various aspects of Greek life in our community. From scholarship to recruitment, the IFC works with each fraternity to ensure that our organizations, and, by extension our community, are the best that they can be. WSU’s Greek life is known around the country as one of the strongest, most vibrant communities one can be a part of, and our council acts to preserve and strengthen that reputation.

Nationally, Greek life is under intense scrutiny. Members of the mainstream media question the “relevance” of Greek life, and it seems that much of the good that we do is being overshadowed by rare instances of poor judgment. Universities are imposing harsh rules on Greek communities that will change the entire way in which they function, just to make sure they don’t find themselves in the national spotlight. Our community does not fit this mold, and neither does our relationship with WSU.

Each year our chapters come together to participate in events like Homecoming and Greek Week, events that bring us all together and show how powerful we can be when the men and women in our community work to achieve a common goal. Why can’t this be more than just two weeks of the year?

Because of this, the 2015 IFC has made Greek unity a priority by creating #WSUnity, a campaign to unite our 26 fraternities to sustain the community that has given so much to us. We want to be proactive, rather than reactive. By working with the presidents of each fraternity we are ensuring that every chapter has a voice. Over the next few months there will be numerous #WSUnity events in which we will ask the members of our community to join us in addressing issues such as sexual assault and alcohol abuse, and we will work together to improve not only our Greek community, but our entire campus.

We are more than just the letters on our chest. We are more than our grades and our community service hours. We are men and women that want to leave our community, and our school, in a better shape than we found it.

What is the next great decision you can make? Going Greek.