The Greeks Take Action Committee is starting up again this semester to help promote awareness about topics such as sexual assault and domestic violence to the WSU Greek community. 

Originally, the committee started at University of Washington in 2016, but last year the WSU Panhellenic council decided to create its own, according to the Greeks Take Action Website.

According to Ashley Joseph, Panhellenic’s vice president of diversity equity and inclusion, the committee is specifically for sorority women to help discuss issues affecting the WSU and Greek community, such as sexual assault.

The goals of the committee are to raise awareness of sexual assault and relationship violence and to re-evaluate the way the community works to prevent these issues through training, programs and events held by the committee. The committee is also there to educate chapter members about sexual assault, healthy relationships, sexual health, body positivity and more.

The committee holds weekly meetings to help re-evaluate the way the community handles/prevents these pressing issues from happening in the community.

“I am trying to open the conversation up to the fraternities as well,” Joseph said. 

The issues the committee will be discussing affects fraternities just as much as sororities, but Greeks Take Action will be starting in sororities in order to evaluate the common issues visible within the Greek community, Joseph said.

Last year one of the main topics of discussion was the drugging issues happening on Greek Row. 

“The main issue that we were working on was the drug issue within our campus,” said Laney Tiffany, Panhellenic’s former vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion and one of last year’s presidents for Greeks Take Action. “We’re just talking about speaking up and what to do going forward, like holding people accountable and just being advocates for survivors.”

Last year, Greeks Take Action held events such as the Greeks Take Action walk, which is where all 14 sorority chapters come together to create booths as a place where survivors can go for support, Tiffany said. 

Each booth represented different topics such as mental health or promoting foundations like the Trevor Project, Tiffany said. 

“Hundreds of people came and everyone was supportive,” she said.

Select chapters even held events during the walk.

Alpha Phi did a plate-smashing event where a person would write something down on the plate that was a stressor at the moment and smashed it to the ground to release the anger and negativity, Tiffany said. 

Kappa Delta did a survivor’s corkboard for allyship where survivors would write their names on a sexual assault survivor ribbon and pin it on a corkboard as a way to stand up against sexual assault, she said. 

“So many different booths had resources and a place to talk about these issues, it was just amazing,” Tiffany said. 

Greeks Take Action is a way for the community to come together and help support one another.

“It can be so divided between all of the chapters in Panhellenic and the chapters in the Multicultural Greek Council so Greeks Take Action was a place for women and guys to come together and talk about pressing issues within our community,” Tiffany said.