By Wyatt Crosher, Communications Coordinator for Student Affairs
This is the first of a three-part series highlighting the best of what Fraternity and Sorority Life at UNC Charlotte has to offer.
When Tate Leonard came to UNC Charlotte’s campus from his hometown of Welcome, NC, it was not the start to college life he was hoping for.
“I'm from a very small hometown where I had a lot of friends,” Leonard said. Then I came here, didn't know anybody, my girlfriend was still back home. All I did was play basketball and didn't really have any friends.”
Leonard said he thought about transferring until he was told to come to a cookout hosted by the Chi Phi fraternity.
“I went out there, met a lot of the guys and I thought 'OK, these aren't your typical frat guys, they're pretty cool,'” Leonard said. “So I gave it a shot. I stayed one more semester, rushed and joined. I haven't looked back."
Now, Leonard is a senior set to graduate from Charlotte in December. He has a double major in finance and economics, a minor in religious studies, served as President of Chi Phi and is currently the President of the University’s Interfraternity Council that oversees 13 active organizations.
To go from where he was as a freshman to where he is now, Leonard needed to grow relationships. Thanks to his exposure to the fraternity and sorority community, he said those connections came easy, and it has made for a very positive experience at Charlotte.
“I've loved it. I couldn't imagine myself anywhere else,” Leonard said. “I went from walking around campus not knowing anybody to seeing somebody that I know or I’m friends with every 50 yards."
Emma Boger, member of the Delta Zeta sorority and president of the Panhellenic Executive Board overseeing eight sororities, had a similar experience. When arriving at the University, she had no prior friends or family that had been in Greek Life, but she saw an opportunity to make connections.
Boger, a third-year with a major in communications with mass media, said she specifically was interested because she was living at home for her first two years at Charlotte. Now, she said she’s met her best friends through Greek Life, friends she plans to live with after graduation.
"Before I was in the sorority and was just going into classes, I never talked to anybody. It was really weird to just come on campus and then leave, and not know a single person,” Boger said. “Then I met people in Greek Life, and it has made me talk in class more. It has made me go for positions like I have now, and realize where I can excel because I'm able to confide in certain people. Just building the community has helped really push me out further onto campus. It's not just the one community of a sorority, but it's pushing me to make more communities."
Boger said her chapter has about 100 people, but Charlotte has fraternities and sororities of all sizes for students to join. Falena Salcedo started on the ground floor of the sorority for which she is now vice president. Salcedo, a senior with a social work major and psychology minor, helped turn a group called the Queen City Gems into the Sigma Alpha Iota chapter on campus in December 2020.
She, like Boger and Leonard, did not come to Charlotte with the intention of joining Greek Life, but has since grown to love the culture thanks to the relationships she has built through it.
“It's only my second year officially being a part of Greek Life, but I've met so many different people from other organizations in the past year as a sister of my organization and as president,” Salcedo said. “I've had great conversations, and I’ve made really great connections and bonds.”
Charlotte’s Fraternity & Sorority Life offers something for everyone regardless of background. Danyal Mahmud is the president of Charlotte’s Diversified Greek Council, which regulates 10 fraternities and sororities from a wide variety of cultures. He is also the event coordinator for one of those fraternities — Lambda Upsilon Lambda — which he joined because of its emphasis on providing higher education to minorities.
Mahmud is a fourth-year student with a psychology major and a public health minor. He is also biracial, with his father’s side of the family being from Pakistan. He said his experience with Greek Life on campus has been different from what he had previously known as the common tropes of fraternities in popular culture.
“I had these stereotypes of white fraternities and sororities, and I didn't really identify with them,” Mahmud said. “Charlotte's Greek Life is really different in that historically black fraternities and sororities and our Diversified Greek Council, which includes multicultural organizations, South Asian-based and Latinx-based fraternities and sororities, they have a big presence on campus because we really strive to create community-building within our campus. Charlotte is considered a Predominantly White Institution (PWI), so I think it's really important that we do have a presence, because representation is so important these days.”
For students interested in what Greek Life has to offer, Boger said it’s important to know that there is a fraternity or sorority out there for everyone, and that it won’t be on the student to become a different person for the organization.
“You don't have to change who you are to become a Greek woman or man. You stay who you are throughout the entire process, and the only thing that it does is it helps you become more of who you want to be,” Boger said. “I think that's really important to know that you don't have to change who you are to be a part of this, because Greek Life is accepting of every single person. It doesn't matter what walk of life you come from, you're wanted here and you're loved here."
For more info on Fraternity and Sorority Life at UNC Charlotte, go to the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life's website here.