Rutgers College Panhellenic Council Recognized for Work

While sororities and fraternities are often caricatured in popular media as organizations without any merit, that is far from the reality at Rutgers.

In fact, Rutgers’ College Panhellenic Council, one student-run council within the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs in the Division of Student Affairs, was recently recognized by the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) for its work in the 2021-22 academic year, receiving awards in marketing, recruitment, programming, and leadership.

The NPC is the largest national advocacy and support organization for the sorority experience, and it provides College Panhellenic Councils across the country with the opportunity to apply for awards in categories such as overall excellence, academic innovation, community impact, and many more.

For leaders of the Panhellenic Council, this recognition was unsurprising.

“As a Panhellenic Council, we foster a community of friendly, intelligent young women and help them to make the most of their time here at Rutgers,” said Lia DiDonna, the council’s current president. “Rutgers Panhellenic really offers a supportive environment that empowers young women to grow as individuals and as members of a greater community.”

The Panhellenic Council was recognized for its work in leadership, recruitment, programming, and marketing. Specific initiatives and programs ranged from introducing a new leadership group, the Coalition for Women of Color, to engaging old members and bringing in new ones as they got closer to the “old normal” of pre-pandemic Greek Life.

Marissa Aloi, who currently serves as president of Sigma Delta Tau, and who served on the Panhellenic Council recruitment committee last year, emphasized the nature of the collective effort involved in the council's work.

“It's very easy to get wrapped up in your own sorority’s recruitment,” she said. “This experience made me realize that there is someone figuring out how all these new girls will be input into our system, who is planning out where they’re going each round, and that we’re working with other sororities—we’re not alone.” 

For Amy Vojta, who serves as the associate director of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, the advisor to the Panhellenic Council, and who has worked with Rutgers sororities since 1996, collaboration is also crucial.  

“The hallmark of the Panhellenic Council is really about creating cooperation and community between all their affiliated sororities,” she said. 

Furthermore, these recent awards have also validated the work of the Panhellenic Council, demonstrating the value of their work to sorority members who might not be involved. 

“When students, externally and internally, see their leaders receiving awards, it boosts chapter morale, as well as their excitement to be a member and a part of these events,” DiDonna said. “You understand that you’ve done something, and that all of those Saturdays you spent at a beach clean-up, for example, mattered.”

So far, the Panhellenic Council has continued this work in the current fall semester, holding information sessions for new and transfer students about sorority recruitment, volunteering at and participating in Welcome Week events, and engaging in hands-on service projects during monthly meetings, among much else. 

If you are interested in learning more about the Panhellenic Council or the various sororities that are part of the council, you can visit their website here.