LSU’s newest Greek council has created a space for students of different ethnicities and heritages to grow in community and service to establish a legacy that continues for generations.
Founded in 2023, LSU’s Multicultural Greek Council advocates for its members and works to cultivate relationships between the two organizations it advises, Sigma Lambda Beta International Fraternity and Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority.
“Greek life provided a safe haven for us to really exist and grow as people, and then as more orgs come on campus it’s been a really beautiful place for all of us to interact with each other and have that cultural exchange,” said Giancarlo Lara, a founding member of Sigma Lambda Beta.
Kenya Sota, a founding member of LTA and a senior studying anthropology and Spanish, said the MGC has created a space for multicultural Greek organizations that wasn’t there before. Previously, Sota explained, either the Panhellenic or National Panhellenic councils oversaw the multicultural Greek organizations.
“So that also shows there wasn’t a space for this,” Sota said. “They had to just kind of put them where they could fit.”
Just over 10% of LSU students are of Latin or Hispanic heritage. This can create obstacles for Latin or Hispanic students trying to find a community at LSU. Council members hope to expand the council to create a culture of unity and acceptance for these students.
“There was always kind of a lacking space in terms of places where Latino students kind of feel like they fit in and could really find their group of people,” said Lara, a junior studying biological engineering.
The recent dismantling of diversity, equity and inclusion practices will impact the MGC. David Guzman, a founding member of Sigma Lambda Beta, explained the changes will require the international fraternity to find new ways to advertise itself.
“We can’t market ourselves using specific things that identify us,” said Guzman, a junior mechanical engineering student. “We have to look for ways to market ourselves again. We are a multicultural, Latino-based fraternity, and we use that to bring people in, so it would be an issue of just being able to represent ourselves.”
LTA and the Betas are historically Latino organizations, but they are hoping to expand the MGC to students of other nationalities and heritages to offer community to a larger group of students.
“We always say, ‘Latin by tradition, not by definition,’” Sota said. “We’re open to everybody. With other minorities, we have our similar morals, beliefs, and I think that’s why it’s important to be able to have these collaborations because we’re not that different. All these collaborations demonstrate that we all want to create a safe space for everybody and allow everybody to be seen.”
Along with being open to those of different cultural groups, the Betas pride themselves on being accepting to those of all backgrounds including different sexualities, religions and races.
“Specifically within our chapter, we have a lot of brothers of different sexualities, religions, races, and it’s one of those things where it’s kind of opened our mind to instead of seeing someone for their sexuality or for their race, it’s like we’re all just people,” Lara said.
In February, the MGC and the university’s other Greek councils attended the Southeastern Greek Leadership Association Conference. This was a memorable experience for council members because it introduced them to other multicultural Greek councils and demonstrated the MGC’s potential for growth.
“We got to see them and other organizations that we didn’t even know existed,” said Britney Tobar, a founding member of LTA and a junior studying psychology and French. “It was so fun to get to know each other, but also just the experience of being there and seeing all the opportunities.”
Tobar believes the MGC will create many possibilities for minority students in Greek life.
“There are many opportunities in your life. With us finally being part of that conversation, we are able to open up those opportunities to everyone else that has something to say,” Tobar said. “We’ve had to go through so much. I was like, ‘We can do it too,’ like it is possible. I feel like our legacy should be that we defeated the odds.”
