Diversity, Equity, and

Inclusion

 

“The Panhellenic community at the University of South Florida has a zero tolerance policy for the hate, discrimination, or mistreatment of any of its members or any individual”

 
 
 

Meet our 2024 DEI Team

Candice Keung, Panhellenic VP of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Alpha Delta Pi: Hanna Thorla

Alpha Omicron Pi: Amiya Bissoondial

Chi Omega: Hope Cathey-Jordan

Delta Delta Delta: Sydney Segovia

Delta Gamma: Emma Hastings

Gamma Phi Beta: Mia Alcala

Kappa Delta: Elyse Warren

Sigma Delta Tau: Sophia Patron

Sigma Kappa: Jolie Collette

Zeta Tau Alpha: Brianna Omosa

Introduction

The Panhellenic Association Council (PHA) at the University of South Florida is a community that prides itself on the values of growth, service, empowerment and respect. These values help women grow more knowledgeable throughout their college experiences. PHA serves as the governing body of ten National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) sororities which actively strives to showcase the national values of friendship, leadership, service, knowledge, integrity and community. Further, our community strives to better our campus culture and society. In Spring of 2020, the Executive Board created the position “Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion”. This position was created to help educate current and incoming members, help current and incoming members feel included, create relationships with the three other Fraternity and Sorority councils (Interfraternal Council, Multicultural Council and National Pan-Hellenic Council) on campus and celebrate the beautiful differences within and outside of our community. The Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion will be working with the Executive Board, Office of Sorority and Fraternity life advisors, the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Team, professors and other campus resources to create an action plan to initiate a positive change within our community. 

History/ Recognition of the Problem

When sororities were first founded in the mid 1800s, women were given a hard time for seeking higher education. Women had to prove that they could academically perform equal to or even better than men, while upholding the Victorian standards of womanhood. This helped create sororities, which were secret groups of women who supported each other by setting high academic standards while providing lifelong friendships. 

We admire our founders for creating a safe space for women on campus. These women also fought for women’s rights and equality as college and university students. However we must acknowledge that there was not an equitable space for women of underrepresented groups due to race, sexuality and socioeconomic status. Throughout history, these three factors alone contributed to the underrepresentation of students on college and university campuses. Thus this created our organizations’ exclusive structure. This alone can make women from different minority groups hesitant in joining a Panhellenic Sorority. 

We recognize that implicit biases during recruitment may continue in our community today. We are working hard to eliminate these biases and help women of all different backgrounds feel comfortable going through Panhellenic recruitment on our campus. On a national and international level, diversity and inclusion in all aspects will continue to be a top priority for all National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) member organizations. Many NPC chapters and panhellenic across the country have recognized these issues and established their own diversity and inclusion teams in addition to non-discriminatory policies. 

Today, as the University of South Florida’s Panhellenic Council, we stand together united and more diverse. We are a strong community with various ethnic, racial, cultural identities, ability statuses and gender expressions, despite the systematic barriers we may encounter. The Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion will be working on initiatives to insure our community continues to grow and overcome these systematic barriers together.  

Initiatives

To help combat the systematic barriers historically built around our fraternity and sorority life the Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Team will work on these initiatives to ensure that our community is and will always remain inclusive to all current and potential new members. We also want to ensure that our alumni can look at all our current strides towards diversity and inclusion and say they are proud. 

  • Establish a DEI Team - The Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion will establish a team to help her carry out her duties (see University of South Florida's Bylaws Page 25-26). This team will have meetings to talk about the importance of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion within our community. The team will: 

    1. Create and update information regarding ethnic, racial, cultural identities, ability statuses and gender expressions.

    2. Facilitate and host programming and educational events. 

    3. Ensure Panhellenic and all chapters are promoting diversity, equity and inclusivity on their social media outlets. 

    4. Ensure potential new members feel comfortable going through recruitment.  

    5. Ensure current members feel comfortable recruiting 

    6. Create bonds with the other fraternity and sorority councils on the University of South Florida’s campus.

  • Develop educational programs - The Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and team will be creating and updating educational programs on the topics of: 

    1. Privilege 

    2. Oppression 

    3. Diversity 

    4. Implicit Biases

    5. Sexual Orientation and Preference

    6. Cultural Appropriation 

    7. Other FSL Councils 

These programming and educational events will be created to be delivered in person and virtually online (due to COVID-19). We will be utilizing videos, powerpoints and speakers to educate our members. 

  • Examine the PHA recruitment process - The Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and team will stress the importance of a values based recruitment. We will come up with ideas to help minimize biases and stigmas revolving around recruitment. We want the sisters recruiting to be aware of potential biases. We want to ensure that we are recruiting wonderful and passionate women that would make a positive difference in the community. We want potential new members to feel like they have a fair chance during the recruitment process. 

  • Provide transparent information - The Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and team will strive to provide clear and transparent information about Panhellenic. We want to ensure that we are transparent about how to join a panhellenic sorority and clarify how the legacy system works. We also will strive to ensure information about academic, financial and time requirements are clear to all potential new members. 

  • Improve the reach - We want all students of every background to know about Panhellenic and other sorority and fraternity life organizations. We want everybody regardless of ethnicity, race, cultural identity, ability status and gender expression to know that Panhellenic has a home for them. We also would like to introduce the Multicultural Greek Council and National Pan-Hellenic Council to students who think 

  • Create safe spaces - The Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and team will create safe spaces for different minority groups within the Panhellenic community. The goal is to connect members across all sororities, so that they can build relationships and have open conversations in a safe place with people who understand them. This is modeled after the University of Texas “Sisters of Color” group. This can be created for: 

    1. BIPOC 

    2. LGBTQA+ 

    3. Accessibility (Cognitive, Mental and Physical health differences)  

  • Create a DEI Hotline - This hotline will be a google form for current members of the fraternity and sorority life (all four councils) to open up about the diversity, equity, and inclusivity issues within the Panhellenic community. This will be an anonymous form that can help shed light on issues happening in our community and can be addressed properly. The goal is to help recognize our flaws and fix them. 

  • Create a DEI Podcast - The Director and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and team will work to create a Podcast. This is to allow members inside the FSL community and outside the FSL community to be heard. The podcast will have a range of different topics regarding diversity, equity and inclusion. The goal is to have at least one podcast released a month.

  • Connect all four FSL councils - The Director and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and team will work on creating long lasting relationships and friendships with the other fraternity and sorority councils (MGC and NPHC) on campus. The long term goal is to have all four councils openly supporting each other.  

  • Create a VP of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (VPDEI) - Once this position is built up and running successfully. I would like to see this position a part of the executive council. This can be installed in the 2021 Bi-laws the executive council thinks that this position is ready for it. 

  

Team Requirements/Roles/ Tasks 

  • Meetings - This team will have mandatory bi-weekly meetings. These meetings are so frequent because we are creating and building this team as we go. There will be some summer meetings to prepare for Fall.

  • Create content - This is the first year that this position and team will be installed. We must create research based power points. These power points will be used during programming and educational events. These powerpoints should also be easily accessible to the USF Fraternity and Sorority Life community. 

  • Improve/ update content - Research is always updating and revolving, we must keep our information current. (This is mainly a task for the next D&I team)

  • Educate current and incoming Panhellenic members - We must come up with an action plan to educate our current members and incoming members. It is our job to be educated and educate our sisters about diversity, inclusion, equality and accessibility. 

  • Create a relationship with MGC and NPHC - This team should create relationships with the Multicultural Greek Council and the National Pan-Hellenic Council. We want to build a strong and united fraternity and sorority life here on campus. All four councils do amazing work and should work together to amplify that amazing work.