Organization may soon have voting rights in the MGC
A new organization called Embrace is in the process of becoming CU’s tenth multicultural sorority.
“I proposed to start Embrace during the spring semester of 2007,” said Christine Thai, a junior integrative physiology major. “This group initially started because a small group of women and I all agreed that our campus would really benefit to have a group like this.”
Embrace is intended to be “an entirely open organization that welcomes women of all races, religions, cultures and lifestyles,” Thai said. There are currently 10 members.
John Henderson, director of Greek Life at CU, said Embrace will not be operated on any particular orientation.
It will be open to “any and all lenses, and will add to the opportunity to find a smaller community within CU to create a supportive and empowering experience for women,” Henderson said.
Embrace currently has no affiliation with a national sorority and therefore lacks voting rights in the Multicultural Greek Council. However, Antonio Andrade, a junior architecture major and co-chair on the MGC, said they are already closely connected to the council.
“Embrace is already very involved and very dedicated to bringing unity to the council and building a sense of community,” Andrade said.
Thai said that despite the challenges associated with founding a sorority, Embrace hopes to add to the MGC and support them to achieve their goals while bringing awareness about the importance of multiculturalism to CU students.
“I think it’s exciting to have a group of students develop a sorority whose core values are about being inclusive,” Henderson said.
The process of becoming a sorority begins with an interest group. The group then recruits members before looking for affiliation with a regional or national organization.
“I believe the hardest part is to recruit a group of determined women who are willing to commit a big portion of their time to make it happen,” Thai said. “The women of this sorority all show great interest to bring it to CU.”
Because Embrace considers itself a nontraditional sorority, there are no plans for a house off campus, Thai said.
There is no specified timeframe for Embrace to become an official sorority because each organization has different means of achieving an official status, Andrade said.
“Hopefully Embrace will have voting rights by the end of spring semester,” Andrade said.
Contact Campus Press Staff Writer Alex Reiner at alex.reiner@thecampuspress.com
