For students tired of sorting through tens of rush fliers every day and wandering around campus on Saturday nights, a growing web site offers potential members and partygoers new ways to connect to their favorite fraternities and soroities.
MyGreek.org — founded by Wharton junior Andrew Dudum — aims to be a networking hub for the Greek community, combining aspects of sites such as Facebook, Twitter and FML. Students may subscribe to chapters they are interested in, access information on events, post pictures and share funny stories on the “Campus Buzz” page.
One of the most innovative features of myGreek is “The Wire” — an online service that allows students to subscribe via text message to their favorite chapters on campus, according to Dudum.
Chapters can send an unlimited number of messages to members of their houses free of charge. Fraternities and sororities can also text hundreds of their subscribers about parties and philanthropy events for as little as $5.
Dudum founded myGreek in July 2008 for fraternity and sorority chapters across the nation to connect with each other, according to the site.
He said over 200 universities and 90 Greek organizations use the site, including 58 chapters at Penn. The houses with the most subscribers at Penn are Beta Theta Pi and Alpha Chi Omega, with 218 and 208 followers, respectively.
Dudum said he sees MyGreek as an effective way for chapters to save money on fliers and operating costs.
“MyGreek offers a much greener and incredibly cost-efficient way of getting in touch with campus,” he said. “It also tackles one of the biggest problem freshmen students experience — lack of information.”
Dudum pointed out that myGreek could help students identify “where the events are, how to meet people and get acquainted with a house.”
Although College freshman Franco Nilo and many of his hallmates signed up for myGreek, Nilo found that few fraternities used it to contact him.
Of the 12 fraternities he subscribed to on the site, only two contacted him through myGreek.
“I definitely missed a couple of rush events due to lack of information,” he said, adding that it was helpful when he did receive texts from the two fraternities who use the site for communication.
Unlike Nilo, College freshman Mikaella Hill never got around to registering on MyGreek.org.
“I didn’t feel the need to register as sorority rush is already very well organized,” she said. “But I think the web site would be helpful for guys.”
Wharton junior and Interfraternity Council President-elect Christian Lunoe said myGreek demonstrates the entrepreneurial nature of Penn’s fraternity members.
“The Greek community at Penn has more to offer than social events, and Andrew’s ambitions exemplify that with his web site,” he wrote in an e-mail.
