Second-year student Athena Leckie was discouraged when she first arrived at UC Irvine. It was difficult to find people she identified with, and she felt socially isolated.
“I didn’t do the best job of branching out and reaching out, and so that’s part of the reason why I was more open to joining a sorority,” Leckie told New University.
Leckie, inspired by a friend, searched for new social scenes in her second quarter. Motivated, she signed on to Gamma Phi Beta.
“And since I’ve joined, it has opened up a whole community that I can connect with,” Leckie said.
Many students in Greek life espouse the good of the leadership positions and charity events that the groups engage in.
Gamma Phi is partnered with Girls on the Run Los Angeles, a program designed to encourage elementary and middle school-aged girls of marginalized communities to stay active. Additionally, they hope the races and events they stage will promote confidence and well-being.
“When they actually host the races that the girls have been training for, we go and volunteer for the race- we do face paint…,” Leckie said, “we do their hair before the race…, cheer them on with posters and then sometimes… [hand] out the medals to the girls.”
This is one of the several rewards Leckie derives from her sorority membership. She also spoke about leadership, friendship, and moral cultivation. She opines that “love, labor, learning and loyalty” seem to define the group’s culture.
Her chapter is one of more than 30 fraternity or sorority groups on campus, per UCI Sorority and Fraternity Life. These organizations encompass more than 1,500 students, more than 5% of the undergraduate population. In comparison, UC Santa Barbara reports 11% undergraduate membership in sororities and fraternities.
Still, these groups are diverse and embody general social chapters, cultural chapters, national service chapters, pre-professional chapters and others.
Members are impacted by the myriad opportunities these groups provide. Many may generalize Greek organizations as groups built around partying and other seedy aspects of college life, but there are academic benefits to membership, too.
Peter Kim is a scholarship committee member at Phi Gamma Delta (colloquially known as FIJI), a prominent group on campus. The UCI FIJI chapter has 1,323 followers on Instagram. He speaks proudly of the work that led to an Interfraternity Excellence in Scholarship Award at the end of the 2025 academic year.
“We just do things within our fraternity to keep our entire [group’s] GPA up, and we book study rooms for our bros,” Kim told New University.“The bros can come in and out. We have study pack days that we host.”
Kim believes this dedication and applied effort toward academic success has led to tangible results, and they continue to build social infrastructure to uphold these ambitions.
“We’re trying to set up workshops. We’ll highlight a bro doing well. And that incentivizes us to do well,” Kim said.
“When it comes to academic discipline, there hasn’t been that much… to [be] done yet. There are some things we’re trying to put into place, some framework for falling behind the target data that we want,” Kim said.
However, some have found that beneficial experiences only exist for those who seek them, and difficulties arise even for some who chase these experiences.
Sigma Chi member Brian Edelen says he’s heard of networking and philanthropy events, but hasn’t chosen to explore them yet.
“Well, there was one, but I don’t know what happened. I haven’t really used any [of these opportunities], because I haven’t really been putting myself out there to do it. I’ve been kind of lazy, to be honest with that,” Edelen said.
Some who have chosen to take on higher responsibilities also struggle.
“Communication can be difficult when working in leadership, just because we have a large community and sometimes getting access to resources for large numbers can be a challenge,” President of Panhellenic Association Annie Hayasaka told the New University via email.
When asked about haughtiness or cliques, Edelen suggested that some of this may exist.
“There are definitely some cliques in the frat. There’s definitely, like, smaller groups, I’d say. But I feel like everyone’s still relatively close,” Edelen said.
Athena echoed this sentiment. “I would say overall, as a community… you do experience attitude changes when you’re interacting with other people from [other] chapters. I personally don’t have this app, but it’s called Yik Yak. But I hear from my friends… there [are] a lot of really negative comments said about specific chapters.”
Despite these drawbacks, UC Irvine students in fraternities and sororities enjoy the social offerings, philanthropic events, community building and academic support.
“If I have some advice that I need, I could talk to [a] bro. And there’s some people that I’m closer to and some people I’m not closer to, but at the end of the day… everyone’s having a good time,” Kim said.
Aidan Wyrough is a Features Intern for the Summer Quarter 2025. He can be reached at awyrough@uci.edu.
Edited by Avery Rosas and Joshua Gonzales