South Dakota State University offers a variety of women’s and men’s fraternities on campus.

All of the Greek organizations on campus are part of national umbrella organizations that represent social fraternities, said Alan Haarstad, the Greek Life adviser.

“One thing we do very well at SDSU is involvement,” Haarstad said. “You’ll be hard pressed to find leadership in other student organizations across campus that don’t have some Greek influence.”

Haarstad said Greek organizations usually require members to live in their houses for atleast one semester, but regulations vary between organizations. The organizations without houses are Alpha Omega Epsilon and Chi Omega. However, Chi Omega has a block of off-campus apartments in the Meadows apartments.

“[Greek Life is] a fantastic way to commit yourself to these high ideologies of friendship, leadership, honor, obedience, unity, service—all the different pillars of the various organizations,” Haarstad said. “It really is a lifelong commitment to something bigger than yourself.”

Women’s fraternities and sororities have a formal recruitment process where students are able to learn about each of the different chapters. Men’s fraternities are open recruitment and each chapter hosts its own recruitment events.

Haarstad said the recruitment process is completely non-committal and anyone can join no matter what year they are in college. After that, the amount of involvement in Greek Life is up to the student.

“It’s up to you. The time commitment ranges everywhere from weekly meetings to hyper-involved in everything,” Haarstad said. “It really is a spectrum, and it is meant to fit you.”