During Welcome Week, it feels like every path leads to a Panhellenic sorority or Interfraternity Council fraternity. Welcome Week is a series of events at SDSU for new students to get acquainted with the campus community and resources at the start of the fall semester.
Rows of students in matching attire are trying to reel you in. It feels like the whole campus is buzzing with Greek life, but only one kind.
What you don’t see are the historically Black, Latinx, Asian, and multicultural fraternities and sororities.
If you do spot them, they’re tucked away by the SDSU Love Library or on the walkways, never beside the Panhellenic and IFC Greek life tables. This separation sends a clear message: multicultural Greek life is not a priority. During Welcome Week, a crucial time when students are finding their communities, this exclusion is especially visible. Entire groups are left out of the picture of campus life being sold.
SDSU sidelines its multicultural Greek organizations through secondary tabling spots, delayed recruitment timelines, and limited access to resources, reinforcing the idea that mainstream Greek life is the default while cultural orgs remain an afterthought.
Cultural students are forced to search for their communities, while also having to adapt to being a non-majority in a large community.
Cultural fraternities and sororities, from the National Panhellenic Council’s Divine Nine to SDSU’s multicultural Greek chapters, have long histories of cultural pride. For many students of color, these groups aren’t just social clubs; they’re safe spaces and networks that carry on legacies bigger than SDSU itself. By sidelining them during the university’s biggest recruitment moment, SDSU undercuts its own promises of equity.
2025 SDSU graduate Lucas Walker, a brother of Nu Alpha Kappa fraternity, the first Latino-based fraternity to be established at SDSU, said the organization gave him “a home away from home and thousands of brothers all around the states.”
Still, he acknowledged the uphill battle of being recognized on the same level as IFC or Panhellenic groups.
“I think the main issue is the lack of knowledge on multicultural organizations, especially at SDSU,” Walker said. “I think when most people think of frats, they think of IFC because that’s what you see in the media.”
Registration for Panhellenic sororities and IFC fraternities opens in May, with recruitment events beginning in late August. Bid week, the period where potential new members go through a series of events to get to know sororities, leading up to Bid Day, kicks off in early September, according to SDSU’s Student Life & Leadership website.
In contrast, the “Meet the Greeks” event for the Divine Nine, SDSU’s historically Black fraternities and sororities, wasn’t held until Sept. 18.
By the time the multicultural and Black organizations were able to promote, thousands of freshmen had already been steered toward mainstream Greek life. For students who might have been drawn to cultural organizations, the timing alone makes them easy to miss.
SDSU faculty, however, point out that cultural Greek organizations are not completely left out.
“Our office only hosts one Welcome Week event, which is the Go Greek! Expo,” Kristen Lemaster, director of the Pierce Greek Life Center Advisory Team, said. “[It] is inclusive of all social fraternities/sororities within USFC, NPHC, IFC, and CPA, as well as Greek auxiliary organizations like Greek Intervarsity and the Greek Life Activities Board.”
Still, even with that umbrella event, the difference in visibility remains. IFC and Panhellenic organizations are given multiple rounds of recruitment and extended promotion stretching from May to early September. Cultural organizations, in contrast, often have just one table at the exposition and then their own separate showcases weeks later.
Other students are even more direct about how SDSU sidelines multicultural Greek life. Ariana Garcia, former vice president of Lambda Sigma Gamma, a multicultural sorority that was historically founded as a Latina-based organization, said that being in a cultural organization often felt like being pushed into a system built for someone else.
“SDSU definitely treats multicultural organizations differently; whether they are a D9 organization or a USFC organization, we are left sitting on the sidelines,” Garcia said. “It almost feels like we receive second-hand punishment for what goes on in Panhellenic and IFC organizations.”
SDSU has a long-reported history of misconduct between these organizations. None of these scandals involved multicultural or Divine Nine organizations, but “Cultural Greeks often feel the effects of stricter policies, reduced trust from administrators and fewer resources,” Garcia said.
She also pointed to structural inequities that make it harder for cultural organizations to thrive. When white fraternities were removed from campus, none of their former houses were made available to multicultural chapters. Out of all USFC and Divine Nine orgs, only one multicultural fraternity at SDSU has a house, Nu Kappa Alpha. This is a reality that limits where events, fundraisers, or even basic gatherings can take place.
The challenges multicultural Greeks face at SDSU aren’t unique; they reflect a national pattern. Scholars have long documented how Greek life was founded on exclusion. Historically white fraternities and sororities were closed to students of color well into the 20th century, forcing Black students to establish the Divine Nine and later inspiring Latinx, Asian, and multicultural councils.
Other universities have started to confront this disparity more directly. At California State University Long Beach, for example, the annual “Week of Welcome” includes joint programming where multicultural, NPHC, and Panhellenic/IFC organizations table side-by-side, ensuring new students see the full picture of Greek life.
Despite the challenges, students like Garcia haven’t stopped showing up; hosting events, mentoring new members and creating the kind of community they once struggled to find.
For her and others, multicultural Greek life isn’t just about letters or tradition; it’s about belonging and the belief that visibility can still lead to change.
“Many people want to be part of Greek life, they just don’t know we exist,” Garcia said. “We just want the same chance to be seen.”
