UNITE Greek life across country

UNITE announced at its meeting on Wednesday that they will be starting an expansion committee in hopes of expanding the group to other colleges throughout the nation.

UNITE is an umbrella group off of the Panhellenic Council at the University of Connecticut. According to the group’s website, UNITE discusses issues that sorority women face on a daily basis, including body image, suicide prevention, stress relief, fostering positive relationships, being kind and more.

Currently, UConn is the only school that has a UNITE program. However, Alexandra Martini, a 4th-semester marketing major and president of UNITE, hopes to change that with the help of UNITE’s executive board.

“Greek life has a bad stigma in a lot of places. Topics that are highlighted in our meetings is what can bring the community together, and that’s how we separate ourselves from the negative stereotypes out there,” Martini said.

Martini explained that Greek life at other schools tends to be very competitive. Often sororities are not friendly with one another and are not welcome within each other’s homes. Here at UConn, however, that is not the case.

“I visited my friend at another school and wanted to visit the Theta house. My friend, who wasn’t in Theta, told me we couldn’t go to that house because her sorority is not friendly with them. That shocked me,” said Madison Love, a 4th-semester journalism and communications major and member of Kappa Alpha Theta at UConn.

Love explained that a situation like this would never occur at UConn. Sororities on this campus are friendly with one another, which unfortunately is not the case at all schools.

As of now, UNITE is contacting other schools in Connecticut including Quinnipiac University and the University of Hartford. They plan to make a public relations video as well as record a meeting to show other schools what commonly takes place, according to Martini.

This Wednesday for example, the meeting was led by Carroll Mailhot, a Mary Kay make up consultant. Mailhot told the room about Kay’s inspiring story. Kay was a successful business woman who worked in direct sales while raising three children on her own. Her sales were consistently higher than the sales of the men she worked with. However, she never got promoted, while the men often did.

Sick of the sexism she faced, Kay left Stanley Home Goods, the company she worked for. Kay decided to open up her own business, which people called her crazy for at the time.

In 1963, she began her company with only $5,000. It was founded on the golden rule of praising people to success and on the principle of placing faith first, family and then career. Now Mary Kay is recognized by Fortune Magazine in the top 100 best companies to work at and is included in the top 10 best companies for women, according to Mailhot.

“There are three requirements to a successful career: you must have desire to succeed, have the knowledge to do so, and you must apply yourself,” said Mailhot.

The meeting focused on empowering women, which is Mary Kay’s mission statement. Mailhot also spoke of the importance of surrounding yourself with positive people who make you feel good.

Those who attended the meeting received a free Mary Kay facial product sample and got to watch Mailhot do a make up demonstration on five volunteers from different sororities.

UNITE meets every Wednesday at 5 p.m. in the Women’s Center Program Room of the Student Union.