This year, the Hopkins Center and the Office of Greek Life launched a new partnership that encourages affiliated students to attend more performance arts events on campus.
The partnership provides Greek houses with the opportunity to incorporate events, performances and workshops held at the Hop into their chapter’s social calendar. Tickets can be funded by the Hop and other expenses such as catering can be covered by Greek houses or funding provided through funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Kate Adams, the Hop advisor on student relations, said the Greek community is often described as being insular. By providing programming outside of the Greek houses, students have more options on Fridays and Saturday nights. The idea to develop a partnership with the Office of Greek Life was created in efforts to mobilize the Greek community to serve as ambassadors for the arts, she added.
“A lot of our affiliated students are involved in the arts and it’s a good way to involve other communities on campus,” Adams said.
Kappa Delta Epsilon sorority president Allison Chou ’17 said that KDE has traditionally has hosted events with performance groups in its house, but sees value in utilizing the Hop.
“Not everyone feels comfortable going into a Greek space, so utilizing the Hop could allow more students be exposed to the arts in a different venue,” Chou said.
Chou added that a large contingency of KDE members are involved in the performing arts already, but that the Hop’s partnership will expose more people to the arts.
Adams said that she thinks barriers that may prevent students from attending performance include busy schedules as well as the fear of attending an event alone, barriers she hopes this program will help overcome.
“Partnering with the Greek community has really allowed us to extend our reach to built-in social networks,” Adams said.
Office of Greek Life representative Karen Afre ’12 said that senior society Casque and Guantlet has also expressed interest in pursuing joint events with the Hop.
Casque and Gauntlet plans on hosting an open event this term that will include a mini-performance and discussion by a guest artist, she added.
Afre and Adams both added that they hope that the goal of the partnership is to spread awareness of the Hop’s resources. Both expressed optimism that in the in the future, Greek chapters will pair up to co-host events such as pre-show mixers at the Hop that would be open to both first-year students and unaffiliated students.
Alpha Xi Delta sorority president Thuy Le ’17 expressed interest in the idea of working with the Hop to create events, such as a mixer before a performing arts show, that would be open to campus.
“I think in the future we would love to coordinate events with Panhell like Greek’s Night Out that would be open to first years and students who are unaffiliated as well,” Le said.
In the fall, Greek’s Night Out kicked off the program. Sigma Delta sorority, KDE, AZD, Kappa Kappa Kappa fraternity and Epsilon Kappa Theta sorority were invited to attend a pre-show mixer for the Takács Quartet that was held outside of the Courtyard Terrace.
Le said that diversity of interests exists among students in the Greek community and that the partnership with the Hop is one way for students to share and experience those interests with fellow Greek house members.
The most recent partnership with Greek chapters consisted of a tea box promotion that allowed chapters to compete for tickets to see the Swingle Singers — a U.K. based a capella group.
The tea box promotion was created to build up interest in the event with EKT, Kappa Delta sorority and Alpha Phi sorority showing interest.
The Hop also contacts fraternities to set up programming, but scheduling conflicts have prevented participation, Adams said.
“Initially fraternities that were contacted expressed high interest, but in the end it depends on how their programming schedule is set,” Adams said.
Both Afre and Adams noted that they hope this partnership continue and grows so that more students can take advantage of the arts at Dartmouth.
“We want the Hop to be students’ go-to spot for world class entertainment,” Adams said.
Correction Appended: (April 22, 2016)
The original version of this article stated that funding came from Mellon Mays. In fact, funding for the program came from the Andrew W. Mellon foundation.
