Greek Life Knowledge Community

While reading through how Jenkins define knowledge communities and knowledge culture I was trying to look for those communities in my life. Slightly confused as to what exactly a knowledge community was at first I wasn’t sure if going greek and greek life fit into that definition. However, after reading “The new knowledge culture has arisen as our ties to older forms of social community are breaking down, our rooting in physical geography is diminished, our bonds to the extended and even the nuclear family are disintegrating, and our allegiances to nation-states are being redefined.” Only made it clearer that Greek Life is its own knowledge community.  Within Greek Life are 4 different knowledge communities; each council has its own knowledge community. We have different things we can bring to the table as well as learn from one another. For example, each year they have a meeting among the 58 different chapter presidents so that we can feed off each other’s knowledge. In the article Jenkins quoted Pierre Levy by saying “no one knows everything, everyone knows something” when referring to collective intelligence of the knowledge community and that fits perfectly for Greek Life.

Theta Nu Xi (My Personal Knowledge Community)

Within each organization is their own knowledge community where many of the ideas you share may be similar to your brothers/sister but you still vary on opinions on how matters should be handled. That would be the simplest of the knowledge communities within Greek Life. This knowledge community branches off into your prospective council, as for my organization we are members of Theta Nu Xi but on a larger level we are members of the Multicultural Greek Council (MGC). In the MGC the knowledge community is larger because we are combining 13 other knowledge communities to form one. In the MGC we discuss the future for our organizations as a whole and the future for them at Florida State, not just nationally. Being part of a Greek letter organization allows many of us to bridge out into other knowledge communities on this campus, Order of Omega for example. Order of Omega is an honor society for students at FSU that are members of social Greek communities. Greek Life at Florida State truly is an example of knowledge community is its rarest of forms; its one huge knowledge community web. While others outside of Greek life do not see the benefits of going Greek the benefits members receive are countless. Those on the outside looking in on Greek life just don’t understand. Even within the Greek communities, other council members don’t really get it. For example, every Union Wednesday at FSU different organizations, Greek and non-Greeks, set up a table to display their cause and/or organization as a whole. The Greek organizations that do table are typically members of the Divine Nine (the 9 historically black fraternities and sororities) or the MGC. However, when members of the Pan-Hellenic or IFC table they most often don’t understand why members of the Divine Nine or MGC put on a spectacular each Wednesday. Which only displays that within large knowledge communities are smaller knowledge communities.

Members From Each Greek Council (An Extended Knowledge Community) 

The knowledge community for Greek Life extends beyond that of the undergraduate level. My brother got his job because a brother from a different chapter than where my brother pledged worked for the company; only to show that these knowledge communities can expand pass their current state. I personally feel I am involved in several different knowledge communities either because of Greek Life and the people it has allowed me to meet. 

Union Wednesday (A display of Greek Knowledge Communities interacting with each other and the FSU campus as a whole)