The Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Council are following the lead of the residence hall learning communities and establishing similar groups among greek chapters.

“Learning communities have been very effective in the residence halls, and we want the greek community to gain the benefits of them too,” said Jacque Kolbeck, director of scholarship for the Panhellenic Council.

In learning communities, students in similar majors study together and sometimes take the same courses. The students can then help each other with classes and assignments,” said Evan Pike, vice president of scholarship for the Interfraternity Council.

While learning communities has been in the residence halls for several years, the councils want to integrate the groups into the greek community.

“[This is a way] to have juniors and seniors give advice to freshmen and sophomores about teachers, classes and note-taking,” said Pike, senior in biochemistry. “It’s a cooperation of students.”

The learning communities will be incorporated with weekly study tables. Unlike residence hall learning communities, the greek learning communities will not be structured for everyone of the same major to live together in the same place. Instead, everyone of the same major will meet at a chapter or on campus.

“Studying in groups is a great way to learn and this will help students to be more successful,” said Kolbeck, junior in biology.

One goal of the program is to improve inter-chapter relations.

“Members of different chapters will then have something in common other than being greek,” Pike said.

Another goal of the program is to achieve a more uniform grade-point average among the chapters in the greek community.

“Hopefully academically successful chapters will help the academically struggling chapters to improve,” Kolbeck said.

The learning communities will not officially launch until the fall. Currently, members of both greek councils are collecting information on students interested in being a part of the program.

While the learning communities will include many greek students, Kolbeck said nongreek students are welcome to participate as well.

“This is a great way to open up the greek community to the residence halls,” Kolbeck said. “This is just another resource to be successful.”