Printed in the January 22, 2008 issue of The Pacer, the student newspaper of UT Martin.
New fraternity president breaks race barrier
By Amanda Carr
Photo: Amanda CarCorey Perry’s race was far from his mind when he was elected president of his fraternity last semester.
But his election to the top leadership spot for an Interfraternity Council group represents one of the first times a black man has led the group of eight fraternities nearly wholly dominated by white members.
Perry, 20, even looks different in his fraternity, Sigma Phi Epsilon. He’s the only black member.
His election isn’t a first at UT Martin. (There were black fraternity presidents as late as the 1970s, such as for the now-defunct Sigma Pi fraternity.) But among the IFC fraternities on campus now, Perry’s the first minority leader.
“In the grand scheme of things, I think it’s a good thing (being elected),” Perry said in an interview with The Pacer. “In the circle of my brothers, though, it’s not that big of a deal.”
Perry, a junior management major from Drummonds, Tenn., said his election speaks to his fraternity’s core values; SigEp was the first fraternity to include sexual orientation in its antidiscrimination policy and did away with the traditional pledging model in favor of a more comprehensive Balanced Man Program in the early 1990s.
SigEp was among the first national fraternities to admit black members.
Perry was elected by his brothers at the end of last semester and took office before finals. He believes that he will make a good president because he is able to connect and identify with all of his brothers and because he is adamant about keeping traditions.
Perry said that he was attracted to this fraternity because it felt like home, and because it was different from the rest, despite there being three traditionally black fraternities already on campus.
While this may be a historic and prodigious moment for his fraternity and the campus as a whole, to him it is just another day with his fraternity.
“It was something that I had always wanted, though may have not foreseen happening so quickly. I do understand why it is a big deal, but my focus is on us,” Perry said.
Currently the UTM chapter of SigEp, founded in 1995, has 26 members and supports several philanthropic ventures such as an affiliation with the YouthAIDS organization, which is a national organization that reaches out to children infected with HIV and promotes HIV/AIDS prevention and education.
But even though he sees his election as “one of the keystones of my life,” Perry says there’s still progress to be made in the way of greek diversity.
“I wish there were more diversity in the greek community here at UTM,” Perry said.
“I hope that by being president I can inspire others and promote diversity in the community as a whole, instead of just SigEp.”
The director of UTM’s Greek Life office agrees.
“There are a lot of greek programs that aren’t as welcoming as UT Martin,” said Director of Greek Life Louis Ragsdale.
“There’s definitely some improvement we can make as far as diversity is concerned, but we’ve really made a lot of progress over the past five years.”
Ragsdale attributed increased awareness of differing viewpoints as a reason for increased membership and higher average grades among fraternity and sorority members.
“It goes beyond race or ethnicity,” Ragsdale said in an interview. “It’s about other opinions and diversity in religion and other differences too.”
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Pacer writers Jay Baker and Will York contributed this report.
