Opportunity for connection regardless of affiliation

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Of the eight round tables in the Union Building Ballroom, six were full of people students gathered to celebrate the Independent's Day Bash on Saturday night.
Pop music blasted from two speakers at the front of the room. Henna tattoos, crafts, a buffet of tacos and cupcakes were scattered around the room for participants to enjoy.
People of both greek affiliation and no affiliation gathered at the Independent's Day Bash, allowing some to forge connections for next semester.
"I didn't know many people going into sophomore year," senior Christine Bach said. "I had to go random for my roommate. It was nerve wracking. I didn't have friends to live with."
But Bach is now a member of Delta Gamma sorority. Divisions between the greek community and independents are evident throughout campus. Greeks tend to stick to their own community, leaving the independents to fend for themselves.
However, greek attendance at recent functions aimed toward independent students demonstrated effort to lessen the divide.
"When I first joined a greek house, they hated the Independent Council," Casie Sambo, a senior Delta Gamma said. "[The current executive members of Independent Council] have done a good job being more inviting."
Sambo has attended every Independent's Day Bash since her freshman year.
"Sometimes recruitment doesn't go well. [Independent's Day Bash] is there to show life will go on," Sambo said. "It's not the end all be all."
Annie Bowers, a senior executive member of the Independent Council, said once she finished eating her meal at the event, she and the executive members mingled with the other students.
All of the members of the executive board are seniors, and are currently looking for new leadership to continue their positions following their graduation.
"We don't have meetings for the sake of meeting," Bowers said. "We have an e-mail list to send out events."
The number of students on DePauw's campus that decide to rush has decreased in recent years. According to DePauw's website, "a little under 70% of students are greek." That number has decreased five percent from 2005 for fraternity members, and about one percent for sorority members, according to DePauw's website.
"The event is mostly to get to know each other," Lana Dekevyashkina, a senior independent who organized the event through the Most Valuable Promoter (MVP)program in the Campus Life Office, said. MVP's are responsible for spreading the word about events through social media and word of mouth on campus.
Independent's Day Bash is typically on the same weekend as the final round of recruitment, which took place over the last week of January.
Dekevyashkina said that not everything was prepared in time this year to have the event on that weekend, which is why the executive board opted to hold the event over the weekend.
With the declining numbers of people joining greek houses, committees to promote events for independents become obsolete in some ways.
"As the campus decreases its greek members the Independent Council becomes less important," Bowers said. "We need less members [of the Independent Council], the independents just represent themselves."