While many people think of cartoons and noises when they hear the word “bang,” members of Creighton’s Order of Omega automatically think of planning an event of the same name.
BANG, which stands for “Becoming A New Greek,” is an event organized by Order of Omega every year for all the new members of the Greek organizations on campus. According to president Gabby Hart, the event is a brief introduction of what it means to be Greek within the Creighton community. The purpose of this workshop is to give new Greek members the opportunity to learn about the community as a whole and what to expect from being in a fraternity or sorority.
Order of Omega is a Greek Honor Society founded in 1959 in order to recognize fraternity men and women who have attained high standards of leadership and scholarship. According to the Order of Omega website, members are selected from the top 3 percent of students.
Hart quoted the organization’s official purpose at Creighton when she spoke of the benefits to students who join the honor society.
Order of Omega seeks to “acknowledge exemplary members of the Greek community, and to provide services to the Greek community that help to promote a positive Greek experience, leadership development, as well as Greek chapter and member recognition,” she said.
To qualify for membership, a student must be affiliated with one of the social sororities or fraternities on campus, be in junior or senior standing and have a cumulative GPA of 3.385. Members are placed into specific committees in which they will plan and execute all the different events Order of Omega puts together.
Some other events the organization plans besides BANG are a Greek leadership retreat for the executive teams of each sorority and fraternity, and the annual Greek Awards held at the end of every spring semester.
As vice president of membership, Elycia Kazemian plans initiation and handles all applications received by the Student Activities Office. Kazemian first joined Order of Omega to have more of a nonconventional Greek experience, but decided to run for a position because of good role models from the executive team last year. She believes the organization does a great deal in contributing to a feeling of Greek unity on Creighton’s campus.
Kazemian has enjoyed being a member of Order of Omega because it provides “interaction [within the Greek community] without the ties to each sorority or fraternity.”
“Greek unity has always been an important part of the Creighton Greek community specifically, so I appreciated the Order of Omega’s dedication to keeping that spirit alive, even within an honor society,” said Hart.