The other week, I was invited by a few friends to a social mixer that was hosted by one of the Greek organizations on campus. I decided to attend, and I also invited a few of my friends to come along. After the party, one of my guy friends made an interesting statement.

A little upset, he said, “Man it sucks trying to talk to girls that are in Greek organizations. It seems like once they find out you’re not in a fraternity, they all of a sudden lose interest in talking to you. I feel like, when they ask me if I’m in a fraternity, I have to lie just to have a chance at talking to them or getting their phone number.”

Now, I didn’t hear him the first time he said this because I was too busy counting all of the phone numbers I had gotten that night, so I asked him to repeat what he said. OK, so maybe I lied about that last sentence and did hear what he said.

His statement made me start realizing that, at colleges, there sometimes is a slight disparity between non-Greeks and Greeks when it comes to basic campus life. It seems, at times, if you’re not in a certain organization or if you don’t know someone within that organization, you can receive awkward looks, or worse, you can be completely ignored at certain social events.

Unfortunately, this treatment isn’t confined only to parties or even to a specific college campus. It sometimes seems when walking around any university, a person can receive blank stares from someone walking in the opposite direction if he isn’t wearing a T-shirt that represents a recognizable organization.

This advice applies to both Greek and other student organizations. Now, I’m not stating that you have to go out of your way to give an overly friendly “Hello!” to every person you pass on your way to nutrition class because, let’s face it, after awhile that would get tiring and monotonous.

Rather, next time you’re passing by someone that you don’t know, don’t awkwardly look down at your phone and pretend you just received a phone call or text message, or act like you suddenly need to scroll through the menu of your iPod.

Like we all used to hear in elementary school, it takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile. So unless you’re on some weird facial workout plan, try giving someone that you don’t know a smile. A friendly smile can quickly brighten someone’s day, and in turn, your day as well.

Also, if you’re ever at a party, and someone that you don’t know starts up a friendly conversation with you, don’t walk away simply because he or she isn’t a part of the two or three organizations that you know.

Instead, talk with that person for a little bit. Who knows? You might find out something interesting about that person.

Glenton Richards is a senior radio-TV-film major from Carrollton.