Two UA alumni designed and nationally launched oneGreek, an app geared toward improving communication between greek life members on Nov. 12.
“What we are launching is a mix between Twitter and Instagram, exclusive to greeks,” said Gavin Glatting, co-founder of oneGreek. “Our goal here and the reason why we are launching nationwide is because we want to grow as fast as possible.”
Samuel Garst, co-founder of oneGreek, said that two years ago, they launched a simple recruitment platform version of the app with Theta Chi, a fraternity that is no longer on campus.
“About a year after that, we launched another platform that was a university-wide,” Garst said. “Essentially, it was a social recruitment platform that offered chapters a Tinder-like opportunity to view [potential new member] profiles to decide who they were interested [in] for their chapter and we were on the [UA] Mall for a week.”
Garst said they signed up around 1,800 greeks during that week. He said they have received over 5,000 pre-registrations from all over the country, but a significant portion of them are from the university because they have ties here.
“We started with one chapter, and now we are on a university level and we changed the platform to go national,” Garst said. “[UA] has been a heavy focus for us the entire time, and we anticipate [UA] being our poster child for greek life.”
To gain access to the app, you can either download it from the App Store or be invited to participate by an active member of greek life who is already on oneGreek, Glatting said. Within the app, greek life members can send invitations to people to join the app from their cell phone contacts.
“Once they’re on, there are always ways to flag any members who are on the app and end up on your chapter roster,” Glatting said. “Any member in each chapter has the ability to remove members from their chapter if they’re not supposed to be there, but because you have to be invited, we don’t anticipate that happening very frequently.”
Glatting said oneGreek is a university-specific platform where students can get on and see what is happening in the greek community at their school.
“As of right now, when we launch nationwide, we are going to be doing a lot of heavy focusing on bringing the UA on board, but the premise of the app is about experiencing greek life across the nation,” Glatting said.
Garst said he and Glatting were both students in the greek system when they attended the UA and met through mutual friends.
“Ultimately, our vision from the start was, we wanted to create a platform; we wanted to bring greek life to the 21st century,” Garst said. “There was really no way to connect with greeks, no way to see what was going on in greek life if you were outside of greek life or a new member and that has driven on this path of creating oneGreek.”
Isabel Adelman, campus representative for oneGreek and a criminal justice junior, said the app caught her attention and she loves what it is meant for.
“This is the perfect mix of all social medias into one for Greek Life and I couldn’t ask for anything better,” Adelman said. “We’re able to see how many amazing chapters are not only here at our university, but all universities.”
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