Despite Pace being considered a “small” school, many students do not realize that there are a variety of fraternities and sororities available on campus while some who are opposed to Greek life claim that it separates some students from others on campus.

“I think [Greek life] makes our campus ‘clickier’ than it already is. They definitely give a lot to our campus, and I love a lot of them deeply, but they make us more separated than united as a campus,” Pace junior Andre Arias said.

But in the variety of organizations offered at Pace, lies the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity which believes in bringing together the Pace community by hosting events like Burn Away.

Greek organizations are required to hold certain community events on campus to provide a service to their school. Sometimes, Greek life hold events that reach out to the Pace community but don’t really bring people together and have them meet new peers. Usually, these are the larger events that don’t require much interaction with new people, rather just with the people students attended the event with. However, in Burn Away, people interacted with new acquaintances during the course of the event.

Burn Away was an event intended to clear out any stress or fears that people were “bottling in.” As college students, especially in the beginning of the year, many emotions stir up that some may not be able to release because of the lack of close friendships that haven’t been created yet. Pi Lambda Phi decided to fix this issue by hosting the event that allowed students to jot down their worries on a post-it, then throw it into a fire to burn it away.

Aside from burning away insecurities and doubts written on paper, the event allowed students to meet and greet new faces. Though the audience was small, there was a variety of attendants at the event. Some students were athletes, others were Greek. Some students were alumni, while others were freshmen. The event helped people socialize and share their time together.

Ultimately, the warmth of the open fire at Burn Away allowed students not only to burn pieces of paper with notations on them, but it allowed them to make s’mores with their new acquaintances.  As the fire burned, conversations were made and stress was relieved, and students who attended the event left the night feeling more united with others of the Pace community.