OU Panhellenic advisor Kylie Frisby said when she first interviewed current OU Panhellenic President Sydney Smith in 2018, she immediately knew Smith would reach the upper echelon of the organization’s ranks.
In Smith’s freshman year, shortly after joining Gamma Phi Beta, she wanted to serve on the Judicial Board. Smith was interviewed by Frisby and then-Vice President for Judicial Affairs Lily Taylor.
“I remember we both interviewed Sydney and (Taylor) goes, ‘I think she's going to be Panhellenic President one day,’” Frisby said. “She was just really impressive in her interview, and she's one of those people (where) the things she says, she can back up those words with actions. And I've just always been really impressed by her work ethic, even from the very beginning.”
Smith worked her way up from Vice Chair of the Judicial Affairs her freshman year to Vice President of Judicial Affairs her sophomore year. Around two years after joining greek life, Smith, a psychology and African American Studies junior, was named OU’s Panhellenic President in November 2020. She will serve in this position for the full calendar year of 2021.
There is more to Smith’s appointment than a bullet point on a resume or even the responsibilities that accompany the title — she is the organization’s first Black president since its creation in 1918, a distinction she said she does not take lightly.
“I'm amazed and I'm honored to be the first Black Pan president,” Smith said. “To me, it means that we are progressing, and we are taking steps to do better. And that's what I want to do within my term. … I want to make Panhellenic a better place for women of color.”
Smith said her passion for leading and helping communities stems back to when she was 8 years old.
One of Smith’s earliest memories that inspired her to pursue community improvement was when Barack Obama became America's first Black president. She said while she has dreams of going to graduate school and becoming a licensed social worker, her current dream is to use her platform to improve OU’s community.
In her two years of serving OU Panhellenic, according to other Panhellenic executives who have worked closely with her, Smith has devoted her time to improving inclusivity, mental health and greek life’s overall reputation, which has oftentimes been put in a negative light in recent years due to racist events — highlighted by Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s racist chant in 2015 and a 2019 incident with a video showing a member of Panhellenic wearing Black face and using a racial slur, as well as recent disregard for COVID-19 protocol during the 2020 fall semester.
As a Black woman, Smith said she saw multiple things she wanted to improve about Panhellenic when she first joined as a freshman, such as how race sometimes influenced recruitment of new PAN members.
Smith said this grew her interest in applying for OU’s Panhellenic leadership.
“I saw color going through the process of recruitment, and I remembered what it felt like to be a woman going through Panhellenic recruitment,” Smith said. “I wanted to make PAN a better space for women of color, so that's why I decided to run.”
As vice president to judicial affairs, Smith worked on changing the language of Panhellenic and recruitment bylaws to be more inclusive to all members, while also leading initiatives to recognize PAN’s history of privilege.
Vice President of Recruitment Operations Mackenzie Tullier, who has known Smith since her freshman year, said Smith really used her sophomore year to take a deep look into the wording of PAN legislation to make changes to all aspects of OU Panhellenic to improve inclusion and greek life responsibility. Tullier said Smith’s work has significantly benefited recruiting.
“Some things that she did in the past for Judicial Affairs — she changed a lot of the bylaws regarding recruitment,” Tullier, an international security studies junior, said. “And all of these changes were super positive and really important to make sure that, not only were we following COVID guidelines, but we were also making sure that the chapters and the women going through recruitment felt valued and they felt respected because of these bylaws. … Everything that she brought to the table when it came to changing the bylaws for recruitment were all really fantastic ideas.”
OU Panhellenic Vice President of Judicial Affairs Madison Young said Smith implemented a bylaw this past November stating Panhellenic does not stand for discrimination.
“A lot of her bylaws have to do with education,” Young, a marketing and supply chain management junior, said. “Educating our members about inclusive language, or the racist history of sorority, or about mental health, or trying to work on some stuff with preventing sexual assault. … Having that education and making sure everyone understands that these are real problems and to not just like push them under the rug.”
One thing Smith said she’s excited to implement is affinity groups, where women can meet in person or over Zoom to discuss their experiences in Panhellenic and the changes they would like to see. Smith said she’s aiming to start having group sessions this semester or early next semester, adding there’s no specific topic or task for the groups.
“Women of different identities can kind of come together and have a place within Panhellenic to kind of talk about their experiences,” Smith said, “(They can) talk about what they are liking, what they're not liking, things that they would like to improve upon — (it's) just giving them a chance to kind of speak their truth and just have everyone listen.”
One of the larger tasks Smith said she hopes to tackle is improving the party and drinking culture surrounding greek life. She said it’s important to her to bring greek life back into the good graces of the OU community, and she wants to lay the groundwork for a more responsible future.
“Greek life can sometimes be seen in a very negative light, and honestly rightfully so sometimes,” Smith said. “But we're really trying to make sure that we, as Panhellenic and as a group of women, are using our voices and our privilege for good. And that's something that I really want to focus on, is making sure that we are acknowledging the privilege that we have, and using that for positives in our campus.”
During Smith’s first two months in office, Frisby and Young said the leadership aspect of the job has been a natural fit for her. Young said Smith went right to work during a Student Affairs and Greek council retreat before the spring semester on having discussions about diversity and inclusion, laying the groundwork for what she wants done and opening the floor for everyone to discuss ideas and concerns.
Frisby mentioned a specific moment that impressed her during a Panhellenic leadership biweekly meeting in the first week of February, where Smith implemented a self-talk positivity activity she learned about in one of her psychology classes.
“I was like, ‘This is amazing. As the advisor, I should be doing that,’” Fribsy said. “I think her ability to apply things across all the areas of her life really just shows me that she can do anything she sets her mind (to), and we're really lucky to have her.”
Smith said her role is much more important for the future, as her presidency signifies a new era of diversity and inclusion at OU.
“I think really making sure that we are doing what we need to do to support communities of color is not just like supporting them, but making sure that we are passing the mic — I think that's something as Panhellenic women that we can do,” Smith said, “We take up a lot of space on campus. We are one of the biggest, if not the biggest student organization, and I think passing the mic is incredibly important and sharing space is incredibly important.”
