Written By Khatir Derrick Stewart
APSU student
Clarksville, TN – Greek life has been a long-established part of not only Austin Peay State University (APSU) but also universities all around the country, helping students elevate their college experience.
For years, this process has benefitted from many significant figures, including Lindsy Perry, current coordinator of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs at Austin Peay State University.
Her contributions have not gone unnoticed either, receiving the prestigious Gayle Webb New Professional Award. This award was first established in 1990 and renamed for the AFA’s Association of Fraternity/Sorority Affairs, first executive director, Gayle Webb.
The award recognizes the outstanding contributions to fraternity and sorority life by two professional members of the AFA in their first three years. This provides a testament to Perry’s work on campus, being nominated for the award by students of Austin Peay State University.
“It honestly means a lot,” Perry said. “I think often being an office of one here at Austin Peay State University. It feels like my work goes unnoticed. Things I do on this campus are having an impact on my students but also the greater good of the APSU community.”
Perry started her general passion for fraternity and sorority life during her years in college. As a first-generation college student at Illinois State, she joined a sorority, realizing the organization’s value by the academic, social, and other accountabilities it provided her. She talked about how it’d provided her with experience to carry into the job market, preparing her for the real world.
“I don’t think there’s any other student experience like it in college, and I say this all the time, but without my sorority, I don’t think I would be where I am today. I don’t think I would have persisted and stayed in college. I think I would have been somebody that went one semester,” Perry said. “So I think Greek life plays so much into the student experience, and there’s really nothing else like it here at Austin Peay State University.”
