Greek life goes green

Greek life on a college campus is usually associated with house parties, elaborate initiations, and lifelong friendships — but for one Stanford fraternity, it’s also about building a community rooted in environmental stewardship. Their mission: to get their hands dirty in service of native California coastal habitats and the local communities that depend on these ecosystems for coastal protection, recreation, and more.

On a sunny Saturday morning, a group of Delta Kappa Epsilon (DKE) brothers decked out in Stanford Cardinal gear crouched on a lush hillside along the coast of Pacifica, California. Michael Ayala of the volunteer group Pacific Beach Coalition showed the group how to uproot bristly oxtongue (Helminthotheca echioides), an invasive plant whose spiky, warty leaves mirror its unfriendly presence in the landscape. With regular weeding and removal of invasive species, the landscape will be better primed for plant species native to the northern California coastline to thrive. The fraternity has worked closely with the Pacific Beach Coalition since 2023 to organize native habitat restoration workdays and beach trash cleanups.

A little goes a long way

Funding from the Mel Lane Student Grants Program through the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment helps DKE provide transportation for group members to project sites, and purchase basic tools like buckets, shovels, and gloves. This way, the fraternity can make a continued commitment to monthly native habitat restoration projects and beach cleanups even as senior members graduate and new pledges join.

Tom Santiago Ramsay, BS ‘25, is the philanthropy chair of DKE and works with PBC leadership to identify workday opportunities throughout the San Francisco Bay area. He credits his classes and conversations in the Earth systems program of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability as part of the inspiration to bring a focus on environmental stewardship to his fraternity. “I was looking for ways to bring what I’m learning to action, especially for things we can do in the Bay and the community,” Ramsay said.

The California coast is constantly evolving under the pressures of climate change and human activity. Removing one invasive plant at a time may seem like action at a small scale, but regular maintenance eventually builds up the native habitats that are key to greater coastal resilience.

“We’re trying to revitalize the local vegetation that give the soil a lot of its nutrients and attract bees and native pollinators,” Ramsay said. “Soil erosion is another big problem in this area, and a lot of the native species are actually better at holding the soil in place.”

Building resilient communities

Grayson Armour, BS ‘23 and MS ‘24, emphasized the importance of including new recruits in service projects like native habitat restoration in addition to the philanthropic activities that many fraternities and sororities participate in throughout the year. “It’s hands-on, not just fundraising and sending that money away,” he said. “We want them to see the impact with their own hands on that community.”

Unlike some other Greek life groups on Stanford’s campus, DKE doesnʻt have dedicated housing, so finding opportunities to build camaraderie are key for the growing chapter. A commitment to community service is one of the chapter's core values.

Following work removing invasive plants, the group joined WhaleFest, a community event hosted by the Pacific Beach Coalition to educate the public about environmental issues, encourage participation in beach cleanups, and celebrate the whales that call the California coast home.

Ramsay spoke alongside community leaders, youth activists, and local government representatives, encouraging attendees to find supportive communities like the one he’s found in DKE.

“Even though we’re behind in a lot of environmental metrics, what we do see in these communities is that it’s a gradient. It’s not that we’re either going to ‘make it’ or ‘not make it,’” he said. “It’s a gradient of how much we can prepare our communities to be resilient and adaptive to climate change.”