By Shane Mead | Staff Writer
Every year, several Greek life organizations participate in Baylor’s All-University Sing. However, only a few — usually just one or two — choose to pair up.
Though a rare occurrence in this historic school tradition, past participants who have partnered said they wouldn’t want it any other way.
Baylor alumnus George Schroeder, a former Sing chair of Beta Upsilon Chi recalled when his group partnered with Kappa Chi Alpha for last year’s showcase. He said the partnership was essential and provided him with learning opportunities that come with being in a leadership position.
“The partnership with KXA elevated our performance to a degree that we would not have been able to achieve without them,” Schroeder said. “That speaks to KXA for sure, but more importantly, that speaks to the potential that you have when you partner with somebody. We were able to double our population on the stage, and that’s really important.”
KXA’s Sing chair that year, alumnae Kora Strickland, had participated in Sing since her sophomore year. However, she said her senior year — when her sorority partnered with BYX — was the most memorable.
“There’s something truly special about pairing,” Strickland said. “Being able to connect with a different organization in that standpoint is always super freeing. It made people want to go to practice.”
A large part of why so many members of both BYX and KXA looked forward to practices was because of how close the two organizations became. Schroeder said they rehearsed as many as six times per week, creating opportunities to build friendships.
“My biggest worry was, ‘Are these people going to get along?’ ‘What’s going to happen?'” Strickland said. “But I would walk into the SUB and I would see these big groups of both KXAs and BYXs sitting together and hanging out.”
One moment that stood out to Strickland was when she played music during practice. The BYX members always enjoyed her rock playlists, so one day, she decided to play something for the KXA members — Disney princess songs.
“The girls were singing along, but then, all of a sudden, the guys come up from the bleachers and start dancing around with the girls to the Disney Princess songs,” Strickland said. “It was amazing.”
Strickland said KXA enjoyed their 2024 partnership so much that they dropped Sing this year because the sorority wasn’t pairing.
“[KXA] had to drop due to numbers, just because people didn’t want to do Sing again because we weren’t pairing with a fraternity,” she said. “A lot of members actually got really upset that we weren’t pairing again. Pairing makes a huge impact on how people interpret Sing.”
On BYX’s side, Schroeder’s experience in Sing may not have even happened at all if the partnership between his fraternity and KXA didn’t happen.
“We were in the boat where if we didn’t partner with someone, we were probably just not going to do it,” he said. “Being able to partner literally allowed us to perform in Sing because we probably would have voted not to otherwise.”
That’s exactly why Schroeder says he recommends more organizations pairing in the future, as it can give them the same opportunity BYX had. But he also wants to preface any partnerships with advice as a former Sing chair.
“You have to be prepared to learn, to make sacrifices, to find compromises and to work well with all kinds of different personalities,” Schroeder said. “That’s fundamental to partnering. Because guess what? You just went from a situation where your group of four to five Sing chairs on average are now 10.”
Schroeder said that shared visions between a few Sing chairs in one organization might not be the same as those shared by Sing chairs of another, and a way to reconcile that must be found.
“We’re not performing for the fraternity, we’re performing for the partnership,” he said.
Though partnerships are rare, the bonds bring so much joy, according to two of the Sing chairs from the 2024 partnership.
This year, Pi Beta Phi and Phi Kappa Chi — two groups who have partnered in the past — are the only pairing in the playbill.
