Greeks bond through Greek Week

Tuesday marks the beginning of one of the few times when members of every Greek organization can come together to celebrate their common values.

Greek Week is a series of events hosted every semester by the Panhellenic Council, the Interfraternity Council and the Multicultural Greek Council. The three groups work with the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life to put on the events highlighting Penn’s Greek community.

“It’s an event that paints Greek life at Penn in a positive light for the rest of the Penn community,” said College junior Chris Weidner, executive vice president of IFC.

College junior and Vice President of Programming for Panhel Melissa Riegel said that there was no theme to last semester’s Greek Week, but that this time the theme is “Greek Olympics,” although not all the events will be directly related.

The Greek Week tank tops will also not directly reflect the theme, and they will instead feature the same design as last semester since they were so popular, according to College junior and vice president of public relations for Panhel Cher Lu.

Weidner said that there are certain events that are traditional for each semester’s Greek Week, and having those already in place makes the planning process easier.

However, Lu noted that Greek Week in the spring is slightly different from the one that occurs during the fall semester. In the fall, she said, the events are more geared toward introducing the freshmen to Penn’s Greek scene, while the spring events focus more on bonding.

Today’s event is the Faculty Tea, where students will get the chance to interact with some of their favorite professors and chat with them while drinking tea. College junior and Vice President of Programming for Panhel Melissa Riegel added that the a capella group, Off the Beat, will perform at the event, which is hosted at Castle.

On Wednesday, fraternities and sororities will team up to participate in the Academic Bowl, a trivia event similar to Quizzo. This event will definitely bring out some friendly competition, Lu said, and “it helps each organization have some sort of pride.”

The one new event this year will be the Senior Recognition Event on Thursday, according to Riegel. The three councils will present senior superlatives for each chapter, and OFSL will host a Greek Awards ceremony that night as well.

“It’s a laid-back way to honor the seniors in contrast to Greek Awards, which is more formal,” Lu said.

The other change to this year’s Greek Week is that, for the first time, the councils are partnering with Relay For Life, an organization that raises money and awareness for those affected by cancer. The event, which will be this Friday, is a series of Powderpuff football games, the last of which will be played on Franklin Field during the Relay for Life event, according to Lu.

Both Panhel and IFC have minimum attendance requirements for each event based on the size of their chapters. Panhel said they’ll offer a prize to the sorority with the highest percentage of participation during Greek Week.

College sophomore and MGC President Jonathan Paz said that MGC does not have similar requirements for their members.

He added that Greek Week connects students with the social, familial and philanthropic values that drew them to the Greek community in the first place. Paz said that at its core, Greek Week “reinforces the values we all share by becoming Greek.”

“It’s really good for inter-council community bonding. There aren’t a lot of opportunities to do that,” he said.

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