Greeks plan service, social event weekend

In a school with three Greek umbrella organizations and about 50 fraternities and sororities, rarely do all 3,000-plus Greeks collaborate on a single activity. But during the first "Greek Weekend," scheduled for March 27 and 28, the Greek system will come together for community service and social events, the InterFraternity Council announced this week. The IFC is largely responsible for organizing and funding the events. Although not all Greeks are expected to turn out for the community service project next Friday and a mixer the following day, organizers hope the events will provide a welcome change from small-scale Greek events confined to a particular fraternity or sorority. "I think [the events] will help to bond everybody together," said Bicultural InterGreek Council President Everett Sands, a College junior. "We do things that are similar, but we don't all do them together." The first event, lasting from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. next Friday, is a community service project with the local charity Christmas in April, which helps renovate homes in West Philadelphia. A barbecue on College Green for participants will follow the event. The weekend concludes with an all-Greek mixer for members of all three Greek umbrella organizations -- the IFC, the Panhellenic Council and the BIG-C -- and their dates at the Doubletree Hotel Saturday night. The IFC and Panhel will put a freeze on all social events that night "in order to ensure Greek participation," according to a press release. The three Greek umbrella groups -- along with non-Greek students who wish to help -- will aid Christmas in April in renovating and painting 26 houses in the West Philadelphia area, according to IFC Director of Community Service Jason Fabrikant. While Greeks have participated in joint community service projects in the past, Fabrikant explained that those events merely involved garbage cleanup. "I'm hoping this is going to be a little more stimulating than the cleanups we've done," said Fabrikant, a College junior and Delta Kappa Epsilon brother. He said he would be pleased if about half of all Greeks showed up for the event. Sands, an Omega Psi Phi brother, said he expects that when word of the community service event travels, non-Greek students will decide to participate. Fabrikant was also optimistic about that prospect. "I think there will be some turnout in the general student community," he said, pointing out the numerous student community service groups that are active on campus as well as the mass e-mails sent out to various Greek and non-Greek organizations. But Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs Assistant Director Tom Carroll cautioned against being overly optimistic about the potential impact of the event -- which Fabrikant hopes can become an annual tradition. "A big question is how many people out there know about [the event] and how many of the Greeks are participating," Carroll said.