Frats, sororities kick off week of festivities

The Greek community is serving up spirit this week -- literally.

The InterFraternity, Panhellenic and Bicultural InterGreek councils co-hosted a volleyball tournament yesterday as one of the initial events of Greek Week.

The seven-day celebration aims to heighten the visibility and awareness of Greeks on campus and create unity within the community.

"There's not necessarily a lot of interaction between the houses, and we are in a lot of sense one community," Engineering senior and Kappa Alpha Society member Patrick Carroll said.

"When one of us does something bad, we all get complaints or trouble for it, or when we do something good, we all get some good credit for it, so it's kind of like, 'Hey, we should hang out.'"

The week kicked off Sunday with the Rena Rowan Ribbon Run, a five-kilometer race to raise money to fight breast cancer, and will culminate in a block party on Spruce Street on Saturday.

Yesterday, members of all fraternities and sororities lined Locust Walk to promote their organizations and provide information. Throughout the week, they will host a number of events including a faculty tea for Greek honor students, a potluck, community-service projects and Halloween parties.

"The programming is meant to mimic the different strong points of Greek life," Panhel Executive Vice President and College senior Vanessa White said. "Scholarship, service, athletics is always involved there, [and] also just socializing."

Carroll is also enthusiastic about the week, particularly the volleyball tournament.

"I'd say it's better than what I remembered last year," Carroll said.

Although the events cater to the Greek community, they are open to all students.

For freshmen, Greek Week is often the first time they are exposed to many of the Greek organizations.

"They get a family feeling. They see that Penn does have a strong Greek system," said College junior Julia Tzeng, an Alpha Chi Omega sister. "A lot of the students here are Greek, but it doesn't exclude a lot of the people who aren't in the Greek system. They're very welcoming to everyone."

Tzeng's only criticism was that Greek Week could have been better publicized to encourage more turnout. Only about 30 people attended the volleyball tournament.

Despite this and rainy weather, IFC President Spencer Scharff is optimistic about the remainder of the week.

"It's Halloween weekend, so I feel that no matter if there was torrential rain, people would come out for Greek Weekend," the College senior said.

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