This year's Greek Week kicked off on Monday night with bowling at Strikes and a new resolve for campus-wide Greek collaboration.
The Panhellenic Council and the Interfraternity Council are working more closely with the Multicultural Greek Council this year than in the past in order to strengthen relationships between all members of the Greek community.
Previously, the week has been mostly a collaboration between Panhel and the IFC.
"We're all Penn students, we're all Greek, and we all want to be involved," said College and Wharton senior and IFC president David Ashkenazi. "We can benefit so much from working with them."
According to executive vice president of the Panhellenic Council and College senior Betsy Rosenblatt, a retreat for Greek student leaders at the beginning of the year that focused on community building sparked a new relationship among the members of the three executive boards.
"We've definitely established a deeper connection," said MGC president and College senior Jocelyn Chandler. "I hope this is something that builds in the future."
And just a few days into Greek Week, the leaders say they can already see more collaboration.
Monday night's bowling competition included a team from most sororities and fraternities on campus, and yesterday all Penn students were encouraged to donate to a Greek-run blood drive in Houston Hall.
The semesterly Faculty Tea, which brings professors and Greek students together in an informal setting, will take place at the Castle fraternity house tomorrow afternoon, and on Friday representatives from all three communities will participate in a powder-puff football game on 40th Street Field.
A new event called "Greeks at Franklin Field" - which parallels the annual "Greeks at the Palestra" - will take place on Saturday. The event will include various friendly competitions during half time.
"Though differences exist between the MGC chapters and the IFC and Panhel chapters, they are all part of the Penn fraternity and sorority community," Scott Reikofski, director of the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, wrote in an e-mail. "This year's involvement is very encouraging. I give a great deal of credit to the current leaders."
According to Rosenblatt, the three executive boards also plan to maintain a standard of safe entertainment.
Last year, Penn Police called the annual Greek Week Block Party "the best no-incident block party" ever, Rosenblatt said, and Greek leaders hope this year will be no different.
Of the seven parties taking place on Saturday night, three will be dry, and all will be attended by Team Sober, a group comprised of two students from each house who remain sober throughout the night and monitor the guests.
Greek Week will conclude on Sunday with the semi-annual Academic Bowl, hosted this year by Leah Popowich, associate director of Penn President Amy Gutmann's office.
Officials and Greek student leaders alike say the collaboration between the three Greek communities will not stop there.
"Greek Week will be a kind of jumping off point," said Rosenblatt. "This is the first step into a lot more collaboration."
