About 200 students involved in Greek life gathered in Bodek Lounge of Houston Hall last night to listen to three distinguished faculty members speak about their research. This Speaker Series Event kicked off Greek Week 2013, which — with so many students in attendance — clearly got off to a great start.
Greek Week takes place once a semester and is sponsored by the University’s Panhellenic and Interfraternity Councils.
This was the first annual Greek Week Speaker Series Event — a deviation from the usual Faculty Tea.
College sophomore Carolyn Grace, Sigma Kappa’s junior Panhellenic delegate, said the event was “more of a success than last year’s Faculty Tea, where it was a lot harder to speak to the professors and find out exactly what it is they do at Penn.”
The professors who spoke last night were Ian Frank, director of the Penn Center for AIDS’ Clinical-Therapeutics Program, Melanie Adley, associate director of the Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies Program and David Eisenhower, director of the Institute of Public Service at the Annenberg School.
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Frank was president of Dartmouth College’s Alpha Chi Alpha fraternity as well as the school’s Interfraternity Council. He recalled some of his own rowdy experiences in Alpha Chi Alpha, joking that since he still managed to get into a great medical school, “there’s hope for all of you.”
He concluded his speech with this piece of advice: “If you’re not doing crazy things, you are wasting your undergraduate experience,” and he urged students jokingly to volunteer for his study on HIV vaccinations.
Adley followed up on Frank’s entreaty, adding, “As far as doing something crazy, I suggest taking a gender and women’s studies course!”
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She shared her interest in studying the association between sexual violence and participation in Greek life, particularly in fraternities “here at Penn” and invited students to come discuss these topics with her after.
Rounding out the panel, Eisenhower — who teaches communication at Annenberg — spoke about the public service program, and also threw in his two cents on Greek life at Penn. “I want to start by congratulating the Greek system here for avoiding the kind of stuff that gets fraternities and sororities into trouble at other institutions,” he said. “I think Penn benefits greatly from our Greek system.”
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“It was really eye-opening to see [the professors’] perspectives on what Greek life entails at Penn,” said College and Wharton sophomore Denes Marton, a member of Phi Gamma Delta.
Other events taking place this week include an academic quiz bowl, a dodgeball tournament, a “Meet The Greeks” barbecue and a 5K run for breast cancer awareness.
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