October 2, 2006

Yellow Team Wins Greek Week 2006

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Saturday marked the last day of the fifth annual Greek Week competition. The winners of Greek Week were announced at the Cornell football game Saturday.

Chapters from the winning yellow team included Alpha Phi, Delta Upsilon, Alpha Sigma Phi, Tau Kappa Epsilon and Alpha Kappa Alpha.

The winners of Greek Week received trophies and recognition in front of the crowd at the game.

The purpose of Greek Week was to provide a forum for friendly competition and camaraderie among all Greek chapters.

Each day, between 300-400 students attended events to support their team.

Greek Week events were co-sponsored by the Interfraternity Council, the Panhellenic Association Council and the Multicultural Greek Letter Council chapters. The co-chairs of the events were Lance Polivy ’08, vice president of programming for the IFC, Jaime Sackett ’07, vice president of programming for Panhel, and Maria Jaramillo ’07, vice president of university and community relations for the MGLC.

The 12 competing teams gained points through attendance, participation and volunteer work.

The week’s events included a philanthropy carnival on Monday, Greek Olympics on North Campus on Tuesday, a basketball tournament on Wednesday, a comedian in Bailey Hall on Thursday, a live band and ice cream on Rawlings Green on Friday and a football tailgate on Saturday.

“We wanted to get everyone from the Greek community involved in order to show the rest of the University what we’re all about,” said Polivy.

“We went in with a clear set of goals for the week and I think that we were able to accomplish all of them,” he continued. “We tried to increase participation in all of the events and we saw the attendance numbers go through the roof. Members from different councils and organizations worked together in ways we haven’t seen before.”
Polivy said, “The events we structured forced people to come together, creating incredible results.”

For example, Polivy explained that the philanthropy carnival booths were run by members from all three councils at a time.

“The week certainly brought together such a diverse group of individuals because the activities were so much fun. It was easy for anyone to want play volleyball, participate in silly relay races or attempt the wings eating contest,” he said.

“At the Greek Olympics, we had so many events going on simultaneously, that when someone wasn’t participating in one, they were cheering on their fellow team members in another,” said Polivy.

“It didn’t matter what chapter you were from, people were supporting each other because they were part of something bigger than just the events. It may just seem like a team to cheer for at the time, but you were really rooting for the Greek system as a whole,” Polivy said.

“I think the entire week went really smoothly,” Sackett said. “There was a much larger attendance than in previous years. In the past, only a couple of chapters carried the week, but this year I felt a strong presence from a ton of organizations.”

The philanthropy carnival last Monday raised about $200 for the Tompkins County Public Library. The major attraction was the dunk tank.

“A student from the Lambda Phi Epsilon fraternity sat in the dunk tank for an hour. He was such a good sport. Everyone got so into it and I think he had fun, too,” Sackett said.

Wednesday, students gathered in groups of three for a basketball tournament on North Campus.

“We actually had two freshmen teams come play in the basketball tournament too. The event was open to all students, so a few guys from Jameson Hall decided to play. They made it really far in the tournament too, so next year we might try harder to recruit freshman,” Sackett added.

Sackett called Dave Reilly, the comedian who performed Thursday night, “hysterical.”

“My face hurt from laughing so much. He was very funny and everyone that was there gave him great reviews,” she said.

Four student bands played on Rawlings Green during the ice cream social event Friday.

“It was one of those beautiful Ithaca fall days. The bands attracted different types of people from the Greek community because people who wouldn’t otherwise come to a Greek week event, came to enjoy the live music or listen to their friends play,” Sackett said. “It was a great addition to Greek Week this year.”

Jaramillo concluded, “Overall, the week was very successful and I’m glad to see a huge increase in the MGLC involvement this year. I hope that everyone really got something out of it.

Within every chapter, there are so many diverse people with varied interests. There were so many fun and exciting events that everyone had a chance to display their strengths and participate in every event.”