Meredith L. Kahler, a junior public
relations major of the Alpha Phi sorority, said Greek Week revamping
has been overall positive.
Organizers of the
annual Greek Week, which started Monday, hope to present a new and
better way of holding the event.
Junior public relations major and Alpha Phi member
Meredith L. Kahler said this year Greek Week as a whole has been
revamped.
“The point system has been done away with.
The awards are less formal and more laid back,” Kahler said.
During past Greek Week events, individual sororities
and fraternities received points based on how well they did in certain
events. Kahler said instead of individual organizations receiving
points, the scoring is now based on merit.
Awards
are similar to superlative-type awards, rather than competitive-type
awards. For example, a basketball team may receive the award of
“Most Spirited” rather than first or second place.
“It’s not based on points, or a plaque; it’s more
based on having fun,” Kahler said.
Kahler also said the structure of the teams that compete for sports
events has also been changed. Instead of sororities or fraternities
competing against each other, members from different organizations
are combined to form “all-star” teams.
Kahler said the week has already gotten off to a good start. On
Monday night, Appalachian men’s basketball head coach Houston
Fancher spoke to a group of 500 Greeks at Legends.
“He was one of the best speakers I’ve heard. Everyone
got something from it,” Kahler said.
All of the money raised from the week’s events will be given
to the family of Kathy Harrison, who is a housekeeper at Appalachian
State University. Her family recently suffered a loss when their
house burned down.
So far a total of $2,000 has been raised for the family. Each sorority
member donated at least $2. Donations were also received from other
organizations on campus.
Next year, organizers of Greek Week hope to find a larger facility
for Lip-Sync night, which is currently held in Legends. Since Legends
only holds 1,000 people and there are more than 1,000 Greek members,
non-Greeks are not able to attend this year.
Kahler said she has been approached by many non-Greeks who wish
to attend the event, but she has to turn them down every time.
The final event for the week is the awards ceremony, which is usually
held in a more formal setting. This year it will take place at Klondike
Cafe. Non-Greeks are welcome to attend the ceremony.
Tricia Turner with the Center for Student Involvement and Leadership
said the primary focus of the week is to bring all of the different
groups together to get to know each other and to unify the groups.
She said she expects the week to run smoothly and for all the groups
to feel like they have grown closer to each other.
