Non-greek groups prepare for IU Sing

Despite what most people might think, IU Sing is not just a greek thing. \nThis year three groups from outside the greek community are stepping up to the challenge of competing in an event dominated by fraternity and sorority pairs.\nROTC, Read Center and Forest Quad, and Collins Living-Learning Center will be competing in the smaller division B, along with any unpaired fraternities or sororities. \nROTC participated for the first time last year and is returning to the show.\nSong leader and senior Michelle Lukas said the goal last year was to make the group's act stand out.\n"We wanted to do something different," she said. "We tried to not to do what everyone else did by bringing in a military aspect."\nThough their strategy brought them a win in their division, Lukas said ROTC will go for a different approach for this year's competition.\n"This year we are doing the opposite from what we did last year," she said. "A lot of people still wanted to work with the rifles, but we decided we can't do it two years in a row."\nLukas said the theme for ROTC's new act was inspired by a show in Columbus, Ind., about the history of songs. The group adapted the idea, and Lukas said the performance centers around how people have expressed themselves throughout the decade.\nLukas said the act this year is less serious and more fun.\nROTC IU Sing members practice their act three times a week for two hours at night. This time commitment is in addition to the seven hours members put in each week just by being in ROTC.\n"Everyone is very busy because we all have homework to do, and people have to get up at five in the morning to get ready for physical training," she said. "It's a way to learn to manage time."\nSenior Sarah Sutton, a song leader for Collins, said her group must also put in long hours. She said participants feel they need to prove themselves,\n"We take it very seriously," she said. "There is a lot of pressure on us to prove ourselves. This is only our second year, and we don't have the experience and tradition the greeks do."\nThough the Collins group is much smaller than most of the sorority and fraternity pairs, she sees this as an advantage to the act.\n"You can do more with choreography and floor space with a small number of people," Sutton said. "It's a lot easier to make 17 people look in unison than 60 people."\nHowever, she said getting people involved proved to be difficult.\n"It was a struggle," Sutton said, "especially because people automatically associate IU Sing with the greek system. There was a lot of apathy -- Collins can be a pretty isolated place."\nHowever, Sutton said advertising and lots of reminders eventually recruited enough participants. \n"Collins used to be good at IU Sing," she said. "They won the very first competition."\nSenior Lindsay Woodall, also a song leader for the Collins group, said she sees the competition becoming an annual event for the Collins center.\n"A lot of people have gotten really involved," she said. "This could definitely be a new tradition."\nWoodall's said the way to get other non-greek groups involved in IU Sing is to change the way the event is stereotyped.\n"Dispelling the myth that it is just something greeks do is important," she said. "It's really about getting people together and having fun."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Haley Beck at habeck@indiana.edu.