Greek Week brings community together through dodgeball, cornhole

From wheelbarrow races to dodgeball games, members of IU’s greek community have been participating in different festivities around campus this week as part of Greek Week.

Though the week-long event has taken place in previous years, turnout has been low in the past, said junior Katie Geiger, vice president of community involvement for the IU Panhellenic Association.

“It’s been a long time since the last big one,” she said. “It’s a good way to get to know each other.”

Geiger, a member of Delta Gamma sorority, said the Panhellenic Association and the Interfraternity Council decided to add Greek Week this year because the other Big Ten universities have it each year.

An event committee, made up of members from different houses, chose events that represented the values of the greek system, Geiger said.

“We wanted to have events dealing with philanthropy that are meaningful,” she said. “We also wanted to have fun, memorable events to celebrate greek life.”

During the events, all the houses are paired with houses they do not usually partner with to work on their team-building abilities, said junior Mandi VanOsdol, a member of the Alpha Omicron Phi sorority.

There are four or five houses on each team, said junior Ryan Brechtl from the Delta Chi fraternity, and the teams compete against each other in different events.

“It lets everyone meet people they wouldn’t normally get to know,” he said.

Senior Chris Hanlin, a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, said Greek
Week helps get members of all the greek houses in one place at the same time.

“It’s a good experience,” he said. “There are no greek names on the T-shirts. That gets rid of stereotypes.”

Brechtl said he participated in the breadstick-eating contest. Each participant was given two bags of breadsticks, a total of 16 each. The first person to eat all of the breadsticks won the competition, he said.

“I ate eight and a half,” he said. “The guy who got first smoked everyone.”

Tailgating is the only other event when members of every greek house get together, Brechtl said, and that is when problems arise.

“Greek Week proves we can all hang out and have a good time,” he said. “Alcohol ruins that.”