Story by Elizabeth Menne and Lindsey Hedrick

Togas, jousting and hidden idols… oh my! It’s that time of year again for Greek students to team up and compete in a four day long friendly competition against fellow Greeks. Each year, Greek Week is given a different theme, and this year Greek students are going back in time to Ancient Greece. Even if you’re not a member of Greek life, this year’s Greek Week has something for everyone!

Events of Olympic Proportions

For the week, each sorority is paired with a fraternity to further promote unity amongst chapters Each of the four teams are represented by a Greek god. Team Poseidon is represented by Tri Delta and Lambda Chi Alpha, Team Apollo is represented by Kappa Delta and Sigma Pi, Team Zeus is represented by Pi Phi and Kappa Alpha and Team Ares is represented by Zeta and Sigma Nu.

The week begins on Monday Oct. 2 with the banner painting competition. Teams meet at the Fraternity Quad to paint a banner to be displayed to the entire Drury community. This banner is painted according to their specific God. The team that creates the banner that most pleases the gods will be awarded with the most points. On Tuesday Oct. 3, the competition heats up as teams compete in “The First Olympiad.” One by one, brave participants will battle one another in an inflatable jousting ring until a competitor reigns supreme and secures points of Olympic proportions for their team. On Wednesday Oct. 4, eight sorority women and eight fraternity men will be assigned to that specific sorority’s suite, where they will be given a variety of clues and puzzles which they must solve to escape the room in an allotted amount of time. The week will culminate on Thursday Oct. 5 with the Greek God/Goddess pageant. Each sorority and fraternity will select a member of their chapter to represent them in the pageant. It will consist of three segments which feature an introduction round, talent and costume and question portion. At the end, the winner of Greek Week will be announced.

Heroes behind the Scenes

For an event so highly anticipated, it’s vital that Greek Week is organized by an extraordinary band of heroes to make sure everything runs smoothly. Panhellenic Vice President of Events, Sarah Brewer, and the Interfraternity Council Vice President of Involvement, Oliver Huestis, have worked tirelessly to ensure that this week’s Greek Week will be one fit for the gods. Huestis is responsible for making sure all the rules are followed along with tallying the scores of each team and will also host the god and goddess pageant. Brewer will be instrumental in assembling all of the events and the week’s overall success.

Brewer restructured Greek Week in hopes to keep involvement and attendance high. She hopes her changes will foster as much participation as possible from the Greek community.

“It will be a lot crammed into four days, but I think it’ll help people not burn out so fast,” said Brewer. “This year is different than past years because it is shorter (unfortunately). We are ending the week on Thursday (the God/Goddess pageant) so everyone will be there to hear who wins Greek Week. I also took the trivia segment out since this theme would make trivia seem like a history class and switched it to the escape room.”

To win, teams must accumulate as many points as possible. In addition to earning points at the events, teams will have the opportunity to find hidden idols stashed around campus. Hints as to the location of these idols will be given on the Facebook page where they will remain for only a limited time. If a lucky Greek student finds an idol, their team will be awarded 50 points.

Attendance is a major key for success. The team with the highest attendance each night receives 25 points, although the escape room evening does not count towards the point earning breakdown.

Although social media wasn’t around in Ancient Greece, teams will still be able to utilize it for extra points. Teams can earn up to 20 bonus points if they hashtag their team name followed by GW17. Be on the lookout for exciting pictures with this hashtag throughout the week.

A week fit for the gods

Greek Week is a time to feel community and ignite a little friendly competition amongst active and new members. Brewer expressed to us her excitement for this year’s Greek Week.

“Greek Week is a great way to bring everyone together shortly after new members join,” said Brewer. “I think it helps them see that they are in fact a larger part of the community. It’s healthy competition, and also an opportunity to meet a bunch of new people.”

Huestis looks forward to the four evenings that the Greek community will have the opportunity to spend together.

“It is a great bonding time as every Greek chapter is together every night. This is the perfect time to bond with everyone and get to know the brothers and sisters of the organizations.”

Christian Holzer, fifth year Architecture major and member of Lambda Chi Alpha, echoed a similar sentiment. “My favorite part about Greek week is the comradery that you see in all of Greek life within the pairings and seeing all of the Greek community come together. A week where we get to celebrate our Greek affiliation is really awesome.”

Greek students are especially excited for this year’s Greek week in particular. Lanae Ursino, senior and president of Zeta Tau Alpha, is looking forward most to the new events that Brewer has created. “I’m most excited about the escape room because it’s new and it sounds like it’s going to be a lot of fun,” Ursino said. Holtzer is also excited for the escape room and adds that he can’t wait for his favorite event, the god and goddess pageant because it’s “iconic.”

Not Greek? No problem!

Although Greek Week is primarily geared towards Greek students, there are opportunities for all of the Drury community and staff to become involved in the festivities. All students and faculty are encouraged to come watch the jousting tournament and the God/Goddess pageant.

Autumn Green, sophomore, attended the pageant last year and felt very welcome by the Greek community.

“ Not knowing much about Greek life, I feel like the pageant was put together in a way for everyone to enjoy it. It wasn’t specifically aimed towards Greeks, but towards the student body. It was really funny and definitely something I would go to again!”

In addition to non-Greek students, some faculty members will be also be involved in Greek week as judges in the God/Goddess pageant, and are very important in deciding the role of who wins the pageant.

Celebrating Greek Life

Greek week is a time that many members of Drury’s Greek life hold near to their hearts. Huestis feels that Greek Week establishes unity to the whole Drury community,

“Greek week showcases and promotes unity and provides support across all fraternities and sororities through events designed to build community,” said Huestis. “It fosters new friendships and creates great memories. It is always great to see people come together and accomplish goals”

Greek week is a time for members of the community to celebrate their unique experiences with Greek life at Drury, which many members will tell you is vastly different than Greek life at other schools.

“I love Greek life at Drury because it’s small and I feel like I have the ability to know everyone and create bonds that I wouldn’t be able to do at a bigger school. Greek life at Drury is definitely not like the scary, stereotypical view that you see in the movies. Greek life has helped me make friends, get more adjusted at Drury as a whole and get involved on campus,” said Ursino.

Holzer loves Greek life because of vast array of opportunities it has provided him with. “Being part of Greek life has given me the opportunity to connect with so many people and has given me the opportunity to be a part of something much bigger than myself, not only because of the impact Greek life has on campus but in the Springfield community.”

Overall, Greek week is a fun event for everyone on campus, but for Drury’s Greek students, this week in Ancient Greece means more than jousting and searching for idols. Holzer values this time to take a step back from the rigors of college life, saying, “College is hard sometimes so some of us forget about our chapters because of how busy we are with school. Greek week is a time where we can remember our chapters and all of the chapters and be happy about all of us being here.”

So grab your togas and ambrosia and join Greek life in this week-long trip to Mount Olympus!