In order to reduce the competition between chapters during DePauw's annual Greek Week, Sept. 16 to 21. The Greek God and Goddess dance competition will be removed from the week and held at a later date, Oct. 10. Other activities of the week have also been modified to promote unity. In addition to the date changes, participants will only include Panhellenic and Interfraternity Council chapters.
Greek God and Goddess is normally a highly anticipated Greek Week event with chapters practicing weeks in advance. Panhellenic Council's Vice President of Programming, Erica Mills explains that this type of competition defeats the purpose of Greek Week.
"We all have a pretty unified feeling that Greek Week is supposed to be something that should bring all the different communities together," Mills said.
Mills notes that she hopes moving the competition-based Greek God and Goddess will decrease the hostility between chapters during a week that is supposed to be centered on celebrating the Greek community.
Junior Rachel Dauenbaugh has her doubts on whether the move will change any feelings between chapters.
"By taking it away they're trying to eliminate competition, but it won't eliminate it at all - we're still going to be competitive," Dauenbaugh said.
While Greek Week will emphasize unity, Mills assures there will still be events where greek members compete against each other.
"We're not taking competition out as a whole," Mills said. "Instead, we're teaming different people up together so that it's not a chapter against a chapter - it's a group of people against a group of people."
For such events as Greek Olympics and the Unity Step Show, teams will consist of members from one sorority, one fraternity and members of the Multicultural Greek Council.
With the Unity Step Show, members from each chapter will learn a step routine and perform it at the end of Greek Week. IFC's Vice President of Operations Ben Cox believes it will be an event that can involve everyone, be a good learning experience and provide an opportunity to get to know students in other chapters.
"We haven't been as in touch as we can and should be," Cox said. "Even though some of the MGC have not been around as long as some of the fraternities and sororities, they still have great history and tradition to learn about."
In addition, the week prior to Greek Week, Sept. 9 to 15 will be Service Week in which members from each chapter will volunteer at organizations throughout Putnam County.
"We're hoping to use it to encourage continued service after the Week," says Cox.