Oakland University’s Greek Council (OUGC) hosted Greek Week from March 28 to April 1. All of the proceeds earned went towards the Rainbow Connection Charity.

Greek Council is the governing board for all greek lettered organizations at Oakland University and is responsible for planning Greek Week each winter.

Everyone, including non-greeks, was welcome to come to the events. However, only registered, active members of greek life could participate in the events such as the chariot races.

The greek organizations were broken up into teams. This year’s teams were:

• Basketball Team: Alpha Sigma Tau, Tau Kappa Epsilon and Alpha Kappa Alpha

• Soccer Team: Gamma Phi Beta, Theta Chi and Delta Sigma Theta

• Baseball Team: Sigma Sigma Sigma, Alpha Sigma Phi and Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc.

• Swimming Team: Alpha Delta Pi, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Zeta Sigma Chi Multicultural Sorority Inc. and Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc.

• Hockey Team: Phi Sigma Sigma, Sigma Pi and Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc.

Events included chariot races, philanthropy day, scavenger hunt, movie night, a dance-off, and a tailgate followed by a flag football tournament.

Philanthropy Day on Tuesday, March 29 helped to raise money for the Rainbow Connection and Fleece and Thank You.

Rainbow Connection is an organization dedicated to providing support and making wishes come true for children in Michigan with life-threatening illnesses, according to its website. There was tabling in the OC during the day to raise money for the charity.

“Rainbow Connection is like a more local Make A Wish Foundation,” said Maddie Keller, community relations chair for greek council, historian of Gamma Phi Beta and a freshman studying marketing. “It helps make dreams come true for children that are battling serious illnesses.”

Later that day, OUGC made over 90 blankets for Fleece and Thank You, a non-profit organization that makes blankets and supports pediatric patients, in the Banquet Rooms. Fraternities and sororities that attended had opportunities to earn points for their organizations based on the supplies that they brought in and the number of blankets they made. Their goal was to make 100 to 200 blankets.

Day four of Greek Week was a Dance-Off, and it was time for teams to show their dancing skills and creativity.

According to the Facebook event page, teams were judged on creativity, how well they incorporated their team’s sport (i.e. basketball, swimming, soccer, baseball or hockey), the team’s outfit or costume and how well the dance was put together.  The ranking of winners from first to fifth place was swimming, basketball, soccer, baseball and hockey.  

Alpha Sigma Tau and Alpha Delta Pi hosted a sexual assault awareness talk on April 3.

This event helped to start sexual awareness month, according to a Facebook event. A speaker from HAVEN, talked about consent, the definition of sexual assault, creating a culture of consent, bystander intervention and how to respond to disclosures of sexual assault. HAVEN is a non-profit organization that provides programs to promote violence-free homes and communities and helps victims of sexual assault and domestic violence.

According to the Center for Student Activities and Leadership Development (CSA), there are 17 fraternities and sororities that are organized into and governed by four councils (Panhellenic, Interfraternity, National Pan-Hellenic and Multicultural).

Keller encourages everyone to give greek life a chance.

“The kind of community that we have is so unique, someone is always there to give you a helping hand,” she said. “Even if someone has no plans of going greek I think it’s important for people to see what fraternities and sororities are really all about as opposed to how they are portrayed.”

For more information about greek life, visit oakland.edu/gogreek or visit their Facebook page “Oakland University Greek Council.”