Greek Week, an annual celebration with competitive, philanthropic and social events, kicks off Monday at UT Dallas.
Zach Shirley, assistant director of Fraternity and Sorority Life at UT Dallas, said fun and games aside, the week helps familiarize Greeks with philanthropic efforts besides their own.
“The importance of Greek Week is to have a series of activities that bring the Greek community together in fellowship – to have healthy, friendly conversations about their respective organizations,” Shirley said. “It opens their eyes to all the other chapters and to the worlds that exist beyond what they know. These groups also are achieving scholastically and doing great philanthropy work in the community, so it’s nice to share that news with their peers and with all of campus.”
Justin Hajek
Justin Hajek, chair of the University’s Greek Week committee, said representatives from campus Greek groups have been meeting regularly throughout the semester to plan the week’s events. Hajek, who also works for Fraternity and Sorority Life, is a junior Arts and Technology major and a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.
“We talked a lot about what activities we wanted to see during Greek Week, and we made sure they happened,” Hajek said. “There are so many benefits to Greek life at UT Dallas – from networking opportunities, to community service, to making lifelong friends. It’s definitely been a good experience, and one that I’ll take with me wherever I go in life.”
Shirley said the Think Fast Game Show and the Busy Book service project are open to non-Greek students. Think Fast is a quiz/trivia game where players have to be quick with their fingers and buzz in an answer for questions related to UT Dallas, fraternal organizations, pop culture and outer space. The Busy Book service project involves creating activity books for Children’s Medical Center in a relaxed, come-and-go environment. Once the books are completed, two Fraternity and Sorority Life chapters will deliver them as a group.
In addition to these events, there will be a faculty and staff Greek mixer at 6 p.m. on Tuesday in the Faculty Dining Room.
UT Dallas is home to 15 national Greek-letter fraternities and sororities representing organizations from the Interfraternity Council (fraternities), United Greek Council (culturally based fraternities and sororities), National Pan-Hellenic Council (historically African-American fraternities and sororities) and the College Panhellenic Council (sororities).