Greek Life Comes Together for Greek Week with COVID Regulations

UWG’s Greek Programming Board conducted its annual Greek Week from March 29th to April 2nd. Greek Week is  a competition between various fraternities and sororities established in greek life. Greek Week 2021 followed a decades theme featuring the ‘20s, ‘30s, ‘50s, and all the way up to the 2000’s. As Greek Week was cancelled during the spring semester of 2020, this year’s competition was highly anticipated by the Greek community. Throughout the week, various competitions and community service events were hosted by the Greek Programming Board. Each day of the week involved a range of different activities.

            “On Monday we did a banner contest for each of the teams, and because the theme was based on decades, each team created banners based off of their particular theme,” said Greek Week Chairman, Aliyah Boddie. “That Monday we also did Family Feud based off of the television show. We had limited viewing capacity so non-participants watched the event through Zoom.”

            Alpha Xi Delta and Kappa Sigma were declared the winners of Family Feud on Monday evening. The festivities of the week continued on the next day with a new activity for the teams to compete in. 

            “On Tuesday we had a scavenger hunt, so each team gathered some of their members to follow clues located all around campus to find wolfie, who was hidden,” said Boddie. “The following day we hosted the Greek Games where the teams competed in games like dizzy bat, relay races, tug-of-war as well as Greek Grind”

            Games and activities were not the only events that were held throughout the week. Mental health and well-being became the focus of Thursday night’s event. The Greek Programming Board focused on serious issues that continue to be prevalent within Greek organizations all around the country.

            “Thursday there was a speaker who discussed diversity and inclusion in sorority and fraternity life and talked about how chapters can work better together to unite with one another,” said Boddie.

            Will Nicholson addressed all Greek organizations through a Zoom meeting covering existing issues in Greek life such as hazing and discrimination. He encouraged students to speak up and speak out to put a stop to these negative aspects that are sometimes present when joining a fraternity or sorority. His lecture was followed with a question and answer portion where viewers were given the opportunity to discuss their concerns and collaborate in discussion with Nicholson.

            In previous years, Greek Week events were filled with tightly packed audiences and activities. Due to the pandemic this year the Greek Programming Board had to adapt to the circumstances and manipulate the events to satisfy COVID-19 guidelines. Multiple precautions, as well as thorough communication with the university, were implemented and resulted in a successful, medically-safe competition.

            “When creating the Greek Week program packet we went thoroughly through the details of each event and had to communicate with the University President Brendan Kelly to decide how many people were allowed in each area,” said Boddie. “For each event everyone was separated six feet apart per team and masks were mandatory as well as other social distancing guidelines.”

            This semester Greek organizations have been unable to hold major events such as formals and semi-formals, philanthropy events and chapter meetings. Holding Greek Week was the first event since the start of the pandemic that allowed Greek life to gather and interact with one another again. Although the teams were competing against one another, the week gave them the opportunity to see familiar faces and reconnect with their fellow Greek life members.

            “I feel as if each Greek organization felt included during Greek Week because we haven’t had the chance to do any events due to COVID-19, so us having a chance to come together and unify as greeks was nice,” said Boddie. “That being said, we are very hopeful to be able to have future events on campus.”