The Panhellenic and Interfraternity Councils are working to change greek weekend’s reputation.
Although the weekend is often known as a time for students to come back to campus and drink, President of Panhel Trisha Koors said the councils are having meetings with the presidents of all sororities and fraternities in hopes to communicate that they want the weekend to be more about sisterhood and brotherhood.
“We want people to remember why they became greek, not just to party,” she said.
The councils are not trying to take away the fun of the weekend, but they will teach chapters about how to safely consume alcohol, so people can positively represent greek life, Koors said.
“Greek weekend has turned into a time for students to come back and party and get belligerent, and nothing good comes with that,” she said. “They feel that when school’s not in session, they’re not representing Bradley, but they are. All those rules and regulations are still in effect.”
President of IFC Eric Steinhardt said he agreed.
“We don’t want to have any issues with laws being broken,” he said. “It’s more getting all the presidents on the same page, where there’s some accountability. We’re not eliminating activities, just making consequences for when things get out of control.”
The councils are still deciding what consequences will be for those who get in trouble with the law, Steinhardt said.
Greek weekend is usually at the end of July. The date isn’t formally planned, but chosen by whoever wants to take the initiative and spread the word, Koors said.
“It normally just ends up on Facebook and you start hearing people talk about it,” she said.
Sophomore special education major Lauren Schiff said she plans on coming to greek weekend this year, because she had a lot of fun last year.
“It’s basically just everyone in greek life comes to hang out,” she said. “People go out, but they also just hang out and spend time with their friends they haven’t seen in a while.”
Associate Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life Ben Williams said the councils are fully in charge of deciding how to change the weekend.
However, Koors said because greek weekend isn’t formally planned, it’s hard to formally organize large events for people to attend, such as a philanthropy project.
“Hopefully in the future we could talk more about it,” she said. “A lot of schools do set a specific date. We’re not trying to seem like a communistic government, we’re just being careful and making sure that people are informed and positively representing greek life.”
