Finance junior Nick Lochinski, right, shares a laugh with Tau Kappa Epsilon brother and marketing sophomore Mark Debney during Greek Fall Welcome on Sept. 3, 2015, at the Rock on Farm Lane. Tau Kappa Epsilon was reinstated this fall at Michigan State. Kennedy Thatch/The State News
—Fraternities and sororities of greek life don’t always come together and instead do their own thing and embrace their own fraternity or sorority. But for one week, this all changes during Greek Week.
MSU is home to 63 fraternities and sororities that are governed by four different councils. They all provide different opportunities, lifelong friendships, leadership for more than 4,000 students on campus.
Jenny Guttman, director of Public Relations for Greek Week, said a sorority and two fraternities are grouped together to form a team.
The teams are heavily rooted in philanthropy work and they implement fundraising for their respective philanthropy through their own fundraising page and GiveGab.
“We do fundraisers and different competitions so we can raise money for a philanthropy, so each team chooses their philanthropy and what it means to them,” Guttman said.
Different events throughout the week include the kick off Blood Drive on March 28, Day of Service, Greek Games, National Pan-Hellenic Council's, or NPHC's, annual Step Show and Greek Spotlight, where members of each team showcase their skills and talents.
Political Science sophomore Erik Haener serves on the philanthropy committee. He helps coordinate with the different teams and their individual philanthropy goals.
Haener said Greek Week helps to bring the Greek community together while helping others.
“(It’s a) mostly friendly competition and bringing the greek community together so that we're all able to come together for a certain goal and compete,” he said.
Genomics and molecular genetics junior Ellie Small serves as director of relations for Greek Week and is head of the events committee. She is in charge of dealing with all the details of the various events throughout the week.
“I think it's a really great opportunity for the great community to come together because a lot of it is centered around community service and philanthropy," Small said. "I think it’s a really great to way to really build bonds with the rest of the great community in a really meaningful way."
Small said this year they raised the fundraising goal by about $25,000 more because they did so well last year during March, the fundraising month.
“We exceeded our goal last year, so we got really high hopes for the amount of money that we can raise because we want to keep improving from year to year,” she said.
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