UMass Boston held its first ever Greek Week from April 1-5. The week-long event was put together by Iota Phi Theta, Delta Sigma Pi, and the Golden Key Honor Society.
“We wanted to make a more social presence … and let students know Greeks are here,” said Senior Vice President of Delta Sigma Pi Christina Bush.
Greek Week kicked off with Karaoke Night, which was held in the first floor terrace of the Campus Center. More than 30 students showed up for the chance to lend their voices to any song of their choice. Students sang hip-hop, classic rock, and a duo even performed acapella at one point.
When Mike Bazzinotti started with Will Smith’s “Getting Jiggy With It,” students began doing the electric slide.
“Karaoke is my passion,” said Bazzinotti, half kidding.
When the night was complete, and with only one scare that a student’s singing would be so bad that Campus Center windows might break, the fraternities were happy with the outcome of the event.
“Karaoke night was really for everyone to come out and have fun, and hang out with us and see who we are,” said Dihamel Milard, a member of the Iota Phi Theta fraternity.
After the event wrapped up, Milard got exactly what he hoped would come from having this event, when a student approached him about pledging. “This is one of the major reasons we’re having this week – to get more members,” said Milard.
Tuesday’s event was Academic Professional Day.
“We had 75-100 students come in total today,” said Christina Bush.
Delta Sigma Pi is an international business fraternity which worked with the College of Management to put on events similar to Professional Day throughout the year.
“What we do is help bring professionals to the campus to talk to the students, help them network, build their resume,” said Bush.
The fraternities collected over 500 lbs of trash by the Vietnam Veteran Memorial on Morrissey Boulevard for Wednesdays event, Community Service Day.
Both Delta Sigma Pi and Iota Phi Theta had organized community service and fundraising events earlier in the year. Iota endorsed Michelle Obama’s campaign for childhood obesity with their own campaign they called “IPhit,” a play on words with their fraternity’s name. The campaign encourages kids to do 60 minutes of movement.
“We got a gym and had a ton of obstacles in the gym. There was also snack attack, introducing kids to healthy food,” said Milard. “We are very much about community service.”
Sigma Delta Pi helped raise $1,000 for a fraternity brother whose son passed away in the Newtown school shooting.
The last two days of Greek Week consisted of a costume party on Thursday night and the Greek Games on Friday.
The Greek Games was a competition between the two frats and the Golden Key Club.
Out of the three, who won?
“We lost, Golden Key won,” laughed Milard.
“It was great. I was pleased for the first time of doing something like that,” said Milard about how he felt about the overall week.
Bush and Milard hope to put on another Greek Week next year. Students interested in pledging can visit the fraternity’s office on the second floor of the Campus Center in the student media office.