Greek Unity or Greek Tragedy?
This past week was Rider University’s Greek Week, seven days where Rider’s Greek community is supposed to join together and promote unity by embracing in friendly competition and fun activities. I have to be brutally honest as the President of Rider’s Epsilon Lambda chapter of Alpha Xi Delta when I say this Greek Week backfired worse than an old Pinto with a plug in the exhaust.
Some events were clever and creative, and went toward a good cause. For example, the Can Castle build-off was an event where each chapter was to collect as many cans as they could and then build a castle out of the cans in three hours. All of the cans would be donated to homeless shelters and organizations that needed the food. This was a great cause and a great idea, but the castle contest became a bit overwhelming when other Greek Organizations felt they had to “one-up” others by going out and buying cans in bulk after seeing how many other chapters possessed. I’m talking hundreds of cans. It went from a fun contest for a good cause to a money match over who could win this contest.
In addition, new games were implemented that were not so well thought-out. The Jousting Competition for example, was a huge problem. Not for the guys, but for all of the sorority women who would stand on pillars facing one another and try to knock their opponent off with a large smushy noodle. This would not have been a problem if each opponent were able to reach one another, but for some reason the pillars were too far away for the women, which led to long, gruesome matches (and quite a bit of dehydration and overheating).
Also, poor planning lead to several medical emergencies that the University wasn’t prepared for. The human pyramid contest was going well until one of our girls fell off of the top of the pyramid, hurt her back and had to go to the hospital by ambulance. That was strike one. Strike two was when an overheated jouster (after being up there for about 30 minutes because she couldn’t reach her opponent) began vomiting. They had water. Nothing else. Strike 2. Finally, the straw that broke the camel’s back. An enthusiastic sorority member (who shall remain nameless) decided to try out the inflatable obstacle course and somehow ended up kneeing herself in the nose. This drew blood. Alot of it. But wait, where were the paper towels and the first aid kit? OH WAIT, there were none. There were hundreds of students on inflatables, climbing rock walls and building towers out of bodies in the heat, yet there was not one piece of medical equipment available. Not even a sole band-aid.
This was not it, however. Events got so heated that members from different organizations began yelling and screaming at each other over stupid scores and losing matches. This was NOT promoting greek unity, nor was it ideal. Greek Week ended with angry members and injured students. I say next year there should be more preparation and thought. Instead of house against house, maybe Rider should actually hold events that PROMOTE the Greek unity they have been looking for instead of promoting. It’s there, because I’ve seen it. Pair up members from all houses instead of adding fuel to the fire and encouraging the competition, maybe then people wouldn’t look at us as selfish groups of people who only care about themselves. People might then consider us people who have friends and can respect each other, which is something I think all of Rider’s greek community can agree on. Greeks are underestimated on this campus, and every campus for that matter. It’s a shame that events such as this past Greek week, shapes the way others think about people. Next time, rider should consider a new approach to Greek week.
And next time maybe they’ll bring some damn band-aids.
