Greek Week (April 13 – April 19) provides a chance for Greek organizations on campus to get together and compete in various activities while giving them an opportunity to improve their local community.
“It is sort of like a homecoming for Greeks on campus,” said Andrew Bledsoe, co-chair of Greek Week and member of Lambda Chi Alpha and the vice president of leadership and programming in the Inter-Fraternity Council (IFC). “The whole goal of Greek Week is to show the foundation of Greek life,” said Kristina Livesey, also co-chair of Greek Week and member of Alpha Xi Delta and executive vice president of Pan-Hellenic Council.
Many universities with Greek life celebrate a Greek Week on campus. “Where there is a Greek community, you have a Greek Week,” said Bledsoe. However, this is the first time in a few years that a Greek Week has taken place on the ETSU campus.
“There has been a sort of renaissance in the Greek community, Greek life has been declining in the last several years, but because of recent internal efforts, there has been more interest lately,” claims Bledsoe. “We are recruiting great people with strong leaderships skills and they have been helping spark Greek life to help us do more than we have done in the past and improve the community as a whole.”
“Sometimes people have common misconceptions about Greek life, but the Greek system is based on scholarships, service, leadership, brotherhood and sisterhood,” said Livesey. “I think Greek week provides a service to the community while showing that we are a positive influence on campus.”
Greeks participated in events throughout the week to earn points for their organization through both participation and rank in competitions.
Among the many activities this week, Greeks raised $600 during Relay for Life last Friday. Greeks also participated in the Tree Street Clean Up event and held “Penny Wars” at the T.J. Sullivan presentation Monday night.
They also hosted a cook-out Tuesday night at the at Willow Springs Park and sponsored an All-Sing Wednesday night where participating organizations made monetary donations to perform popular songs in accord with their theme “Hit Singles and Number One Jingles.”
The overall winners of Greek Week were Kappa Delta and Lambda Chi Alpha.
Greeks raised roughly $1,300 through their combined efforts this week, all of which will be donated to the American Cancer Society.
“I am very impressed with the participation of the students as well as the money we raised for it,” said Livesey. “Some of the chapters only have 50-60 members but when you get all of these people together, you can do some pretty amazing things” noted Bledsoe.
“Greek life is wanting to make this an annual event,” Livesey said. “and I have great expectations for next year due to the outcome of this Greek Week.

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