A Sorority's Not What It Seems

The University of Tampa has many school organizations encouraging students to get involved. The most popular organization on campus is the Greek Community. Many students join sororities and fraternities, making life-long friends, and doing fun activities on the way.

Delta Zeta is a sorority on campus and previously held a few events regarding their “theme week.” DZ member Melissa Heikoff said, “DZ’s theme week is so much fun. We hold little games and events for people to participate in and the turnout is really good!”

One of the events DZ holds includes a lip-singing contest. The new pledges of each sorority and fraternity on campus were to lip-sing and dance to any particular song. The group with the best act would win. DZ sophomore, Courtney Walker said, “That contest was so funny. One of the frat’s pledges lip-singed to Taylor Swift and reenacted the VMA spoof with Kanye West. They cut off the song in the middle, then started singing and dancing to Beyonce! It was hilarious!”

Those in Greek Life were not the only ones to attend these events last week. Some regular students stopped by to join the fun. DZ President, Christina Breaden said, “The main goal of our theme week is to reach out to people who have yet to join Greek Life. It gives them the opportunity to see what they are missing and hopefully they will think to join next chance they have! We want to get as many people as we can involved in our sorority.”

This may seem like all games and no fun, but the preparation for theme week is exhausting. Each member of the sorority has a certain responsibility to fulfill. They need to budget the events-to make sure they never run short of money; they have to gather the necessary equipment, such as a stage and microphones, and they need to set up each event accordingly (chairs, lights, etc). Heikoff said, “It takes a lot of work and planning, but in the end it’s all worth it!”

However, if other Greek communities think they can get by with just performing a lip-singing act, they are wrong! At the end of each performance, the judges, who consist of Breaden and some other DZ executive members, ask a representative of each group a specific question about Delta Zeta. These questions range from the sorority’s colors, where it was established, and other important facts. “DZ theme week is supposed to be just that: our theme week! We want to see how knowledgeable other sororities and fraternities are about us. We are very impressed when someone answers the question correctly and those are the ones who normally win," said Breaden.

It is inevitable that this campus organization requires a lot of hard work and dedicated planning. Nevertheless, it all seems worth it to its members once they realize what they gained in the process: friends and fun!