Each year, the Greek community comes together to celebrate the unifying tradition of Greek Week, where chapters from each council come together to participate in friendly competitions and connect with one another. The 2011 Greek Week theme was ‘Let the Games Begin’ in which teams displayed board games of their childhood such as Clue, Candy Land, Mouse Trap, Battleship, Life, Operation, Chutes and Ladders, and Monopoly. Events for the week varied in interests from service and philanthropy, to scholarship, sport, dance, song, art, and more! The week began with a scholarship breakfast reception, where Greek students invited their professors, advisors, and various university staff to be honored and recognized for their hard work and support of our community. Over 100 faculty and staff members were in attendance for the breakfast. On the second day of Greek Week, the first ever Philanthropy Fair took place. Each chapter created a game to educate the attendees about their local and national philanthropies to raise awareness for their organization and their specific cause. We also incorporated a few other service events such as a letter campaign in which students wrote over 1,300 letters to thank our troops for all they do, a campus clean up, and CANstruction where we helped donate over 6,600 pounds of food to donate to the Denton Food Community Center. The students' favorite event is Eagle Escapades, a song and dance competition complete with

2011 Greek Week

see Greek Week on page 3

Over the past 50 years, Greek Life has flourished at UNT as our 39 Greek fraternities and sororities continually strive to give back to their organizations, the University, and local communities. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for paving the way and shaping what Greek life is today at UNT. This will be the first of many alumni publications designed to keep our UNT Greek Alumni informed of the progress of our Greek community, as well as encourage alumni involvement at both the chapter and university level. In addition to the newsletter, we strongly encourage you to visit our website, www.greeklife.unt.edu, for information on upcoming events and Greek Life news. The Office of Greek Life is also in the process of updating our Greek Alumni database. If your contact information has changed, or if you have yet to touch base with our office, please contact us at greeklife@unt.edu to provide our office with your email address. Once again, thank you for your contributions to our Greek community, and on behalf of the Office of Greek Life, we look forward to working with you to enhance alumni involvement on our campus!

Welcome from the Office of Greek Life

Maureen McGuinness, Ed.D. ◆ Dean of Students& Assistant Vice President for Student AffairsAmy Ayres, Ed.D. ◆ Associate Dean of StudentsAlex Seltzer, M.Ed. ◆ Director of Greek LifeDaniel Hernandez, M.S. ◆ Greek Life CoordinatorAllen White, M.Ed. ◆ Greek Life CoordinatorMegan Petter ◆ Graduate Assistant for Greek Life

greeklife.unt.edu

The Office of Greek Life has developed the “Greek Emerging Leaders Course” for newly-initiated members in the fraternity/sorority community. Implementation began spring 2010 with bi-weekly courses designed to develop future Greek and university leaders. The course begins with a retreat to help cultivate group bonding, trust, and honesty amongst the participants; student also discussed current issues that face Greek organizations and engaged in a sincere reflection within themselves and their own organization for values congruence. Throughout the semester, participants will be educated on the topics of leadership, goal setting, conflict management and confrontation skills, and ethical decision making. By the end of the course, participants form small groups and identify an issue they believe a chapter, community, or governing council may encounter. The groups then present the issues, goals for addressing the issues, potential “road blocks” from achieving their goals, and how their own personal leadership style can benefit and deter from the goals they have created.

Program Prepares Greeks To Lead Their Chapter

greeklife.unt.edu

On Thursday, February 24, approximately 225 members of the University of North Texas (UNT) Greek community joined the UNT athletics and football coaching staff for a late afternoon reception at the new UNT football stadium. Members of the Greek community had the opportunity to mix and mingle with UNT Athletic Director Rick Villarreal, Head Football Coach Dan McCarney, as well as several members of the UNT football coaching staff. Mr. Villarreal gave opening remarks and addressed the very excited crowd of students. He discussed and pointed out sections of the stadium for students, talked about tailgating, and all of the new improvements of the football team and the athletic program. Following his remarks, Mr. Villarreal led the energized crowd in the UNT Fight Song and introduced Coach Dan McCarney. Over the last few years, Greek Life has developed a strong relationship with the athletics department and this event was a direct result of our partnership and dedication to UNT athletics. Coach McCarney was extremely passionate and supportive of Greek Life and discussed the importance of Greek students attendance at football games and the value of their role on the campus. Coach McCarney concluded by challenging the Greek students to fill the stadium, be loud, and support the Mean Green! A video clip of the reception can be found on the football page at www.meangreensports.com, under the featured videos.

Greeks build relationship with UNT football coach Dan McCarney

costumes, props, and backdrops. Other events consisted of a banner competition which displayed members’ artistic talents, an educational leadership speaker who encouraged our students to chase authentic success, and a Greek Games field day that included a chariot race! We celebrated the end of Greek Week with Greek Awards and congratulated all the winners of the week’s events! At this year's Greek Awards Ceremony we honored the Chapter of the Year to the following organizations: • Interfraternity Council: Theta Chi • National Pan-Hellenic Council: Zeta Phi Beta • Multicultural Greek Council: Sigma Lambda Gamma • Panhellenic Council: Delta Gamma

Greek Alternative Spring Break (Greek ASB) is a new collaborative effort between the Office of Greek Life and the Center for Leadership & Service (CLS). The week is designed to provide students in fraternities and sororities with an alternative to the traditional spring break opportunity that is tailored to the Greek experience. The Greek ASB was created with a goal of linking the philanthropic themes of the Greek community with intentional service. This trip brought together members from each governing council in an effort to continually promote cross-council interaction and learning. For this year’s inaugural Greek ASB, eight students and one professional (Yvette Andablo of Kappa Delta Chi, Ivan Barraza of Omega Delta Phi, Katie Bergin of Alpha Phi, Caitlin Easterling of Zeta Tau Alpha, Kellie Hill of Chi Omega, Jenna Nelson of Chi Omega, Nikki Smith of Zeta Phi Beta, Forest Turner, Jr. of Omega Psi Phi, and Allen White, Greek Life Coordinator) traveled to New Orleans, LA to help rebuild homes. The group worked with Common Ground Relief (www.commongroundrelief.org), a non-profit organization that was created following Hurricane Katrina to assist in relief efforts, for one week where they assisted in the building of a new home and rebuilding of another that was severely damaged by fire and flooding. In reflecting on their experience students said:“This experience taught me that any help is better than none and I plan on returning to help Common Ground again in the near future.” – Yvette

“I have family in the gulf coast, so it is very close to my heart. I was glad I was able to get back to my roots and uplift the great city of New Orleans.” – Forest

“While working with others towards a common goal and giving back to those families that lost so much, I realized what an impact individuals can make when striving to make a difference.” – Katie

As a result of their experience, these students have committed themselves to returning to New Orleans in the future and have made plans to make Common Ground Relief part of their philanthropic efforts over the next year. Their hope is to be able to present a substantial donation to assist the organization with its future relief efforts.

Greek Week cont.

Greeks Serve During Spring Break

greeklife.unt.edu

In order to update you with more information about Greek Life at UNT, we would like to update our records with your current information. Please email greeklife@unt.edu with your name and email address.

Greek Life1155 Union Circle #305069Denton, TX 76203-5017

Connect with uson Facebook.