The Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life recently announced that it will change the content and organization of Greek Week this spring to include events such as a coin war and a relay race, as well as eliminate the dodgeball game.

The changes to the traditional events of the week are an effort on the part of the administration to foster unity among the different Greek organizations on campus and to increase awareness for Greek Life in general among Villanova students.

New events will be included in the week long competition, like the Wacky Relay, where sororities will be paired with fraternities in a relay race, and coin wars.

As a part of Greek Week, Mass will be held, and there will also be a blood drive to which each organization will send 7 percent of its members.

The traditional event “Quizzo” was changed to an academic bowl, where teams of three members representing each organization will answer questions on academic trivia.

“Dodgeball was especially contentious in the past,” said Phil O’Neil, director of the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life. “We wanted to change the head-to-head competition of the past. The purpose of Greek Week is to build us up, not break us down.”

The proceeds of the coin wars will be donated to a single, undisclosed philanthropic organization unaffiliated with any of the Greek organizations at Villanova.

The Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life wants to use this week to increase the focus on service to others and advertise the Greek system on campus.

This fall they will also be implementing a new event, called GreekEnd, which will essentially be a mini Greek Week designed to increase the awareness of Greek life among freshmen students before spring recruitment.

The changes to the week have generated a lot of interest among fraternity and sorority members at Villanova.

Many are excited about the new events, but some students have expressed doubts about the practicality of a rapid overhaul.

“I think that the changes made to Greek Week this year will simply make our job as regulators more important,” said Sonia Jasuja, an officer in the Order of Omega, the all-Greek honor society. “Many people will undoubtedly have questions, and our job will be to make the transition to this new and improved Greek Week a smooth one.”

According to leaders in Greek organizations, these changes will be just an initial effort in a much larger, more gradual process of trial-and-error, in order to find events which will advertise Greek life on campus and improve interactions within the Greek community.

Most community members predict this year will be a period of transition for Greek Week, which will require some adjustments on the part of community members and Villanova staff.

“These changes have been made in the best interests of Greek Week this year, and for the future,” Jasuja said.

The opening ceremonies will be held on March 28.

The events of Greek Week will be, in order: Day of Service, flag football, blood drive, the Academic Bowl, Can Castle, Skit Night, Wacky Relay, tug-of-war, three-on-three basketball, the Chariot Race and a Greek-wide Mass. Closing ceremonies will be held on Saturday, April 4.