Once a year in mid-March the campus divides and the Greeks on campus stand out a tad more than usual. With fraternity guys dressing up like women, sorority girls wearing special t-shirts, frats practicing football and excessive screaming, there’s no mistaking the fact that Greek Week has begun at Villanova.

The week kicks off with a chariot race where each fraternity and sorority must construct, from scratch, a chariot that will be able to carry a member of the team for four laps around Sheehan beach. Next comes skit night, the pride and joy of Greek Week. Fraternities and sororities work for weeks to prepare seven-minute skits. Fraternities seem to have the right idea; each fraternity this year made a comedic, light-hearted skit including acting, dancing and running around dressed like women. Many sororities, on the other hand, concentrated solely on dancing, themes and outfits. Some groups have been known to spend over $500 on props and costumes. If that’s what it takes to win, then Greek Week has taken a turn for the worse.

Perhaps the sororities should follow the examples set by groups like Delta Tau Delta, Sigma Alpha Mu and Phi Sigma Kappa, which took the skit portion of Greek Week to a different level. These groups did not practice for hours upon hours each day, and they did not spend hundreds of dollars; they just showed off their personalities and bodies and had fun, which is the best thing Greek Week can do for the students of Villanova.

This year, a new event has been added to the schedule. On Thursday, fraternities and sororities competed for four hours to see who could build the best castle out of donated canned goods. The canned goods were all donated to a local charity; proving that Greeks are not just about partying and looking good. With some groups having over 100 members and donating at least two cans per person, the Greek community was able to emphasize the importance of philanthropic activities and make a real difference to some families.

It’s always good to arouse a little spirit of competition among the Greek community, but let’s make sure it doesn’t get out of hand. One can only take a chariot race so seriously before it becomes ridiculous. These events are all meant to be entertaining and fun for Greek and non-Greek students alike. However, when sororities and fraternities skip classes to go to events, spend hundreds of dollars on props for skits and stay up all night practicing, they lose the sense of fun and spontaneity that Greek Week should be all about.