by Monica Schwarze
Staff Writer
Due to a lack of funding and participation, ULV’s Charity Greek Week, a week reserved for Greek charity events and a faculty appreciation luncheon, will not take place this semester.
“There is no Charity Greek Week. We’re postponing the events and probably changing them for a later date,” said junior Tony Tong, Inter Fraternity Sorority Council (IFSC) president, who, until last week, was in charge of organizing the penny wars and luncheon that have been a part of Charity Greek Week. Tong blames the rescheduling on low interest and participation.
“The participation was bad within IFSC because of the meeting time being on Monday at 1. It’s hard for the members to attend meetings, and because of low attendance, you don’t get a lot of participation,” said Tong.
In addition to low participation, lack of funds contributed to the rescheduling of the events. Charity Greek Week has traditionally ended with a luncheon where Greek students invite their favorite faculty member to dine with them. Tong approached the Associated Students Federation (ASF) Forum with a request of $500 to sponsor the luncheon, but his request was denied.
ASF president Chris Braunstein said that the Forum was reluctant to fund Greek Week because IFSC has already received a $1,000 line-item increase in its 1995-96 budget.
“To say that Greek Week won’t happen because ASF didn’t give them that $500 is a cop-out because we’ve already given them $2,500 for the year,” he said. “The allocation is for them to spend over the entire semester, and they told us that they had about $2,100 left. They had the funds to do it on their own.”
Braunstein added, “ASF is becoming the scapegoat in the situation, and that’s not right. We’ve increased their budget by $1,000. That’s $500 each semester. How can they say that we’re not helping?”
Tong believes that the budget increase should not have been taken into account while ASF was considering whether to grant IFSC the necessary funds for Greek Week.
“How can you not see the purpose and the good intentions of this event?” said Tong.
Braunstein added that poor planning was also a factor in ASF’s decision.
“They should have planned better and they should have planned farther ahead. They came to us the Wednesday before Greek Week. They should have come sooner,” he said.
Tong admits that Charity Greek Week was planned poorly, but even though activities have been postponed this semester, he remains determined to carry on the tradition of Greek Week.
“I want to improve the perception of Greeks and, at the same time, I want to do the things that our organizations carry in our principles and our rituals. Charity is one of those things. I hope that, in the future, we can plan better and get more participation,” he said.
