Armed with guitars and roses, groups of raucous, suit-clad fraternity pledges walked through the Sorority Quads on Friday for this year’s Gone Greek Night.
Although the snow powdered their shoulders and it was a mere 7 degrees with windchill, the pledges didn’t seem to mind as they chanted outside the sororities and serenaded the women inside.
“We have it all rehearsed and come to show what our pledge class is all about,” said McCormick senior Mike Hoaglin, special events chairman for Beta Theta Pi.
Gone Greek Night is an important night for fraternities and sororities, marking the end of rush and showing Greek unity.
“For most new members this is their first event,” said Kelly Shimizu, president of the Panhellenic Association and an Education senior. “The night is really for them.”
Prior to the rotating serenades, fraternities and sororities paired up for formal dinners at the sorority houses. Fraternity members then left to rehearse their songs, a mix of “gentlemanly” and familiar tunes with modified humorous lyrics.
“In the past we’ve had problems with derogatory lyrics, but people have cleaned up their act a bit,” said Laura Spencer, vice president of personal relations for Panhel and a Pi Beta Phi member. “Things have been pretty tame so far this year.”
Spencer was one of the many monitors from the Interfraternity Council and Panhel who helped direct the fraternities through the rotations and ensured everything went as planned.
For Phi Gamma Delta pledge Frank Zou, Gone Greek Night was all about getting to know his fraternity brothers.
“The guys are awesome,” the McCormick freshman said. “It’s an amazing brotherhood.”
Fellow Fiji pledge and McCormick freshman Greg Martens was more interested in wooing the sorority members.
“We just want to appeal to the ladies,” Martens said, adding that his favorite song lyric was, “We’re down on our knees, begging you please.”
Kappa Delta was the only sorority to brave the cold this year, joining fraternities on their porch singing, “Sweet Home Kappa Delta.”
Pi Kappa Alpha responded with an a capella rendition of the well-known “I wanna li-li-li-lick you from your head to your toes …”
Following the singing rounds, fraternities and sororities piled onto buses to be taken to venues such as ESPN Zone in Chicago. Six groups walked to Hotel Orrington in Evanston.
The only glitch in an otherwise smooth night occurred when a Chicago bar decided hosting an underage event was too much of a liability, according to Ilya Lipkind, president of Sigma Phi Epsilon and a Weinberg junior.
“We had to switch last second to a bar in Wrigleyville,” said Lipkind, who declined to specify which bar canceled. Sigma Chi, Beta Theta Pi, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Alpha Phi and Pi Beta Phi were also affected by this change.
Reach Jennifer Wedekind at [email protected].
