Make changes and watch what happens: This has been the philosophy behind planning efforts for Greek Week 2014.

This year’s theme is “Greatest Greeks on Earth,” and the event will carry a circus motif with proceeds being split between the Leo and Una Foundation and the Florence-Lauderdale Animal Shelter.

Taking place between April 7 and 12, Assistant Director of Student Engagement for Greek Affairs Julie Fletcher and a student planning committee have been working to customize this year’s event to encourage participation from all students involved in Greek life.

“We’ve made some pretty radical changes this year and we are anxious to see how it plays out,” said Greek Week Director Sarah Keeter. “We’ve changed up some of the events this year by adding philanthropy activities.”

Greek Week events include a kick-off party, banner competition, field day, an awards ceremony and philanthropic events, Fletcher said.

“The sole purpose of Greek Week is to have a fun, eventful week that has healthy competition and that shows PR for the entire Greek community — not just a particular council,” she said.

Two philanthropic events will be added to this year’s schedule. One is a can drive, where chapters will collect canned food items to compete in a “can-castle” competition, with all cans going to Feed the Pride food pantry. The other is a “profit share” night at Buffalo Wild Wings, where 10 percent of all money spent at the restaurant between 4 and 8 p.m. on Wednesday, April 9 will be donated to organizations chosen by members of the Greek community, Keeter said.

Committee members proposed the changes to make Greek Week more inclusive than in years past, Keeter said.

“There has not been a whole lot of participation in the past,” Keeter said. “When I think of Greek Week, I think it is just a time to celebrate being Greek. We have a saying: ‘No matter the letters, we’re all Greek together.’ We all come together and it’s a great time to celebrate.”

Fletcher, who is finishing up her first year as Greek Life adviser, feels letting students take ownership of the event allows them to plan a week that all members of Greek Life will enjoy.

“There’s lots of flexibility in the week because it’s a lot of students and a lot of time,” Fletcher said. “The Greek community is very diverse in numbers so we wanted to make sure that we could have inclusion of everyone.”

This year’s competitions and awards ceremony will be focused on individual chapters, rather than large teams like in recent years. Hopefully this will improve chapter recognition while encouraging a larger sense of community, Fletcher said.

“Honestly, I don’t know what has been done in the past,” Fletcher said. “We have got to try and start from somewhere. We have a great director and committee that have been working really hard since October.”

Keeter was elected director by her peers on the Greek Week committee, which is made up of approximately 10 representatives from various chapters on campus who wanted to take part in the planning process. The committee was vital in doing necessary research on other schools’ Greek Weeks to plan the best possible event, Fletcher said.

“I’m all about change and coming up with new ideas every year,” Fletcher said. “Since we are working on year number one for me, we want to see how it goes this time,” Fletcher said.

While philanthropic efforts help Greek Life members reach out to parts of the UNA and Florence communities, non-Greek students are welcome to observe events like the field day and awards ceremony, Fletcher said.

Junior Shane Parker is unaware of the significance of Greek Week, he said.

“Pretty much all I can say about Greek Week is that I know it’s a big deal, but I don’t really know why,” he said. “I don’t plan on observing any of their events, because I don’t think I have a good reason to do so.”

Editor’s note: Editor-in-Chief Corinne Beckinger, a member of Greek Life, did not contribute to this report.