Last Monday marked the beginning of “Proud to be PHC Week,” a new tradition started by DU’s Panhellenic Council (PHC) chapter.

“Proud to be PHC Week” was a week-long contest designed to get sorority members to show their Greek pride.

Every day last week, members of DU’s five sororities could earn up to six PHC tokens in the form of poker chips for their respective sororities by wearing clothing that displayed the letters or names of their sororities.

The Panhellenic Council is the governing body for all national sororities. A chapter is found at each college campus where sororities that are recognized by the national organization exist. The six executive members of DU’s Panhellenic Council, all sophomores and juniors, are President Jenna Jackson and the Vice President of Judicial Amber D’Angelo, Recruitment Kristy Edstrom, Programming Victoria Villescas, Finance Pamela Mayer and Communications Kristin Safi.

Every day last week, the six PHC members were handing out tokens to all women they saw on campus who were proudly displaying their letters. All of the estimated 300 DU sorority women could get one token from each PHC executive member every day of the week. The tokens were then deposited in plastic buckets located in each of the sorority houses, and were collected by the members of Panhellenic on Friday evening.

The winning house was Delta Zeta, which accumulated 217 tokens throughout the week. The members of DZ will get an ice cream sundae party, compliments of Panhellenic, and will get to display a “Proud to be PHC” banner in their house.

Jackson said, “Thank you to each and every house for your enthusiastic participation. Last week was a great opportunity to see the pride fraternity women have in their Panhellenic community.”

According to Jackson, the Panhellenic Council hopes to repeat this event twice a quarter to “establish a tradition in which fraternity women make a unified statement of pride in their organizations.”

PHC also strives to encourage sorority members to abide by the values that are contained within the four pillars of Greek life; scholarship, leadership, friendship and service.

The council is hopeful that by repeating this event, the community will be able to recognize the positive contributions these women routinely make in these areas, and that it will help break down the stereotypes that often lead people to misjudge the value and legitimacy of membership in a sorority.