Greeks host block party

    Fraternities and sororities came together on Friday afternoon to host a bustling block party aimed at uniting Greek students with the rest of the student body and the Medford and Somerville communities.
    Enjoying the beautiful weather, students and members from Tufts' surrounding neighborhoods gathered on Professors Row to enjoy an array of activities, including pumpkin carving, cookie decorating, tie-dyeing and live music.
    Each of Tufts' fraternity and sororities contributed to the event, cooking hot dogs and hamburgers, setting up activities and making whipped cream pies.
    The brothers of Sigma Phi Epsilon  (SigEp) generated the idea for the block party a year and a half ago.
    "We wanted to change the Greek image, not just among the Tufts community, but also within Medford and Somerville," said junior Alex Kahn, a SigEp brother who served as one of the event's coordinators. "Hopefully this will become an annual event and a Tufts tradition."
    Senior Jake Maccoby, a SigEp brother and the president of the Inter-Greek Council, said the event also helped unify the Greek community internally.
    "The tone of the Greek community in the past has been a feeling of being scattered — a set of houses and chapters — but what's really started to happen, particularly this year, is we're building a cohesive community and a stronger Greek family," said Maccoby, who is also an editorialist for the Daily.
    The event brought together other Tufts groups as well. The Tufts Community Union Senate provided hot dogs and hamburgers, and the Pan-African Alliance and the Association of Latin American Students (ALAS) also lent their efforts.
    "We wanted to have people from the community see the better side of Tufts students rather than tensions between the school and the city," said sophomore Jose Mena, ALAS' public relations officer.
    "To see all these people come together on a day like this, where all the groups at Tufts can assemble, shows how we really are all part of a larger community," said sophomore Chris Owens, the treasurer and special projects coordinator for the Pan-African Alliance.