Greek Life took part in National Hazing Prevention Week (NHPW) last week to educate their chapters about the harms of hazing. The Greek community participated in various activities to raise awareness about the harmful effects hazing can have on their members and their chapters, junior and President of Sigma Phi Epsilon (SigEp) Derek Dahlin said “The brothers of SigEp have taken a firm stance against hazing, so the fact that UVM participates so fully in National Hazing Prevention Week really makes us proud,” Dahlin said. Penny Wars was one of many activities all the chapters participated in during the week. During Penny Wars, every chapter was given a bucket to collect pennies. For every penny collected, the chapter received one point. However, for every silver coin or dollar collected, that sum was subtracted from the team’s penny count, according to a news release. Along with the Penny Wars other events took place. Sept. 23 was Gordie Day, named after a student at the University of Colorado who died three weeks into his first year because he was hazed. “Having Greek Life show support for Gordie shows the University that hazing of any kind is unacceptable for any organization,” SigEp senior Todd Summers said. The Gordie Foundation has distributed hundreds of thousands of pieces of educational materials about the harms of hazing to students across the country, according to the Gordie Foundation website. “As an initially skeptical student to join Greek Life at UVM because of stigma of hazing within fraternities and sororities, I can say that Greek Life at UVM has proved to be quite the opposite,” Pi Delta Theta and SGA President Kofi Mensah said. “Hazing still exists in certain places, and [the fact that UVM] participate[s] yearly in the National Hazing Prevention Week shows our commitment to being apart of the anti-hazing movement.”