Women’s soccer ties St. Joe’s in two overtimes
By Wiley Taylor, Jr.
Published: Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Updated: Tuesday, November 17, 2009 03:11
After 90 minutes of scoreless regular play, and 20 minutes of overtime, the Delaware women's soccer game against Saint Joseph's University ended in a 0-0 tie Sunday afternoon at the Delaware Mini Stadium.
Both Delaware and Saint Joseph's put up solid defensive performances, but the offensive performances were lacking, leading to the scoreless finish.
During the first half, freshman Mimi Korcela attempted a shot at the goal that fell wide at the 41st minute of the game. A couple minutes later, freshman Taylor Thompson, blocked a shot by Saint Joseph's. However, Thompson believes she could not take full credit for the play.
"(It was) a team effort in getting the ball back and getting back on the offensive," Thompson said.
In the second half, Delaware placed more offensive pressure in their attempt to score. At the 50th minute, senior Caitlyn Germain attempted to make a corner shot on the right side of goal, which was then blocked by Lauren Sawyer, the Saint Joseph's goalkeeper.
In the first overtime, both teams kept up the defensive intensity, keeping the score 0-0. Senior goalkeeper for the Hens, Anne Bevan, made five saves while Saint Joseph's goalkeeper, Christine Neal, had one. A couple of minutes after the goal attempt, Delaware sophomore Stephanie Rinchiler had a chance to win the game when Neal was out of position at the goal, but the shot went over the crossbar.
"My take on today's game is that we let the other team dictate the style we wanted to play and we got up on playing things way too fast," said Hens head coach Scott Grzenda. "For our team having ten freshmen, one transfer, and not giving up a goal in the past three games we have, I think we are doing just fine."
Likewise, players were critical of their performance in the game, but are still pleased with their performance even though there are a lot of freshmen on the team.
Germain felt the outcome of the game was "bittersweet" and the performance of the freshmen players looked promising for future games.
"We didn't win the game and personally, we've always held a rivalry with Saint Joseph's," said Germain. "We really thought as a team we should have beat them."
For the upcoming games, the players and the head coach believe they still have room for improvement. Bevan feels that the squad has to improve on keeping the ball in possession, maintaining communication as a team, maintaining defensive efforts, and of course, scoring goals.
"If we play the way we can in the next game against Villanova and dictate the style of the game, we can gain a win," Grzenda said.
Delaware returns to the field Sunday at 1p.m. to play Villanova.
Link: UdReview
Committee formed to find new Arts and Sciences dean
After secret interviews, position expected to be filled by July 2010
By Wiley Taylor
Published: Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Updated: Tuesday, September 15, 2009 02:09
A search committee has been formed to fill the seat of Tom Apple, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, who resigned last summer to take the position of provost at the university.
Michael Chajes, dean of the College of Engineering, said the committee will meet on a weekly basis during the early stages of the search. The first meeting was held Aug. 31.
"Most of the upcoming meetings will be about crafting the ad and figuring out the logistics of the search for the best candidate," said Chajes, who is also serving as the committee chairperson.
The committee decided that the new dean should be a diverse individual with good people skills with the ability to lead the college down the path of prominence.
Apple chose the members of the search committee and is very confident in his choice.
He said the search committee works independently and is firmly controlled by the academics. The individuals chosen by Apple are all leaders. Deans are almost always asked to take the chairs in the search committee due to their high standards for choosing the perfect candidate and their great networking skills. They also come from very diverse academic and administrative backgrounds.
"Michael Chajes was a logical choice and Kathleen Matt, who is the new dean at the College of Health Sciences that came from Arizona State, brings in a new perspective on the new dean," Apple said.
The search process of choosing a candidate is a combination of a recruiting process and national search, Chajes said.
The first objective for the committee is to create an ad and according to Apple, they use academic magazines like the Chronicle of Higher Education or search firms to promote. The ad search, however, is primarily based upon networking, which Apple believes is more productive than ad placement.
Once the ads start getting responses, the search committee will meet individually with every candidate from the application pool at what are called airport interviews.
Apple said such interviews are secretive and take place away from the university. The whole committee goes to a hotel near the airport for example, the Embassy Suites at the Philadelphia Airport, where the candidates are interviewed individually for one to one and a half hours. This is done in order for the candidates do not have to worry about their identityies being revealed since most possible candidates hold high profile positions at other universities.
Matt said the committee chooses three to four candidates who are invited to come to the university to meet the general campus community.
Apple said the final stages, campus interviews, usually lasts for two days and is the official interview determining the final nominee for the new dean position.
According to Chajes, after the committee comes up with a choice as to who should be hired, Apple will have the last say in who will be the new dean.
"We will probably get hundreds of applications after sending out the ad," Matt said. "But the bad shape of the economy may lower the number of applicants because the cost of moving may be a financial issue."
Matt was appointed dean of the College of Health Sciences on July 1 and went through the same structured and involved process.
Matt, who graduated from the university in 1975, credits her undergraduate experience for shaping her into person she is today.
Until the new dean is appointed, George Watson will be the interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
According to Chajes, the interim dean does not have any say in who should be the next dean of the college, but the interim dean can apply to become the official dean.
"The interim dean has all the authority and power of the any other dean," Watson said. "But the only difference is that I have a very short term time as the dean."
Watson recently appointed Ann Artist as the interim deputy dean and Doug Doren as the interim associate dean of Natural Sciences. He said the new dean should be appointed by July 1, 2010.
Link: UdReview
Taste of Newark seeks to improve town-student relations
By Wiley Taylor
Published: Monday, September 21, 2009
Updated: Monday, September 21, 2009 23:09
Mayor Vance A. Funk III has had a hand in planning the Taste of Newark Festival longer than he has been an executive of the city of Newark, and this year is no different. For the past few days, he has been finalizing plans for the sixth annual Taste of Newark Festival, which will be held Sunday.
Funk is the director of the event and expects to attract up to 1,000 attendees this year. According to Funk, the main goal of the event is to bring residents of Newark and university students together to form tighter relations. He says the event raises thousands of dollars every year and the numbers of attendees has increased gradually each year the festival has been held.
"We already sold 940 tickets and 40 tickets will be sold at the entrance," says Funk. "There is a long line of people trying to get those tickets."
The first Taste of Newark Festival was held six years ago when Funk was working as a real estate attorney. At that time, the mayor and the majority of the city's council scoffed at the idea of this type of event, due to the then adversarial relationship between the city and the university, according to Funk.
Once Mayor Funk took office in April 2004, he worked to make the festival a reality. Funk says getting started with plans for the first festival was difficult because the city was trying to cancel the event. Despite the city's efforts against the mayor's plans, the festival still went on and had approximately 450 attendees.
Now the festival is a joint venture of both the city of Newark and the university. The office of the mayor, President Patrick Harker, and Jan O'Neill of Conference Services at the university plan to collaborate every year to plan and put everything into action.
Tickets for the festival are $40 in advance and $50 at the door. Don't worry if this may seem a little pricey, since attendees can expect $20 worth of gifts when they arrive. The mayor says only about five to ten percent of students participate in the event, but it seems to be pretty popular among those student attendees.
"There's someone flying from Michigan who has recently relocated who came to the events before and she timed her visit back to Delaware to come to the event," says Funk.
This year, special guest Deborah Brenner, author of "Women of the Vine" and prominent California winemaker, will make an appearance at the festival.
There will be the usual offering of tasty delights from more than 45 Newark restaurants, including the finest wine distributors in the area. Another event to look forward to is the Battle of the Chefs competition.
Chefs will have an hour to conjure up delectable dishes from a secret list of ingredients. The competitors will be Eric Aber of Home Grown Café, Brad Dawson of Caffe Gelato, Jason Dietteric of the Stone Balloon Winehouse, Mark Chopko of the Courtyard Café at the Courtyard Marriott, and Dick Schmidt of the Blue Crab Grill.
Jason Dietteric, a chef at the Stone Balloon Winehouse and a Newark native, says the mayor contacted each chef in the competition individually to ask if they would participate in the event. Dietteric says he was rather hesitant about competing in the event at first, but he soon understood how the festival would foster better relations between the Newark residents and university students.
Dietteric says he believes that the competition is an effective and exciting way to show what the chefs can produce under crunch time.
"This event will also showcase on how diverse the chefs are based on their style of food, ranging from a European style to an Asian Style," explains Dietteric.
Both Dietteric and Brad Dawson of Caffe Gelato have participated in this type of competition before. While this will be Dietteric's first time participating in the Newark festival, Dawson is a returning competitor. Dawson shares Dietteric's view of the battle as an engaging, unique way to showcase the talent and style of each competing chef.
"It's a really good way for the attendants to meet the chefs that cook for them at each restaurant," says Dawson.
Funk says the return of the festival is a testament to the past success of and continuing effort to foster strong relations between the university community and the Newark community.
"I wanted to prove that a town and gown works because it's all on the university campus, its run by university students and the people that come to the event are from the town," says Funk. "I want the university and the city to work as partners, not adversaries."
Link: UdReview
City cuisine brings community together at festival
By Wiley Taylor
Published: Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Updated: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 03:09
Students and Newark residents alike followed the scent of Newark's finest food to Clayton Hall on Sunday, where the Taste of Newark event took place.
One thosand tickets to the Taste of Newark were sold this year and had 44 businesses participating.
The event was scheduled to be outside at Old College, but due to inclement weather it was moved inside.
Newark Mayor Vance A. Funk, III contacted Jan O'Neill of conference services at Clayton Hall and informed her of the change of venue. He said O'Neill and her team immediately laid out where all of the vendors and the Battle of the Chefs event would be.
"It's amazing how we did it all under 48 hours and how everything went like clockwork," Funk said.
The Taste of Newark had two distinct differences this year. Funk said the first difference was that there was more food offered. The second difference was that this was the first time that only one business didn't show up.
"You ask people to come and you're generally lucky if you get 60 percent to actually come," he said.
This year, the Newark Historical Society held a raffle where the winner could win up to $2000 worth of gift certificates. Another main feature of the festival was the Battle of the Chefs. The winner of the event was Chef Eric Aber from Home Grown Café.
Senior Marc Paulo Guzman said he was delighted by the food, the community aspect and the businesses coming together.
"This is my first time coming to the festival, and I always passed on it," Guzman said. "My friends told me it's a sort of rite of passage as a senior to take the advantage of wine testing at the festival."
The businesses had nothing but positive feedback about the event and many agreed that the festival made a smooth transition moving inside.
Bob Baker of Klondike Kate's and Susan Lemieux Heger of Dop's, Inc., distributors of fine wines, beers, and spirits said their businesses have seen a gradual increase in customer clientele since attendance of the festival last year.
"This event helps the whole community and the image of the city government, residents, and university by having political figures come to the festival and meet the attendants on a very personal level without any titles," senior Susan Quashne said.
Hockessin resident Mike Beron said the festival built a sense of community between staff, students and residents and understands that relations between the university and city were hard at times.
Funk said the festival raised approximately $50,000. He said approximately $20,000 will go university's college of Hotel, Restaurant & Instituational Management and $20,000 to the Downtown Partnership.
"This event shows what can be done when people work together," he said. "There is so much talent when the university and the city work together."
Link: UdReview
Rock/reggae band Ballyhoo! to play On The Rise series
By Wiley Taylor, JR.
Published: Monday, October 5, 2009
Updated: Tuesday, October 6, 2009 00:10
Through students' word of mouth and the popularity among them, Ballyhoo! is scheduled to play at the Scrounge on Thursday as part of the On The Rise music series.
Ballyhoo! is a rock band from Aberdeen, Md. The band consists of Howi Spangler (vocals, guitar), Big D (drums), DJ Blaze (keyboards, programming, turntables) and Mista J (bass). Mista J says that the band was really started by Big D and Howi approximately 14 years ago.
"Howard and Donald, who are brothers, started the band down in their basement," Mista J says.
At the time, the band consisted of Howi, Big D, and DJ Blaze — all of whom attended Aberdeen High School.
Mista J says the band started out playing house parties. They eventually started playing bars in Baltimore, where they generated their first major buzz.
"It was about three years ago when we really started to get some hype off of our second album, Do It for the Money!, in Baltimore," he says. "Soon, we started touring up and down the East Coast to promote our music and get our music heard."
The Student Centers Programming Advisory Board is hosting Ballyhoo! as part of its On The Rise music series.
Senior Rosemarie Perry, creator of the On The Rise Music Series, says she first heard about the group's popularity among students through word of mouth and booked them after some students e-mailed her about the band.
"After my first time listening to the band, I was hooked," Perry says. "Their music has a feel-good upbeat music and they are similar to Sublime and 311."
Perry says the purpose of the On The Rise Music series is to help music artists build their college fanbase.
This will not be the first time the band performs in Delaware. Mista J says the band has performed several times at Deer Park and played at a couple house parties. Ballyhoo!'s manager, Steven Roeser, says the band's fan base in the state has risen from 75-80 fans to 150-200 fans.
The band is currently on tour promoting it's new album, Cheers!, which was released on May 5.
Roeser says the tour has given the band a gradual increase in their popularity and that touring is not as easy as it sounds.
There are times when the group will have to leave right after a performance or around two to three in the morning to make a ten hour trip to their next destination, Mista J says. For these trips, their fifth man, Andy Copenhaver, takes over the wheel and drives them safely to their next show.
"When you are trying to gain a bigger fan base, you can't just stay in the same area," Mista J says. "You got do a lot of traveling to get in front of more people and get your music out there."
Roeser says Ballyhoo! has done 200 shows in a year, and the band's hard work has landed it a deal with Fuel Records. When the band released its first album, 365-Day Weekend, it was not signed to a record label and the album was released independently. The signing with Fuel Records was a great achievement for the band because the record label has a distribution deal with EMI.
This will help them with promoting their fourth album, due next summer, he says.
"EMI can use their connections with big retail stores such as Best Buy and FYE," Roeser says. "Through this record deal, the amount of money Fuel Records is investing in the band will cover the expenses, get better resources and enable us to make an album with better sound quality than the last album."
Cheers! was produced by Scotch Ralston and mix work done by Chad Sexton — both of whom are members of 311.
"The band would work on a song in the studio with Scotch," Roeser says. "Then they would send a raw audio file to Chad for the track to be mixed, but Chad was never present at the studio."
He says on the new album, the band has been talking about working with 311 and they want to have Sexton and Nick Hexum, the vocalist of 311, help with the production.
Roeser says that he and others in the music business believe that the band has the potential to go commercial.
"This time around, we are going to focus on making our college fan base bigger," Roeser says.
The band has songs that are on the radio for rock/reggae stations. With the help of the new record deal, the new album will be promoted on even more radio stations.
Mista J says the band is influenced by 311, Incubus, and Green Day. The band is also influenced by a variety of music genres like reggae, rock, punk rock, and jazz.
"We really don't have a main influence in our music," Mista J says. "Whenever you look at one of our iPods, everyone is listening to a variety of music."
What drives this band to keep recording is its love of playing and making music. Mista J also says that the group loves to travel and meet new people.
"We want to keep doing what we love and if we become more a common household name, that's great," he says. "We just want to get our music heard and see the world while we are doing it."
Link: UdReview
Home Grown chef wins title
By Wiley Taylor
Published: Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Updated: Tuesday, October 6, 2009 03:10
Through careful planning and preparation, Eric Aber, chef and owner of Home Grown Café, took home the first place trophy at the Battle of the Chefs competition at the 2009 Taste of Newark Festival.
The Battle of the Chefs competition was a new event added to the Taste of Newark Festival this year by Mayor Vance A. Funk III. Funk said the Battle of the Chefs is an event that is similar to the Iron Chef competition on the Food Network.
"The event drew such a big crowd," Funk said. "Next time, if we have it in Clayton Hall, we will try having it in a bigger room."
The competition included five chefs from Newark restaurants who were chosen to battle in a one-hour competition using a secret ingredient chosen by Funk. The chefs included Eric Aber of Home Grown Café, Mark Chopko of Courtyard Café at the university, Brad Dawson of Café Gelato, Jason Dietterick of the Stone Balloon Winehouse and Dick Schmidt of the Blue Crab Grill.
For the event, each of the chefs had to create three dishes—an appetizer, a main course and a dessert. The secret ingredient was crab. Crab was chosen because it's a local ingredient and also in ample supply during this time of year, Funk said.
The judges of the competition were John Ondo, of the Lana Restaurant in South Carolina, Deborah Brenner, author of "Women in the Vine", and chefs Brian Duffy, Kildare's executive chef, and Matt Haley, Delaware's best known coastal restaurateur.
Aber won with a total of 168 points with only a 5 percent difference between all of the chefs.
Next year, rules will be changed because there was a small disadvantage during the event, Funk said.
"All the chefs came up with amazing ideas for dishes and not one was the same, but we will be changing some of the rules next time," he said.
Funk said they will only have two dishes instead of three and will rotate which chef's dish will be tasted by the judges first. Three dishes took too long to make and whoever went first to serve their dishes had an advantage over the other contestants because their dishes were still hot, Funk said. The chefs also noticed this flaw in the rules.
"I knew that since the Blue Crab Grill chef went last, his food was already cold which gave them a disadvantage in the competition," Aber said.
Aber has been cooking since he was 16, when he started his first job. He is a chef that cooks with a mix of modern, local and classical traditions, who likes to use fresh ingredients and good flavors. He also said he taught himself how to cook and used the Internet to help him learn some of his techniques.
"I would've taken classes at UD if the college program Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management was available during my early years into the culinary arts," Aber said.
He opened Home Grown Café approximately 10 years ago and has cooked at the restaurant for five to six years. He said his restaurant is a family run business that he runs with his wife, Sasha.
Aber said after the business became stable, he stopped being the full-time chef at the restaurant, but due to the economy and a recent increase in competition, he said he is coming back full time.
"My style of cooking is really based on my mood at the time," Aber said. "Depending on the mood, I would either do normal cooking or do something exotic."
To prepare for the competition, Aber took time to figure out what was needed in order to be ready to make dishes with the secret ingredient. He said he planned ahead to the last bowl and worked on being organized.
At the competition, he made a crab cocktail with a shaved cucumber cut into a long thin slice with madrilène formed into a shot-glass to hold lemon tapioca sabayon sauce. His second dish was Delaware surf and turf with pretzel crusted fried chicken and a crab cake on top. For his final dish, he made a coconut ceviché, a raw dish usually madefrom marinated seafood, but Aber said raw crab meat wasn't a good idea for this competition.
"It's almost impossible to get raw crab meat because the shell is a host to many germs and the meat is mushy," he said.
When he found out he was picked to serve his three dishes first, he knew he was lucky and felt concern for his competitors because he knew he gained an advantage. He also said that the judges took the obvious disadvantage into consideration when it came to trying other chefs' meals.
"All the chefs were aware of the disadvantages in the competition and we actually joked about it," Aber said.
Although Aber won, he said he didn't particularly like the fact that crab meat was chosen as the secret ingredient. Aber said he has a love-hate relationship with crab meat. He likes the fact that it's a locally-themed ingredient, but said it was not easy to make in the allotted time.
"It was a good curve ball, but I was surprised that I got canned crab meat. It turned out to be a good ingredient," Aber said.
Dietterick said although he didn't win the competition, he still plans on coming to the event next year.
"We didn't really prepare like we should have for the event," Diettrick said. "Although we didn't win, three of the judges came to our restaurant after the competition."
Dietterick praised Aber's dishes and his cooking skills. He also said he saw Aber's dish and he thought it was a great meal.
"I'm not mad that he won because I saw that his meal was well presented and it looked delicious to me," he said.
For next year, the festival will be held outside so more people can watch, Funk said.
He said when choosing the chefs, Aber will defend his title, and the past contestants won't be able to compete.
Link: UdReview
Career Services adds more job fairs because of unstable economy
By Wiley Taylor
Published: Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Updated: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 02:10
In a time when the job market is seeing hiring freezes, the Career Services Center is available to prepare and help students find jobs immediately after graduation.
The CSC is having eight more career fairs this semester than any other. Stephen Sciscione, associate director at the CSC, said career fairs are hosted in order for students to find jobs, work on their networking skills and create connections with potential employers.
He also said career fairs are a great outlet for students who have not begun their career search. The optimal time to start job searching is in students' junior year, Scisione said.
"The sooner the better for students to start job searching and if the student hasn't started yet, they should start now," Scisione said.
The CSC is a member of the National Association of Colleges and Employers. They reported that in 2009-2010 companies plan to hire 6.9 percent fewer employees, much lower than the 27 percent decline in hiring they reported last spring.
Sciscione said the statistic shows that the economy is improving, but students should still start job searching. He also said students need to learn how to social network to gain personal contacts that may increase their chances of being hired.
"How successful a student becomes in their job search is directly related to the strategies they utilize to seek employment and the job market," Sciscione said.
Sciscione recommends that seniors who want a job after graduation use the Blue Hen Jobs Web site, talk to their family and friends for potential job offers and come to the CSC's job fairs and workshops to improve their résumés and interview skills. For seniors who want to go on to graduate school, he advises them to start preparing in their junior year and start applying in December.
"Typically, some of the technical majors such as engineers and health science majors tend to see more immediate opportunities, however, our UD graduates do very well in the job market," Sciscione said.
For seniors, there are some that are a little stressed about the condition of the economy, but others already have plans on what they want to do after graduation.
Senior Winston Arnold and senior Stephen DiSabatino both plan on taking time off from their academics by finding a job and then going back school to pursue their graduate careers.
Although Arnold has not gotten any internships or jobs relating to his major, he still has a plan after graduation.
"I plan on trying to get a job first that has a program offered for employees who want to continue their studies and work there for two to five years before I would go back to pursue my masters," Arnold said.
DiSabatino, on the other hand, plans on taking a year and a half off to search for a short-term job that would relate to his medical career. After his time off, he wants to go to a graduate school outside of Delaware.
DiSabatino and senior MeAmbree Eaton said they do not expect it to be too hard for them to find a job after graduation.
"Because of my major, I have a variety of careers associated with it that I can do after I graduate and while I go to law school," Eaton said.
Eaton has already done internships at Justice of the Peace Court 16 and the Probation and Parole office in Dover. Like Arnold, she has gone to at least one of the CSC job fairs, but there students who have not used the CSC at all.
Senior Allie Push has never gone to any of the workshops or job fairs hosted by the CSC. Push said she does not use the CSC because of her plans after graduation.
"After graduation, I plan on trying to do an artist residency and/or work in the summer and move in with my boyfriend wherever he goes to graduate school in the fall," Push said. "During this time off, I want to better my art work before going to graduate school."
Although DiSabatino has yet to use CSC resources either, he said he plans on using CSC's workshops to improve his resume and is planning on attending a couple of job fairs in the future.
"I believe the Career Services' workshops will help me better improve my chances of gaining new contacts, prepare me for applying to graduate school and help me on my career path to become a doctor," he said.
Link: UdReview
Fraternities, sororities ‘Step-n-Stroll’ for Greek unity
By Wiley Taylor, Jr.
Published: Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Updated: Tuesday, November 17, 2009 03:11
The university's Greek community showcased dance performances and diverse themes in the second annual Step-n-Stroll on Wednesday at the Bob Carpenter Center.
Michael Yancey, coordinator of Student Centers, said the purpose of the event was cooperation, learning about other cultures and working together to put on a show. Organizers said there were approximately 1,400 tickets sold for the event.
The main point of the event was to bring Greek life together, Yancey said.
He said the overall objective that led to the birth of this was to make a better Greek system and develop an activity to get them to work together.
The winning sorority team was Phi, Phi, Chi or Die, consisting of the sororities Chi Upsilon Sigma, Alpha Epsilon Phi and Alpha Phi. Soul Steppin' Sisters consisting of Zeta Phi Beta, Alpha Delta Pi and Sigma Kappa took second.
The winners of the fraternity teams were UD Berets, consisting of fraternities Alpha Phi Alpha, Kappa Delta Rho, Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Sigma Pi. Second place was taken by Formal Affairs, consisting of Phi Beta Sigma, Pi Kappa Phi and Sigma Phi Epsilon.
The participants enjoyed uniting for this event. Chi Upsilon Sigma sorority, who teamed up with Alpha Phi and Alpha Epsilon Phi, liked that they were able to learn other Greek structures and cultures.
"I really liked the opportunity to work with the mainstream sororities, seeing how fast they were able to learn steps, and seeing them come up with their own," sophomore Talia Yanowitz, member of Chi Upsilon Sigma said.
Sophomore Marquis Waters, of Phi Beta Sigma, and freshman Charles Bermudez, of Lambda Sigma Upsilon, also liked creating a better bond with others in Greek life. Waters said he thinks the event is a good way to get the name of his fraternity recognition and to befriend other students in fraternities and sororities.
"The unity that we have at this school, I don't see it everywhere else,"Bermudez said. "I rarely see the unity of minority Greeks at other schools, yet alone with mainstream Greeks. It gives a better opportunity for other brothers from different schools to see what we have here and make them want to do it."
For planning, Yancey said the first step was figuring out who would participate in the event and make sure the students knew the main message of the show and the rules.
Matt Lenno, assistant director of Student Centers, said the rules were that teams had to acknowledge the Greek nation, and each performance was no bigger than 20 people and must be six to 10 minutes long. They also had to incorporate the step and stroll.
Yancey also said each team had to come up with their own theme for their performances. He purposely did not give them instruction because he wanted to test their leadership skills.
Yancey said one of the new things they did this year was to make it mandatory that the teams changed from last year.
Lenno said the winners earned bragging rights, trophies and got to interact with other Greeks in the university's Greek Nation.
He said last year's event was held in Mitchell Hall and was a test run, but not all of the students were able to see it. Yancey said there are 2,700 students in the Greek Nation and the university does not have a big enough venue, except the Bob Carpenter Center, to hold them.
"Tickets were really limited to the chapters that were participating and not even a whole chapter could go because if a chapter had 80 people, they would probably get 40 tickets," he said.
Lenno said for next year's event they will try to fill half of the Bob Carpenter Center. He said organizers might make the Step-N-Stroll a charitable event and open it up to outside areas such as historically black colleges and universities in the tri-state area such as Delaware State University and Temple University.
Many of the fraternities and sororities are planning on being a part of next year's event.
"We're most definitely planning on participating in the event next year and make sure we take home the win next time,"Waters said. "I already started coming up with ideas for the next show."
Link: UdReview
