I recently attended a writer's symposium featuring novelists from the New Orleans area as well as many nationally acclaimed writers. The authors read portions of their work and followed the symposium with a lively question and answer session. The novelists engaged in heated discussion of their work and heavily debated what specific kind of writing constituted non-fiction. The lecture was very thought provoking and encouraged me to keep pursuing a major in English.

I recently attended a lecture on Degas in New Orleans. As a perspective Art History major I was very excited about hearing an expert discuss Degas works. He is also one of my favorite artists which made me that much more excited. The speaker Marni Kessler was clearly very knowledgeable with regards to Degas and his work but overall I found her lecture to be very dry. Instead of focusing on his art she mostly discussed technicalities and miscommunication with scholars had. Overall though, I am sure that all of the PiPhi's who attended were able to gain from the lecture.

Ehud Olmert visits Tulane University

Ehud Olmert, former Prime Minister of Israel, recently visited Tulane and spoke on Israeli and Middle Eastern current events, and his attempt to bring peace to the region. Many Pi Phis attended his lecture. Olmert sparked much controversy, however, considering he is currently being indicted, which Tulane was not aware of when they signed him to come. During and following the speech, a protest gathered outside of McAlister Auditorium protesting Olmert's presence and the Palestinian deaths as a result of the Israeli-Palestinian War. Many Tulane students, as a reaction to the protests, began singing and chanting in order to sound out the protesters. The chanting and singing went on until around ten at night, when the protesters finally left. These political acts are just a few of the ways Pi Phis, along with many other Tulane students, have been voicing their opinions and political views.

Pi Phi Mixes It Up!

Who needs Halloween when you have Pi Phi social events?! This semester has already been full of great mixers- and that means some great costumes! We teamed up with Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity for a Trashy Wedding- complete with a bride and groom! Earlier this fall we used all our arts and crafts skills for a recycling themed mixer- no store bought clothes allowed! With a little duct tape, newspaper, a few trash bags, even twister mat or two (and of course the help of the Kappa Alpha boys), Pi Phi and KA had a mixer to remember! October may be over but the Pi Phi costume parties are only just beginning!

One of our Own, a CHEERLEADER!

Congratulations to one of our Sophomore members Jeanne Capella. A few weeks ago she made the cheerleading team! In this picture with the squad, she is in the middle on the bottom row. Congrats Jeanne and GO GREEN WAVE !

Greek Week(end)!

Greek Week this year began October 22 and went until the culmination which was October 24th at Greek Olympics. There were 3 different events Greek Sync, Greek Cook Off and Greek Olympics! We were paired with FIJI fraternity. Although Pi Phi didn't win Greek Week, we had a great showing and had alot of fun.


This year for greek week Pi Phi participated in Greek Sync. Gita and Annie were co captains. We practiced for three days before the event and had a lot of fun doing it with everyone. Although we didn't place we had so much fun performing, it was definately by far the best one. We had sandstorm, a step, a stroll, SOULJA BOY, and a banjo all in one skit. Gita even got to act and bring out her Apu Indian accent which sent the crowd wild. We had so much fun learning the entire thing with the FIJI's and have definately made some great guy friends. Pi Phi had the largest attendance to support our awesome team.


The Pi Phi/FIJI Cook Off was really successful this year with cheesecake topped brownies, peanut butter cookies and lots of grilled food from the boys. Maddy and Suzy helped me with the cheesecake topped brownies which were apparently amazing (word on the street...) and we baked, from scratch, cookies with lots of peanut butter, peanut butter chips and peanut butter m and m's. I think we all ate our body weight in dessert and FIJI's burgers/ribs/sausage. They did a great job and people were lining up for more burgers. It was so much fun mixing with these boys and getting to know them! But... it was hard to stay at the table with all the delicioussss food around us... All in all, I think we all decided we should have cook-offs every friday.


Greek Olympics consisted of many events, Recycling, Water Balloon Toss, Dodgeball, Twister, The Human Pyramid and a Pie Eating Contest.

For the greek olympics we built a 10-man human pyramid. The contest was timed so whoever got their pyramid built the quickest won. We practiced and got it up really quickly, but unfortunately not fast enough to win the event! While we didn't win, we climbed up all by ourselves and the best part is we didn't fall!! Pi Phi ended up placing 3rd in the Human Pyramid.

The dodgeball team had 3 Pi Phi's and 3 FIJI's. We dominated in our first two games, but unfortunately the third game was extremely intense and we lost. We did end up coming in 2nd place overall though and we were really proud of the team!

Homecoming Week 2009

Pi Phi celebrated their Green Wave spirit at the annual homecoming concert (featuring Augustana and local band Keeping Crescent) on Thursday October 8th. The show was a great warm-up for the weekend when we

teamed up with the boys of Kappa Alpha fraternity for a Saturday of tailgating and cheering on our Tulane football team at the Superdome!