This week, be prepared to see Pixar characters and Greek letters everywhere on campus: it’s Greek Week.

Today is the kickoff of the Greek Life Council’s annual Greek Week competition, a long-standing tradition among Grand Valley State University’s Greek organizations.

“It’s really about bringing different (Greek) people together in a united way,” said Patrick Connors, the treasurer of Delta Sigma Phi fraternity and a co-chair of the Greek Week planning committee.

The theme of this year’s Greek Week is Pixar movies, and each of the nine teams were given a different movie that they are going to represent throughout the week. Among the movies being represented are “The Incredibles,” “UP,” and “Brave.”

“The theme this year really gives the teams the ability to be very different from each other; there’s just so much variety. I think the teams will be really creative,” said Erin Patrick, a member of Sigma Kappa and another co-chair of the Greek Week planning committee.

All the movies and their characters will be seen on campus throughout the week as the teams decorate boxes that will be set out for a can drive on Wednesday in the Kirkhof Center lounge, as well as during a character hunt through campus on Friday.

Among the other competitions going on is a week-long Instagram contest, “Finding Nemo”-inspired pool games on Tuesday night, and to wrap the week up, there will be lip-sync on Thursday night. There will also be a Pixar trivia night tonight and a Greek letter check-in on Wednesday.

The lip-sync has been a popular event in the past for both Greeks and non-Greeks.

“It’s always done really well,” Patrick said. “It’s the creativity that really gets people fired up. It’s going to be interesting to see what people do for it.”

Each six-minute performance will feature songs about and from the movies each team is representing, which means that every performance will be completely unique.

All of the competitions use a different point system, and points will be awarded by the Greek Life council for placements in events and chapter participation. At the end of the week after the lip-sync, all of the points are totaled for each team and the winner is announced.

“It’s kind of a pride thing, everyone wants to be the Greek Week winner,” Patrick said. “It can get pretty competitive.”

There is no formal prize for having the most points, except for the bragging rights until next year comes around.

“You just get the ego boost (from winning),” Connors said. “It’s all a really friendly competition between everyone.”

The week will end with the Greek Life awards. The award ceremony, just like Greek Week, is a long-held tradition on campus, but this is the first time that the two have coincided with each other.

There are many different awards given out during the ceremony, with individual awards such as Greek New Member of the Year and the Fraternity Man/Sorority Woman of the Year, and chapter awards, like Excellence in Programming or the coveted Chapter of Excellence award, which involves multiple essays from different members of the chapter and a panel interview for each chapter up for the award.

Connors said that even though Greek Week competitions feature all-Greek teams, it’s not exclusively for Greeks to watch. All students, especially those who want to know more about Greek life, are welcome to attend.

For more information, visit www.gvsu.edu/events.