The Eta Tau Chapter of Eta Sigma Phi
has had a good year considering we are
without our academic advisor, Dr. Lora
Holland. Dr. Brian Hook, interim advisor,
has done a wonderful job in her place.
During the fall 2009 semester, we put
on an OctHomerFest. We read the first
10 lines of the Odyssey in Latin, Greek,
French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, and
Italian. Then the chapter put on a drama
from Iliad 24. The script was written by our
own Danny Resner with McKayne Hill as
Priam, Jeremy Duncan as Achilles, and Bill
Fisher as Hermes. We had Dies Ludorum
to celebrate the end of the Fall Semester.
A variety of games were brought in such
as Latin Scrabble, Battleship, croquet,
Pokémon, and Sorry.
As usual in the spring we held our annual
induction of new members into the
society, whom we congratulate. New officers
were elected. Homecoming was a success
with Prytanis Eleanor DeTreville being carried on a litter by her entourage. While
we did not win the homecoming contest,
it was a blast to get out and show UNCA
that the Classics Department is alive and
well. Our 2nd annual Diversity Conference
was a success with Bill Fisher and Zarian
Bowers speaking on the diversity in
our Classics Department and Classics in
general. Classics Week (March 1–5) was a
rough week for us this year. Snowy weather
tried to hinder many of our events. Our
2nd annual Latinists vs. Hellenists Bake
Sale was an overwhelming success despite
having to be postponed a few days due to
UNCA closures for snow and late starts.
We raised plenty of money to buy hoods
for our graduating seniors for this semester
and more to come. Unfortunately we were
unable to host a High School Certamen,
but the Collegiate Certamen was exciting.
Also we are continuing to organize and
inventory our Classics Library so students
may use the resources available to them
for papers. Plus our own Jeremy Duncan
presented his paper “You in Greek Days:
Oscar Wilde, Lord Alfred Douglas, and
the Hellenic Ideal” at CAMWS (March
25–27, 2010) in Oklahoma City.