It’s the first Monday of the month. All around campus on this morning, Greek women can be found looking classy and sassy. Dressed up in their finest, they go from class to class, standing out from the other students who are clad in the typical college outfit of jeans or sweatpants and a hoodie.

Sophomore Hali Wimbush, who is wearing a peplum top black dress, white blazer and classic black flats, leads me up the steps of the Zeta Tau Alpha house. She opens the door and immediately goes on the hunt for her sorority sisters. Five of them happen to be there at that moment, all dressed up of course, so she gathers them in the formal living room of the house and I ask them to line up side by side so that I can take their picture.

Some might call them crazy for choosing the most horrible day of the week (everyone hates Mondays, right?) to dress up in professional attire, but they’re not just doing it for fun.

Formal Mondays, as they’ve come to be called in the Greek community, are a tradition for the Panhellenic sororities at Baker University: Zeta Tau Alpha, Delta Delta Delta and Alpha Chi Omega.

After the impromptu photo shoot, I ask Wimbush a few questions about the tradition of Formal Monday.

“Formal Monday is when all of the sororities on campus dress up and have formal dinner,” Wimbush said.

She went on to add that for her sorority it falls within a monthly calendar of Mondays.

“We have Formal Monday, then the next Monday is business causal, then a block letter shirt, and then any Zeta shirt,” Wimbush said.

Sophomore Elisabeth Minson, who is a member of Alpha Chi Omega, said they also have more than one day of dressing up.

“We have it about twice a month,” Minson said.

As to the reasons behind why they wear nicer clothes on this particular day, Wimbush said it is mostly for formal dinners. Minson said it’s also for the formal meetings they hold and so they can wear their pins along with their nicer clothes.

While those are the more official reasons behind this tradition, freshman Rachel Lund gave some that are closer to the heart.

“It reflects on the house,” Lund said. “It shows that we care for the house and ourselves.”

Lund, who was initiated into Delta Delta Delta this year, has no complaints about Formal Mondays and all they entail.

“It’s not hard to look good for a day,” Lund said.

While Lund didn’t think it was so bad, she said others hated it because they couldn’t wear sweats. She also said that it gets much harder to dress nicely in the winter.

“It’s easy in the summer,” Lund said. “Just wear a cute skirt.”

Wimbush and Minson both agreed that winter is much challenging season to dress for becuase they have to get out tights and wear layer upon layer of clothing.

“Sometimes it’s difficult to pick out a snazzy outfit,” Minson said. “But it’s still fun to get dressed up.”