In the midst of welcoming new pledges, the greek community has been turning heads as sorority decorations generate both excitement and irritation among Penn State students.

Big-Little Week, now going on for some sororities, is a greek celebration in which sorority members decorate the residence halls and apartment buildings of new sorority pledges.

Traditionally, members cover their assigned pledges' rooms and surrounding hallways with candy, signs, small trinkets, confetti and nostalgic items passed down from past sorority members.

Adriana Gandarilla (freshman-division of undergraduate studies) is rooming with a newly pledged sorority sister. She enjoys the decorating almost as much as her greek roommate.

"It's all pretty neat. I get excited for her, to see what they will do next."

Many non-greek students, however, do not share this enthusiasm, because of the large amount of glitter that is tracked through the hallways and into their rooms during Big-Little Week celebrations.

"It's all over the place," said Grace Cramp (freshman-food science). "Some of it was in my bed like a week later."

"I feel bad for housing more than us," said Sara Sprowls (freshman-animal biology), Cramp's roommate.

Sally Beck and Patty Aaron, both residence hall utility workers, dislike the glitter mess that they find themselves cleaning up more and more often.

"It's time consuming," Beck said, "and it sticks to everything. When they leave in the spring, it's still in the rooms."

Christine Nuttall (sophomore-business administration), a present sorority member, prefers to use balloons and streamers when decorating her "Little's" room. She never uses glitter.

"It's annoying to pick it up," Nuttall said.

Beck and Aaron said they also hate the glitter because it is not contained merely to the hallways. Many times it sticks to the residents' shoes and is carried into the stairwells and elevators.

They agreed that cleaning glitter from the stairwells is much more difficult than on the carpeted dorm hallways, due to the fact that they can't use a vacuum cleaner to remove it.

"They get it in the stairwells too and it's really bad. Ten floors of stairwells, like in the towers (in East Halls), you just can't get it out," Aaron said.

Marce Pancio, assistant director of residence life in South Halls, said that decorating with glitter is not allowed by anyone in the university.

"The policy states that they aren't allowed to use it," Pancio said. "We usually hold the sorority responsible if we can pinpoint it to a specific sorority."

Panhellenic Council President Erika London expressed disappointment in the lack of good judgment of some sororities.

"It's unfortunate," London said. "We actively discourage our chapters from decorating in any way harmful to residence halls or new member. The majority of our chapters follow that."