A new slate of Greek Council members to be sworn in Monday now assumes the roles of peacemakers with neighbors and recruiters with the student body.
This year Rebecca McAdams will serve as the Panhellenic Council president and Cory Peterson will serve as the Interfraternity Council president.
“They basically serve as co presidents of the Greek Council,” said Lori McDonald, Greek Council adviser.
The presidents have many duties to perform.
“We have a lot of meetings, and we focus on recruitment and neighbor relations,” McAdams said.
She is only 19, but she has held many positions in her Alpha Chi Omega chapter last year and also served as the service chairwoman for the Greek Council before becoming president.
Peterson wanted to serve as president because he felt it was a way to pay back the greek community on campus.
“The greek community has helped me so much, and I felt that I was qualified enough to play a role that will help give back to the community,” he said.
He was a Greek Council vice president two years ago and served as the Pi Kappa Alpha president last year.
The presidency hopes to change and re-organize the councils’ meeting schedule.
The change probably won’t happen until late in Spring Semester or early Fall Semester.
“We have to change the constitutions, and that will take time,” McAdams said.
Greek Council Vice President Angie Henry will focus on Huntsman Cancer Institute philanthropy and Greek Week. Her male counterpart, Justin Ackley, helps in the same duties and also compiles and finds sponsors for the greek directory.
The recruitment chairs, filled by Jessica Rogers and Marcus Lopez, will focus on rush week and try to improve recruitment numbers.
“The [Greek Council] recruitment chair is really on the ball this year. She has already started meeting with chapters’ recruitment officers and wants to go to high schools and let them know what’s going on at the U,” McAdams said.
The other council officers, comprised of four men and one woman, serve specific duties.
Secretary Kristy Ahlstrom takes minutes at the meetings, does roll call and types up agendas.
Treasurer Parker Bradley makes sure that each house pays its Greek Council dues, collected from the individual members of each house.
Service Chairman Creighton Scott plans one large service project each semester and encourages the sororities and fraternities to perform service projects.
Risk Management Chairman Joe Eldridge teaches “Greek 101,” which is intended to inform new fraternity and sorority members about neighbor relations, house cleanup and other responsibilities.
Scholarship Chairman Sean Gibson has fairly undefined responsibilities, McAdams said.
“The office was created to start the Order of the Omega, which is the greek national honor society. Now that’s set up, I don’t really know what specific duties he’ll have,” she said.
Council members receive many benefits ranging from leadership skills to partial tuition reimbursement.
“Members learn the fundamentals of self governance and oversight and they develop various skills from public speaking to planning events that will serve them well in the future regardless of their career paths or areas of study,” McDonald said. “At the end of their term, the officers will evaluate each other and then decide how much remuneration they receive. The constitution says they can’t receive money for more than 12 credit hours.”
Peterson feels he has learned a huge amount from his experience on the council.
“I feel that what I’ve learned on the council often goes further than what I learn in a classroom,” he said.
All of the officers were nominated by the leaders of individual sorority and fraternity houses, and an interview process is the deciding factor in elections.
“You’re elected by your peers, so it’s really an honor,” Peterson said. “I’m excited to do the job.”
The Greek Council basically serves two main purposes: to connect the chapters of the sororities and fraternities and to serve as representatives for the greeks on campus, McDonald said.
“I definitely think the Greek Council is about communication, whether it’s with the U or neighbors or one another,” she said.
Both the Interfraternity and Panhellenic Council have presidents, vice presidents and recruitment chairs on the council. Either sorority or fraternity members can fill the other positions on the council.