This year’s Interfraternity Council plans to implement major changes in the greek system, IFC President Dakota Peterson said.
The IFC is one of four major bodies that govern the nearly 30 fraternities on campus. The council consists of seven members who are elected in November each year.
“This year, our most important goal is to improve the recruitment process,” Peterson said. “We’re pushing programs to make sure that rush is a safe environment for everyone involved, and one that promotes community.”
Peterson said part of the process of keeping rush week safe is allowing individual fraternities more self government, another one of the IFC’s major goals this year. They are working to meet this goal by establishing an in-house judicial board in every fraternity, so that each house can address problems with their own members individually.
With this system in place, the IFC judicial board can focus on incidents that involve entire fraternities, like hazing and violations of alcohol policies, but leave smaller, more individual issues such as fraternity members not meeting their academic requirements to the judicial board of the individual houses.
Brad O’Brien, a junior majoring in finance who is the head of IFC judicial affairs, is developing a template for each fraternity to follow in order to establish and run their own judicial board.
Another goal of the recently-elected council is to overhaul their website, which is currently no more than a paragraph of text attached to the University’s Greek Life page.
“I think the last time that page was updated was in 2006,” Peterson said. “We know we’re way behind there. It’s 2011, and we need a hub where people can get information they need at any time, whether that be university policy, IFC policy, alcohol education, intramural rankings or information about the greek community for potential pledges and their parents.”
IFC Director of Public Relations Michael Vardoulakis, a sophomore majoring in business, will oversee the development process for the website.
“The website will be very beneficial, especially for incoming students and parents that are interested in joining the UA greek life, alumni, UA staff members and all fraternity members,” Vardoulakis said. “It will include a calendar for events, deadlines, etc. and will also have many resources for recruitment.”
Vardoulakis added that he has recently launched a Facebook page and Twitter account for the UA IFC in an effort to increase positive publicity for the greek system.
Other goals of the council include a more effective budget and a bigger and better Greekfest, which IFC vice president Robert Rolfe, a junior majoring in finance, said he hopes to see hosted on the Quad this year.
“We were elected in November, but our government only really began with the spring semester,” Peterson said. “Now every member of the IFC has been delegated a major project, and we’re hoping for big improvements in the greek system this year.”
