Continuing its mission to promote unity and collaboration within its community, Cornell’s Multicultural Greek Letter Council elected Abraham Araya ’19 as president and Tatiana Ferraro ’19 as executive vice president on Tuesday.
The Multicultural Greek Letter Council is an umbrella organization that represents 16 culturally-based fraternities and sororities composed of black, Latina/o and Asian students at Cornell.
“It is my firm belief that the Multicultural Greek Letter Council is a unifying force amongst our chapters, and serves as a strong voice advocating on behalf of the communities we serve,” Ferarro said.
Araya noted the Greek Tri-Council’s Diversity and Inclusion Plan, formed this September in response to Greek-related incidents of bias, and its goal of addressing concerns about “the larger issues of systemic oppression plaguing fraternity and sorority life.”
“Externally, the Diversity and Inclusion Plan is emblematic of the increased communication and collaboration between Greek councils,” Araya said, adding that within the council, there has also been “a great emphasis on collaboration between member organizations.”
For Araya and Ferarro, this kind of collaboration is an important part of the council’s future direction. Both president and vice president expressed a vision of the Council’s dual role as an organization that links different Greek communities and links all of them to the broader campus culture.
“Going forward I want to work towards more regular and proactive collaboration between councils and creating greater unity within the broader Cornell community,” Araya told The Sun. “I’m looking forward to building on the progress of this past year … to create meaningful change within our council and the broader Cornell community.”
Representatives from each member chapter of the council also voted on six vice president positions in the council’s executive board.
Joining Araya and Ferraro will be Kenny Zhou ’20, vice president of judicial affairs; Jong Han ’19, vice president of finance; Sarah Brown ’19 vice president of programming; Haena Young Lee ’20, vice president of university and community relations, Eileen Zhou ’20, vice president of diversity and inclusion, and Camille Chan ’19, vice president of communications.
“I’m excited for the new board to lead MGLC in the upcoming career and bring even greater visibility and success to the council.,” said outgoing MGLC President Brianna Barrett ’18.