The members of the Inter-Fraternity Council (IFC) met yesterday in the Straight’s Memorial Room to vote on the members of their 2003 executive board. At the meeting, representatives of the 38 fraternities on campus elected a new president, executive vice president and vice president of judicial affairs.
“I think that these are great candidates, looking to make the Greek system stronger as a whole as well as improve the individual houses,” said Jason Conn ’03, current president of the IFC and a brother of Sigma Phi Epsilon.
The IFC president represents the approximately 1,500 men in fraternities at Cornell. His duties include overseeing meetings, working with administrators, houses and local authorities, as well as representing the Greek system at countless events over the course of his term, which runs for one calendar year.
The 2003 president-elect is Paul El-Meouchy ’04 of Sigma Pi, the executive vice president elect is David A. Chalenski ’04 of Sigma Phi and the vice president of judicial affairs is Troy Carnrite ’04 of Sigma Nu.
“What’s exciting is that a lot of really great candidates are running today. That shows greater interest in the IFC which means there is greater interest in the greek system as a whole,” El-Meouchy said, who edged out three other candidates for office.
He commented, “If we use our self-governance as we are supposed to, we will gain the trust of the administration and we will be allowed to manage the system and won’t lose more houses.”
The duties of Carnrite as the new vice president of judicial affairs will be to organize and chair the judicial committee that decides punishment for infractions committed by houses. This election was the most hotly contested, with seven candidates vying for the position at a time when many fraternities on campus are facing disciplinary actions from both local authorities as well as the administration.
“It comes down to being fair and unbiased,” Carnrite said. “When I took over as president, our house was a problem house and I saw the other side of the judicial board.”
The two most discussed issues at election were hazing and the issue of uncatered parties.
Nearly ever candidate stressed a desire to avoid losing more houses for infractions.
“The issue of hazing is one on which people have already made a statement and the IFC has made a statement with the new anti-hazing resolution, which will be rolled out this spring,” Carnrite said. “As for uncatered parties, that is an issue we will have to deal with in the future. The administration is making it harder for houses to have parties and we will have to talk and work with the administration to make some progress.”
The five remaining members of the IFC executive board will be elected next week.
Board members are elected by either the chapter presidents or representatives sent to replace them. Candidates must submit a letter of intent and deliver a brief speech and then gain the support of members of the audience. Candidates for president are required to be either a former member of the executive board or a former chapter president. The new board will serve for the 2003 calendar year and is sure to continue to confront the serious issues and changes facing the Greek system.
Archived article by Gautham Nagesh