The annual Greek Awards ceremony was held last night to honor exceptional chapters. Fraternities and sororities from the Interfraternity Council (IFC), Panhellenic Association (Panhel) and Multicultural Greek Letter Council (MGLC) were recognized.
“[The awards are] to encourage chapters to do a good job and recognize those that have done an outstanding job,” said Emily Giffin ’04, vice president of communications at Panhel.
The Greek Awards Steering Committee, with ten members from different chapters, was responsible for organizing the event. They provided food for the reception and wrote scripts for the award presentations. Presenters included students, administrators and alumni.
Some of the major awards at the ceremony included the Distinguished Alumni Service Awards, which went to David A. LeFeve ’60, Ricardo Roman ’95, Frank B. Wilkinson ’83, Susan H. Murphy ’73, vice president for student and academic services, and Lisa M. Coffin MPS ’02; the Randy Scott Stevens Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Interfraternity Council, which was given to Sigma Phi Epsilon; the Outstanding Contribution to the Multicultural Greek Letter Council Award, which was given to Sigma Gamma Rho; and the Marj Converse Award for Outstanding Contribution to Panhellenic Association, which was given to Sigma Delta Tau.
Outstanding Chapter Awards went to Kappa Delta, Alpha Phi, Delta Delta Delta, Pi Delta Psi, Omega Phi Beta, Psi Upsilon, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Sigma Pi, Sigma Phi, Phi Kappa Tau and Sigma Alpha Mu.
The winners were selected based on each chapter’s end-of-the-year report (EOY). The final EOY reports were reviewed by a committee of students, staff and alumni. The EOY was written up by each chapter president based on his or her house’s strategic plan.
The Cornell Fraternity and Sorority Strategic Plan sets goals “in areas of self-governance, perceptions, social responsibility, financial and facility management, leadership development and membership development,” said Nikki Letawsky, assistant dean of fraternity and sorority affairs.
The strategic plan is developed by each chapter with the help of a staff advisor from the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs.
“The Greek Awards Ceremony is designed to recognize [a] chapter’s achievements in complying with the initiatives detailed in the Strategic Plan,” Letawsky said.
“It was hard [to make decisions]. Some came in by a hair; it’s always challenging when you have a lot of good chapters,” said Leo Pedraza, assistant dean of fraternity and sorority affairs.
Several awards recognized individuals instead of chapters. These individuals, however, are often nominated by their chapters. Though individual awards were not restricted to certain members of the Greek committee, “in the past, the awards have generally been won by members or presidents of the councils,” Giffin said.
Three individual awards were given to a member of each of the three councils. The Janeice Bacon Oblack Award for Outstanding Panhellenic Leader was presented to Lindsay Loudon Williams ’03 of Kappa Alpha Theta, former Panhel president. The Edwin Fitzpatrick Award for Outstanding Interfraternity Council Leader was presented to Jason B. Conn ’03 of Sigma Phi Epsilon, former IFC president. The Robert L. Harris Jr. Outstanding Multicultural Greek Letter Council Leader Award was presented to Christopher Gibbs ’03 of Pi Delta Psi, vice president of University and community relations for MGLC.
Archived article by Diana Lo