The Interfraternity Council, the representative body for the 40 fraternities in Cornell’s Greek system, met Wednesday to vote for their 2004 executive board. The meeting concluded elections, which began last Wednesday, and were held in the Straight’s Memorial Room.
“I am really pleased with next year’s IFC board. Lots of really good candidates ran and I know it was a really tough choice to elect one,” said current IFC president Paul El-Meouchy ’04. “I was really fortunate to work with an amazing IFC board this year who did great work for our system and put in much more than what was asked of them. I am confident that the new board will be just as competent and hard working as this year’s board was.”
At last Wednesday’s meeting, representatives voted for president, vice president of judicial affairs and vice president of recruitment and at their next meeting, completed the board, electing a vice president of community relations, vice president of programming, vice president of finance and vice president of communications.
The IFC traditionally meets twice to vote because the voting process tends to take too long for one sitting. Board members are elected by chapter presidents or representatives sent in their place, and the process includes a letter of intent, a speech and endorsement speeches by those who wish to speak in favor of particular candidates.
Taking over for El-Meouchy will be IFC president-elect Jeff Massa ’05 of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity,
who previously held the position of vice president of finance. Massa was one of four to campaign for the position. The role of IFC president is to oversee the executive board members’ projects and be involved in the Greek community in any capacity he can, according to Massa.
“It feels great. I’m really excited. This past year’s exec board has done a great job and I feel really confident with the leadership that we’ve gotten for the next term,” Massa said.
“I have absolute confidence in the new board under the leadership of [Massa]. Three members of the board have been presidents of their own fraternities,” said Michael Taylor ’04, current vice president of community relations.
This year, that role will include increased involvement in social policy to deal with the pressure that the “bring your own beer” policy has placed on fraternities. “One of the biggest duties of president that we added when we rewrote the bylaws this past year is the addition of responsibility in shaping social policy,” Massa said. “Basically we’re in an evolutionary stage right now. We’ve made huge leaps and bounds this year so I’m looking forward to working with what we’ve done so far.”
It will be no easy task. El-Meouchy discussed several issues the new board is likely to face. “They are going to have a lot of issues to tackle such as increasing recruitment numbers, building better relations with the community, finding solutions to our social programming needs, as well as building a greater interfraternal community within the Greek system,” he said.
The new board is also diverse in terms of those fraternities represented. “There are a lot of different houses represented that haven’t been represented in a while. It will be good to have some different perspectives from different types of houses,” Taylor said. “Our exec board did a lot of work with Greek Week and social policy. We planted the seed but they are going to really have to nurture it. We constantly need to be making it better.”
The new board will begin its term in January and will hold office for one full year. “They all seem really driven and motivated, but I think they will work well together and their personalities are different enough to balance each other out. Plus, the old board will be there to help transition and to give support wherever they need it,” El-Meouchy said.
The remaining members of the board-elect will work with the president to deal with issues facing the Greek community, made up of almost 30 percent of Cornell students on campus.
Those new board members include executive vice president Devan Musser ’05 of Sigma Pi fraternity, Luke Hanset ’05 of Sigma Nu fraternity, vice president of judicial affairs and Mark Pincus ’04, vice president of recruitment, who held the position last year as well. Joining them are Chase Nielsen ’05, vice president of community relations, Shreedar Raja ’05, vice president of programming and David Rimschnick ’05, vice president of communications.
Archived article by Logan Bromer