New directory offers guide to Penn Greeks

A group of Greek students recently completed The Penn Greek Directory, a compilation of the names and telephone numbers of Greek members in the Bicultural Inter-Greek Council, the InterFraternity Council, and the Panhellenic Council. The directory also lists the officers of all three umbrella organizations, along with administrators in the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs. According to Co-Editor-in-Chief Marc Glosserman, a College senior and member of the Sigma Chi fraternity, a friend at Cornell University inspired him to create the directory for Penn Greeks. "My friend at Cornell did a directory, and that gave me the idea to do it at Penn because I thought it would be a great resource for the Penn Greek community," he said. Glosserman, who is interested in publishing, thought that organizing the directory would help him get his "feet wet in publishing, and be a good business experience." "I spent the first semester getting phone numbers, selling ads and designing," he explained. "It was an opportunity for me to really run a business." According to Glosserman, the money raised through advertising covered the printing expenses, leaving enough money for him and his co-editor in chief, Engineering and Wharton senior Alex Millar, to "compensate people for their time." Millar, a Sigma Chi brother, added that he plans to reinvest his profit into future publication of the directory, which he hopes will eventually include such information as the schools, years and e-mail addresses of those listed. College senior Jason Baker worked on the directory as an account executive, doing basically "what Marc told [him] to." The Sigma Chi brother said that one of the goals behind the publication is to enable Greek members to "contact other members to organize events." Courtney Piccone, a College senior and sister in the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, said that she has already used the directory. "I'm co-chairing the Cancer Ball, and it's been helping a lot with that," she explained. "It makes communication between houses a lot easier." Piccone added that the directory can be useful for non-Greeks, as well, as it gives them a "easy directory to use to find out what's up and how things work." Panhellenic Council Vice President-elect Hayley Lattman agreed that the directory was a good idea, but was disappointed at the accuracy of the information provided in the publication. "It would definitely be useful for social chairs if they had the right information -- a lot of it is outdated," the College junior and Pi Beta Phi sister explained. College junior Carrie Kogan, who currently serves as social chair for the Alpha Phi sorority, said she doubts the necessity of the directory. "Practically, it's nice to know the numbers of the social chairs," she explained. "But I also felt kind of awkward because I didn't know if the Greeks needed their own directory." Copies of the directory are available free of charge from OFSA, located in High Rise North.