Greek Oversight Cmte. holds first meeting

As part of attempts to better unite the Greek system, the InterFraternity, Panhellenic and BiCultural InterGreek Council vice presidents held the first meeting of the Greek Oversight Committee last weekend. After executive board members and chapter presidents returned from a leadership retreat in February, the Greeks' interest in creating a "more cohesive unit" heightened, according to Panhel Vice President for Publicity Beth Linn, a College sophomore and Delta Delta Delta sister. Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs Assistant Director Tom Carroll took the initiative and contacted the umbrella organizations about beginning the meetings -- which IFC President and College and Engineering junior Matt Baker, who also attended the gathering, said he hopes will be held bi-monthly. Attendees said the first meeting went fairly smoothly. "Discussion was rather free-flowing," said College junior Jason Judd, the IFC vice president of community service and academics and former Tau Epsilon Phi chancellor. The group focused on coordinating events and planning next year's calendar. "We can all have input into each other's programming," Baker said, adding that topics of discussion included next fall's Greek Week, New Student Orientation, rush and community service projects. BIG-C Vice President Everett Sands, a College sophomore and Omega Psi Phi brother, noted that the meeting was useful because it fostered discussion among groups which do not usually meet -- even though they deal with many of the same issues. And such inter-council meetings are conducive to leaders' collaboration in making "joint decisions on important issues," according to Panhel Vice President Bethany Rubin, a College junior and Pi Beta Phi sister. The leaders also planned future collaboration for projects such as creating literature to mail to incoming freshmen, according to OFSA Graduate Assistant Courtney Collins. She noted that Panhel, the Zeta Phi Beta sorority and the Women's Center would have benefitted from joining forces when creating their recent body image programs. The forum gives the leaders the luxury of being exposed to new issues and ideas, because the disparity between each council's national organization mandates and operating instructions is fairly great, according to Baker. Many people in the IFC and Panhel especially appreciated the chance to hear from the BIG-C, because inter-umbrella projects are often conducted solely between the IFC and Panhel. "That's past and those things will change," Sands said. But he added that collaboration between all of the umbrella groups has been increasing, and he has not seen many instances of the BIG-C being left out of planning major events. The collaboration established by inter-Greek councils such as the oversight committee is in line with goals established by the Greeks' 21st Century Report.