New IFC head targets rivalries

The InterFraternity Council elected Wharton junior Austin Pena as its next president last night.

Pena, who serves as the president of Tau Epsilon Phi, spoke with The Daily Pennsylvanian about his plans for the IFC, which is the governing body for the majority of Penn's fraternities.

Daily Pennsylvanian: Why did you run for IFC president?

Austin Pena: Mostly, my interest was piqued this year when I started coming to IFC meetings and seeing what they do. I guess a lot of the motivation came from me wanting to have a big part in the way the Greek community develops at the school.

DP: What changes would you like to see in the Greek community?

AP: At Penn, there's a little bit of a rift between the faculty and the Greek students. A lot of Greeks are afraid to wear letters around because they think professors are going to see them and say, "Oh, you're Greek," and evaluate them on a different scale than other students. By doing a better job as a whole and doing good community-service events and getting that good press out there, we can hopefully move toward more pride and see more people wearing their letters around and just strengthening the whole community.

DP: What do you think are the greatest strengths and weaknesses of the Greek community now?

AP: The Greek opportunity offers a big kind of feeling of community within Penn. Penn's a big place, and being part of a fraternity or sorority gives you that thing you can call home away from home. One of the weaknesses is inter-chapter rivalries - competition between chapters both when rushing and just even during the year when we're having parties. Fraternities are always competing with each other trying to make themselves the coolest or the best or the smartest. We're missing out on an opportunity to become a larger panhellenic, if you will, community and look out for each other more.

DP: Do you see underground societies at Penn as a threat to the healthy frat life? How do you plan to address that?

AP: I wouldn't say I see it as a threat - I see it as an unfortunate development. I don't think that the existence of those underground societies are going to necessarily undermine completely all the other legitimate fraternities on campus. We'll just continue to try to make us look like we're where freshman ought to be and try to promote ourselves in a way that's going to make us look more appealing and more like a community that freshman are going to want to be a part of.

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