Last Sunday, University of Idaho’s Interfraternity Council elected executive board members for the coming year.
Steven Cleppe of Beta Theta Pi was elected Sunday as the new Interfraternity Council President. Cleppe hopes to increase communication between chapters, and educate greek students on the dangers of binge drinking.
The two-hour elections process involved speeches from over 20 candidates running for one of the eight positions — president, vice president, treasurer, secretary, assistant recruitment chair, public relations chair, philanthropy chair and membership development chair.
“I want to bring increased communication between chapters,” said newly elected President, Steven Cleppe.
Cleppe, a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity, is a junior majoring in Political Science. Cleppe said he hopes to educate Greek students on the dangers of binge-drinking.
“I, personally, don’t have a lot of power over that, but I’ll try my best to organize better alcohol talks,” Cleppe said. “But I can’t tell someone in one house what they can and can’t do.”
Cleppe said he hopes to increase IFC’s support and
involvement with the various philanthropic events put on by the fraternities.
“We can help fraternities financially — if they need it,” Cleppe said. “Or we can even be an advertising tool for them.”
New Vice President, Joe Harper, said he wants to increase IFC’s visibility.
“I plan on asking the IFC to volunteer its time to help individual chapters with their scholarship endeavors and philanthropic activities, as well as introducing the council to each individual chapter,” Harper said.
Harper said he hopes to make IFC one of the most visible organizations on campus.
“It seems to me that IFC is just kind of a name right now,” he said. “You don’t know the guys behind it unless you actively go and seek that information.”
Harper, a member of Alpha Kappa Lambda fraternity, said he is stricken by the vast gap students have built between Greek and non-Greek students.
According to Harper, his chapter used to assist the residence halls with their philanthropies.
Alexander Wright, Phi Delta Theta member and newly appointed treasurer, said he wants IFC to fully utilize their budget.
“I want to see us be able to correctly appropriate all of our resources to get stuff done for IFC,” Wright said. “We should be able to look past what we want to do and see if that’s fiscally the way we should go. That’s what I believe a good treasurer should do.”
As Allen Jennings transitions into his promotion to recruitment chair, Rick Castleton prepares to take over Jennings old position as assistant recruitment chair.
“I want to bring some new ideas to the table,” Castleton said. “But at the same time build upon what’s been building the last couple years.”
Castleton said the recruitment process is heading in the right direction, but he would still like to apply some changes. Castleton wants to work with the public relations chair to change Greek Life’s image — especially in southern Idaho.
“I’m from the Treasure Valley, and the negative connotation that fraternities have is astounding,” he said.
Castleton said he feels public relations and recruitment go hand-in-hand. Improving their image will increase recruitment, he said.
“All our IFC positions are inter-connected — the success of one is due to the success of another,” Castleton said.
Castleton will likely work closely with Nate Fisher, the new public relations chair.
Fisher said communication is his strongest quality, and he hopes to channel that in his position as PR Chair.
“I want to work with organizations like The Argonaut and maybe local news stations here and throughout the state of Idaho to really advertise all of the great qualities and aspects of Greek students and the Greek system here,” he said.
Fisher said the Greek program offers a lot of benefits and he doesn’t agree with the stereotypes many people place on Greek students.
“It’s unfortunate that we always have this stigma and stereotype that we drink a lot or we’re very centralized around partying,” he said. “I think we need to fight that by working with media groups and advertising the great things that the Greek system promotes.”
Allen Jennings, who has already been in office as assistant recruitment chair, will take his position as recruitment chair this January.
His advice to incoming members is to be sure and pay attention during transition and to ask questions.
“It’s fun — it is what you make of it,” Jennings said. “This last year was amazing, but this e-board is going to be great as well.”
The other newly elected officers — secretary, philanthropy chair and membership development chair — were unavailable for comment.
Aaron Bharucha can be reached at [email protected]