PHA elects new officers

Panhellenic Association elected new executive officers on Sunday.

By Belinda Kocen

Published Nov. 13, 2008

New members of the Panhellenic Association executive board said they want to focus on internal and external communication.

New officers for the executive council were elected on Sunday.

There are a total of eight positions on the PHA executive council and 22 women applied, PHA spokeswoman Lindsey Hoffman said.

Current President Diamond Scott said the candidates submitted applications, which the chapter presidents read and reviewed. On Sunday, the candidates gave a three-minute speech to the current board. On their applications, the candidates ranked the positions they would be willing to take if they did not receive their first choice. The council then discussed the different candidates and their best fit on the council.

Although the new executive council has not sat down together to create goals, each woman has individual goals she would like to see accomplished next year, President-elect Caroline Vastyan said.

Vastyan said this year the council focused on uniting the different Greek governing councils.

"It is hard when you have different councils to unite them sometimes," she said. "I want to be more focused on the Panhellenic Council rather than expanding to other councils."

Vice President-elect of Programming Brittany Perrin said she hopes to unify all of the chapters in the PHA. She said because she has been president of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority for the past year, her experience will give her a different view and make it easier for her to relate to the chapters.

"I want to make sure we are asking what the chapters need from us instead of telling them the things they need to do," Perrin said. "We need to make sure we are benefiting the members."

Kendall Walz, the vice president-elect of finance and records, also said communication between chapters is also important to her.

She wants to make sure members are proud of being Greek and proud of the impact they make with community service during Greek Week, Homecoming, chapter philanthropies and the blood drive.

"I am looking forward to working together as a council and giving and taking ideas," Walz said.

Vice President-elect of Risk Management Lauren Hatch also said she wants to improve communication. She said she hopes all of the paper forms that are turned into the Office of Greek Life will be changed to electronic form.

Using the same communication improvement idea, Hoffman said she wants to produce a one-page newsletter each month to spotlight chapters and help new Greek students and non-Greek students get to know PHA.

"I want to create a SparkNotes version of the PHA meetings for everyone," Hoffman said.

She said she also wants to focus on uniting the different Greek councils by having a monthly event where all of the delegates from PHA and the Multi-Cultural Greek Council would get together and meet each other.