November marks a series of changes in Greek leadership on Cornell’s campus. The Panhellenic Council elected its officers for 2010 on Nov. 1 and the Intrafraternity Council elected its executive board in a two-part election on Nov. 11 and Nov. 18. Multicultural Greek Letter Council plans to have its president by this Wednesday and the rest of its executive board after Thanksgiving, according to Nicholas Diaz ’10, current president of the MGLC.

Allen Miller ’11 of Kappa Delta Rho will serve as the IFC’s new president alongside executive vice president Rustin Rodewald ’11 of Pi Kappa Phi. James Bellis ’11 of Psi Upsilon will serve as judicial V.P.; Matthew Grosshans ’11 of Delta Chi as V.P. for recruitment; Nathaniel Houghton ’11 of Phi Kappa Tau as V.P. for university and community relations; Michael Mascarenhas ’11 of Phi Sigma Kappa as V.P. for programming; Christopher Mejia ’11 of Phi Gamma Delta as V.P. for finance and Daniel Freshman ’12 of Lambda Chi Alpha as V.P. for communications.

As current vice president of the IFC, Miller expressed a desire to see the 2009 executive board’s resolutions enforced during his term.

“We had a lot of resolutions pass last semester,” Miller explained. “I guess looking forward the goal would be to continue to make sure that those things are being implemented and advanced. … We passed a lot of these things on paper, but we need to implement them.”

Miller cited GPA sanctions for new members — such as imposing a four-week social probation for fraternities if its new pledge class’s average GPA is more than 0.3 - 0.4 points lower than that of the prior class’s — and the new limits on open parties — a maximum of three per semester per fraternity, for example — as two of the controversial resolutions that passed last spring.

“There had been a lot of issues with the CUPD. We realized that these parties were not really safe and the parties weren’t doing what we had hoped they would do,” Miller stated, expressing a desire to move to a more “value-based recruitment system.”

Additionally, Miller hopes to foster unity among the IFC’s 40 chapters.

“I think within the IFC we tend to be pretty divided and there’s a lot of competition between houses,” Miller said. “We’re going to try to unify the system through … IFC sponsored service events, etc. We’re also looking to incorporate the Panhellenic Council in things we’re doing more often.”

Additional proposals include an online discussion forum as a potential means of increasing dialogue within the IFC, improving how the IFC handles crisis situations on campus and increasing fall recruitment numbers.

Grosshans, the newly elected V.P. for recruitment, echoed Miller’s desire both to increase fall recruitment and to foster a sense of unity within the IFC through recruitment events.

“The main focus will be to have the IFC [sponsor] more council-wide recruitment events to support all chapters rather than recruitment being a chapter-by- chapter issue only,” Grosshans said. “Really my intent is seek to expand upon the existing IFC recruitment policy. There’s more we can do to increase the IFC’s presence on north and west campus to meet new students earlier in the fall semester.”

Houghton, the newly elected VP for university and community relations, hopes to augment the IFC’s current relationship with the community at large.

“I’m interested in finding new ways we can interact with the community — whether it be Ithaca or Tompkins County,” Houghton explained. “We’re excited because we have some capacity to make a real impact.”

As for the 11 chapters that make up the Panhellenic Council, Nora Allen ’11 of Delta Delta Delta will serve as 2010 president with Virginia Tyrone ’11 of Sigma Delta Tau as her executive vice president. Jill Markowitz ’12 of Alpha Epsilon Phi will serve as vice president for communications; Eugenie Lehembre-Shiah ’11 of Kappa Kappa Gamma as vice president for judicial affairs; Corinna Romantic ’12 of Alpha Xi Delta as vice president for university and community relations; Alexandra Hildreth ’11 of Kappa Alpha Theta as vice president for recruitment, publicity and extension; Maricela Perryman ’11 of Alpha Xi Delta as vice president for formal membership recruitment; Emily Cusick ’12 of Kappa Delta as vice president for programming and Chelsey Kaplan ’11 of Alpha Epsilon Phi as vice president for finance.

The newly elected executive vice president expressed a desire to foster unity among all chapters of the Panhellenic Council.

“I really hope to create [a] sorority-sorority mixer program to help expand the opportunities for women in all chapters to form friendships,” Tyrone stated. “It’d be about six events per semester and every sorority would be invited. I really feel that it’s important to be a strong Greek community.”

Tyrone also conveyed a desire to actively direct the future of the Panhellenic Council.

“My main point is that I truly care about this organization and what it’s doing and where it’s going,” Tyrone said. “I really don’t plan to be sitting on the sidelines at any point. I’m really excited to be working with the incoming executive board.”