SGA votes to create Greek Life coordinator
The Student Government Association adopted to support the creation of a coordinator for fraternity and sorority life on Monday.
Currently, Central Michigan University has only one full-time professional working with Greek Life. Other schools with similar undergraduate enrollment, such as Western Michigan University and Eastern Michigan University, have two or more.
The proposal passed with a majority vote taken by a show of hands. There were only a few hands raised in dissent, and the measure passed easily. The job of this newly appointed coordinator would be to oversee all fraternity and sorority life. This includes, but is not limited to, advising the Interfraternity Council (IFC), Panhellenic Council (NPC) and the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC), overseeing the Greek Judicial Board and coordinating the Greek 101 education program.
Chris DeEulis, Rochester Hills senior and special projects manager for Greek Life, said the goal of creating a coordinator position is to increase accountability for the entire Greek population through a position that would act in the long-term.
“We want to create value-based organizations that help promote what fraternities, and sororities should really be instead of stereotypes and we think this position will help accomplish this through accountability,” DeEulis said.
As of right now, Tom Idema, assistant director of the Office of Student Life, is the only full-time employee who oversees Greek Life. In addition to Idema, Becky Cooke works as the Fraternity/Sorority Life Assistant and there are two Greek Life interns as well.
However, Idema also works with other registered student organizations in addition to Greek Life.
“We feel it needs to be its own sole position in order for Tom (Idema) to be able to better balance all of his responsibilities,” DeEulis said.
He said he felt the creation of a Greek Life coordinator would allow individual fraternities and sororities to have more time to be noticed and effectively build up better relationships.
DeEulis said students may be anxious that creating another position may cause a rise in tuition for upcoming semesters; however, that option has been left open for the university administration to decide. He said often times there are ways for money to be allocated without a rise in tuition.
DeEulis said that some people may wonder why CMU would pour money into a position like this instead of, for example, an academic advisor. He believes that this position will be more likely to keep students enrolled and therefore is more valuable than something like an academic advisor.
“It makes more sense to retain students than to seek more because keeping students is a consistent way for the university to make money,” he said.
As of right now, CMU’s fraternity and sorority staff is among the smallest in the state of Michigan and is the smallest in the Mid-American Conference (MAC).
“We need somebody to carry Greek Life forward,” said SGA President and Shelby Township senior Vince Cavataio.
