Members Elected to ’08 Panhel Board
Board Will Work Toward Adding Sixth Sorority, Increasing Chapter Unity
The MIT Panhellenic Association has elected new members to its executive board, which will serve for the upcoming year. This line-up of elects was approved by the five MIT sororities last night after two slates were previously rejected. One goal for the newly-elected executive board will be to add a new sorority to the five currently existing in Panhel.
The 2008 Panhel executive board members will be Tiffany W. Guo ’09 as president, Yi Zhou ’09 (also a Tech associate news editor) as executive vice president, Yicong Liu ’09 as vice president of recruitment, Cheryl M. Kwinn ’09 as vice president of recruitment programming, Minh-Phuong Huynh-Le ’10 as vice president of programming, and Julia H. Yoo ’10 as vice president of finance and records.
Guo said her plans for Panhel will focus on efforts to add a new sorority to the five existing chapters, to re-evaluate Panhel activities to ensure they are consistent with Panhel values, and to increase unity among the MIT sororities.
Delegates, one from each sorority, elect executive board candidates to the slate after interviewing them. The slate needs approval from at least four of the five sororities to be elected for the coming year. If it does not meet the requirement, it must be re-analyzed before being sent to the sororities for another voting.
Current Panhel President Annika S. Larsson ’08 said each chapter needs to be comfortable with its leaders, so the process will take as long as necessary to meet the requirement.
Panhel plans for new sorority
Because of growing interest and membership increase over the last couple of years, concern arose within Panhel regarding the ability of the five existing sororities in accommodating everyone, said Sarah C. Rich ’08, Alpha Epsilon Phi’s delegate to Panhel.
A sixth sorority, will strengthen the Panhel community, add diversity, and reduce each member class to create a closer feel within each chapter, said Angela P. Wu ’08, current Panhel vice president of recruitment.
Each of the five sororities have already voted in the decision to approve the addition of a new sorority, Guo said. Over the coming year, Panhel will invite various sororities to campus to find the best match for the MIT community, she said.
The new sorority will join MIT’s five sororities for recruitment next fall. At least, “that’s the goal,” Rich said. Panhel will need to follow guidelines of the National Panhellenic Conference in extending invitations to sororities, creating an extension committee, and conducting series of interviews to find the sorority that best benefits the MIT community, Wu said.
Rich said AEPhi, the smallest of MIT’s sororities, “will be part of formal recruitment next year” and absolutely supports the arrival of a sixth sorority. Given the specialized members of each sorority, the new sorority will not be drawing for the same members from the pool, Rich explained.
Caroline J. Barker ’08, current Panhel executive vice president, said it was a big accomplishment for the current board to make a smooth transition to fall recruitment, while recruiting “higher numbers.” For the past several years, Panhel held its recruitment at the end of the Independent Activities Period.
Barker said challenges the new board will face include choosing the new chapter and dealing with the resulting expansion. Barker also said that she hopes the new board will maintain transparency, which is “more difficult than people think.”