Greek life has moved to Student Activities

By Elizabeth Cone
Staff Writer

It was announced Wednesday at the Greek President’s Meeting that Mr. Eddie Howard, Director of Student Activities, will serve as the Director of Greek Affairs.
Ms. LaRetha Spain-Shuler, Director of Multicultural Affairs, has been in charge of Greek Affairs for about the past five years. Greek Affairs had previously been part of Student Activities before Spain-Shuler became the director. According to Howard, there were some structural problems, and Greek Affairs was moved to Multicultural Affairs. The department was renamed Multicultural Affairs/Greek Affairs.
The initial plan for Greek Affairs this year was that during the fall and spring semesters, Howard, Ms. Suzette Zompetti, the Assistant Director of Student Affairs, and Mr. Scott McCoy, the Coordinator of Intramural and Outdoor Program for Student Activities, would become governing council advisors for Greek Affairs. Howard now advises the National Pan-Hellenic Council. Zompetti serves as the advisor of NPC (Panhellenic), while McCoy now advises the Inner Fraternity Council.
By July 1, 2002, Student Activities will have full responsibility of Greek life. Student Activities will have all Greek documents and responsibility of all the administrative matters.
The idea of moving Greek Affairs back to Student Activities came from a combination of people: Spain-Shuler, Howard and Dr. Bruce Harshbarger.
Rumors have been circulating around campus that the transition was not discussed with the people involved with Greek Affairs, with the exception of Spain-Shuler. Zompetti states that the transition was announced in January.
“It was announced in a Greek Task Force meeting that Student Activities would begin to transition into the roles of the council advisors as a part of a larger transition to bring Greek life to Student Activities,” Zompetti said. “It’s a misrepresentation because it was announced. There was a lot of rumor and innuendo. In November, the initial discussion was had. There was no final resolution until January, when it was announced at the first Greek Task Force meeting in January.”
Howard believes that moving Greek Affairs back to Student Activities is a good thing for everyone involved.
“My goal is to rebuild the department of Student Activities and to put back in place the responsibility it had prior to the departure of the last director,” Howard said. “I think adding Greek life would be the completed part of the puzzle.”
By moving Greek life to Student Activities, Spain-Shuler will be able to concentrate more on Multicultural Affairs.
“LaRetha has done a good job adding foundation for Greek Affairs. This move gives her opportunity to work on other projects dealing with Multicultural Affairs.”
Howard added that Student Activities has a larger staff, and Student Activities will be more useful for the students involved in Greek Affairs.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Apr 5 2002. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry