A new set of faces was selected Monday to fill the positions on the executive board of the Multicultural Greek Council
Third-year Engineering student Emmanuel Smadja was elected president, while third-year College student Chieko Clarke became vice-president.
Other important elections to head the council were second-year College student Melody Han as treasurer, third-year Nursing student Po Soo-Hoo as secretary and third-year College student Virginia Min as historian.
This year, MGC plans to try to raise awareness of its presence by working to improve communication between fraternity and sorority councils within the University and the local community, Smadja said.
This is Smadja's first year being involved with the MGC.
"I believe diversity is the greatest strength of our council, and that we need to try harder to destroy stereotypes," he said.
People tend to think that an ethnic chapter is made up only of people from that ethnicity, but the various backgrounds of our board members and their chapter associations show that's not true, Smadja added.
Han also has several goals she would like to accomplish during her term on the executive board.
"I'd like for us to have more fundraising than in the past," Han said.
Through these efforts, Han said she hopes to raise awareness of the MGC around Grounds.
"I feel like we haven't gotten the recognition we deserve because of the lack of numbers," Han said.
None of the chapters have more than 40 people. But MGC still is growing. Over the past year, three new charters have joined the organization.
Consisting of seven chapters -- three fraternities and four sororities -- the four-year-old Council is one of the fastest-expanding organizations on Grounds.
"The Council is basically different because all the groups were created with the intention of serving a specific minority group," former MGC President Amanda Crane said.
The MGC was founded by the University chapter of the Latino sorority Omega Phi Beta Inc., because its members felt that they didn't fit into the existing Greek councils, Crane said.
Though the chapters may have begun with a focus on ethnicity, they limit neither their membership, nor outreach and support, to people from any specific background, Crane added.
Despite relinquishing her position as President of MGC, Crane still plans to stay involved and aware of the MGC's activities.
"I think they have a lot to offer to the community, and I hope to see the Multicultural Greek Council continue to grow as it has," Crane said.
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