The Interfraternity Council

The University Kentucky has a very large greek community. This greek community does a lot of things for the University of Kentucky both socially, with philanthropy events, and with academic life. In this Greek community their are 21 social fraternity on campus. But as great as these fraternities are there must be a certain body that governs them and represents them in front of the school. The Inter Fraternal Council does this. The Inter Fraternal Council is a Greek elected body whose job is to govern and to help fraternities on the University of Kentucky campus. As a greek student I here a lot about the IFC and some of what they do but after seeing the council in action I am seriously considering becoming a part of the IFC.

The Kentucky IFC is controlled by a their own constitution. This constitution lists the bylaws and regulations of the IFC. The constitution reflects the IFC core principals which are membership, recruitment, scholarship, and philanthropy. The council consists of all the chapters on campus that are both voting and non voting chapters. The chapters are able to vote based on their standing within the council. The main council is composed of the President, executive vice president, seven other vice presidents, and chief of staff appointed by the President.

The IFC's president is obviously the most important position on the IFC. The IFC president is the face of the greek fraternal community on campus. Before the meeting I attended I interviewed the current president of the IFC. The current president of the IFC is Michael Gant. Michael Gant says “the job of the president is to oversees the executive council and to interact with all the chapters on campus.” The president is suppose to maintain good relations with all the chapters on campus and to refrain from favoritism. He also says the point of the IFC is to help the fraternities on campus with scholarship, to regulate and to provide programming and support. Michael Gant was elected President by the individual chapter presidents. There is a lot of pressure on President Gant and is responsible for a large part of the greek community. He is the face of the fraternities and he does not take his position lightly. “I look forward to the challenge of being president and the responsibility that comes with it and I am ready to take it head on.”

Before the meeting I talked to an old member of the IFC, Seth Fortenbery. Seth was on IFC for two years and has a lot of experience on the council itself. Seth has served two very high positions on the IFC since his junior year. He was vice president of community outreach and executive vice president. Both jobs are very important but executive vice president is second in command of the entire IFC. As executive VP his job was mainly to prosecute fraternities in front of the judicial board similar to a district attorney. “It was my job to be the bad guy and it was not fun but the job but it was necessary to maintain order within the fraternities and the council” said Seth. The IFC realizes they have a very important job. Seth said “Greek life is a huge part of the University of Kentucky that is a fact, and the IFC wants to continue that.” The IFC did that this past fall semester with the biggest rush sign up in the University of Kentucky's history. “Not only do we want to major part of the campus here but we want to be a positive part of campus. We do this through philanthropy work and by maintaining a high standard of scholarship”, said Seth. The IFC tries to do this by making their be a GPA requirement and encouraging the fraternities to have GPA requirements. Also, all the fraternities on campus do some kind of philanthropy work. Seth says that “The members of the IFC want to make sure that the campus is better because of the greek community and we want to provide great opportunities to the Greek students” said Seth. Seth said that the IFC works hard to maintain great relationships with all the major and minor groups on campus. Seth said if the Greek community wants to get anything done on campus it has to be friendly to all groups and to be willing to work with all the groups on campus and especially the University itself. In fact the IFC has a strong relationship with President Eli Capiluto. That is part of the reason why the greek community has a strong relationship with the campus.

Before the meeting I also spoke to the vice president of inter fraternal relations, Clay Marilla. Clay has served on both sides of the IFC. He was president of his fraternity and represented them in IFC meeting. He is now on on the executive council. Clays job is to make sure the relationships between fraternities is strong. Clay says “In meeting a lot of times it seems that the executive council and the presidents of the chapters are against each other. I like to try to bridge the gap between the two because I understand the struggle of both sides”, said Clay. It is crucial to the IFC that the fraternities listen to them and work with them on issues if not greek life will fall apart on campus. It is important also to realize that the IFC ensures that fraternities are not working against each other. If their is no trusts between fraternities no one will be willing to get anything major done. Clay say “Its my responsibility to ensure fraternities are working with each other and doing what is best for the greek community as a whole.” Clay's position is essential to the council and Clay knows it needs to be taken very seriously.

The IFC meeting itself takes place every other monday running from 4:30 to 5:30. The meetings take place in the student center in one of the lecture halls. The way an IFC meeting is run has changed over the past few years. The IFC meetings used to be set up in a circle. They would have the presidents and the executive council sitting at these tables and they would put these tables in a circle. This type of arrangement stood for something. The arrangement stood for the equality everyone had on the council. Every chapter gets to vote and it does no matter the size or how much money a chapter has. But over the past few years this set up has changed. It is now has just a standard lecture hall set up. At the front of the room their are three tables where the executive councils sits and the President and executive vice president sit in the middle. The individual chapter presidents then sit in rows facing the executive council. The set up is similar to a lecture hall with the executive council being in the position of the professor and the chapter presidents as the students.

I got to the meeting and it opened with the announcement of visitors at the meeting. This meant that I was introduced to the entire council. Michael Gant stood and said “I would like to welcome David Hymes to this meeting. David is doing a project on the IFC and is here to observe todays meeting.” The IFC made me feel very welcome and where not annoyed or bothered by my presence at all. The next order of business was the taking of roll. After that is when the meeting really gets going. The next order of business is the individual positions on the executive council gives a report about issues effecting their position. The environment during this was very serious and there was no joking around. It felt as if I was in government meeting or a meeting of congress. Things got especially serious when the topic of risk management got brought up. The IFC really does not want o see any chapters make any mistakes and get in trouble and in the meeting the President and the Judicial board chairmen made that crystal clear. I really thought before this meeting that fraternities were in competition with each other but after the meeting it really seemed that everyone wants the best for everyone. Seeing an official body like this argue and make decisions was very interesting. The next pray of meeting is when the UK advisor for the IFC Vinny Sandy stood up and talked about how hazing is not tolerated and if any fraternity is caught hazing they will face a stiff penalty. The council soon enough started discussing proposed by laws o add to the constitution. The one I saw them discuss the proposed push back of fall rush. I did not realize how serious the university was on their anti hazing initiative. It was interesting to see that they had their university advisor so active in meeting. It really made it seem like the university really did care about greek life. The last order of business for the meeting is the final comments by the President, in which Michael Gant discussed Dance Blue and encouraged everyone to get as many people doing it as possible. The meeting then closes and everyone then shakes hands and departs.

The University of Kentucky's IFC has a very large responsibility. Its job is to do whatever it can for the 21 social fraternities on this campus. After observing their meeting and interviewing some members of their executive council I feel confident that they are willing and able to handle these big responsibilities. This experience has also really inspired me to join the IFC in some way and to help the greek community at the University of Kentucky.