David Hartstein, Graphic by David BrodyIncoming freshmen are not the only new faces to arrive on campus. Both the Greek Life Office and the Office of Student Activities are adjusting to large staff turnovers at the beginning of this semester.
The Greek Life Office welcomes Ron Laue as the interim director for Greek Life, Jessica Gendrom as the coordinator for Greek housing programs and Karen Acton as the program coordinator.
With roughly 25 percent of Washington University’s student body involved in Greek life, the new administration is focused on better connecting students within the community.
According to Laue, the Greek Life Office has identified two long-term goals. The first is increasing each Greek chapter’s focus on Aret‚, a code of morals and values communally shared by members of the community. The administration’s second goal relates to the overall objective of unifying the Greek community.
“We’re working hard [to] reorganize and reunite the Black Greek Council,” said Laue.
Chapters in black Greek life are citywide chapters, while the black Greek council is the governing body for the University. Already, Laue reports that communication has increased and goals are becoming more unified between the Black Greek Council and the Greek Life Office.
In general, Laue has been very impressed with the students he has worked with.
“I have thoroughly enjoyed and been impressed with the leadership in the Greek community.with the passion and caring [students],” said Laue.
Senior Vikram Sasi, president of the 2006 Interfraternity Council, was optimistic about the new staff for the coming year.
“They’re continuing a great tradition set by [the previous staff],” said Sasi. “Everybody is looking forward to a great year.
Sasi also noted the unique challenge set upon the new staff of running the Greek Life Office with all new members.
“They all understand that it is going to be a hard transition because the entire office is leaving, but they’ve done a fantastic job handling it,” said Sasi.
The Office of Student Activities is another organization that works closely with students to improve leadership and overall life skills.
According to Julie Thornton, director of student activities, OSA has recently lost four of their staff members and gained two more this past summer. Turnover in OSA, however, is fairly common.
“I have worked here for over 2 years and [I have] never worked with a full staff,” said Thornton.
Thornton explained that the office hopes to create long-lasting changes in the future. Regarding the staff, she said, “They’re going to help us raise credibility and relationships with students.”
The two new members joining the OSA team are Naomi Daradar, coordinator for student involvement and multicultural leadership and Mike Saxvik,
coordinator for student involvement and programming leadership. As a team, their main goal is to, “build a team that works together and that can work better with students,” said Thornton. “[We are working towards] a stronger, better, more credible resource for leadership on campus.”