A new empire will reign. The Greeks have elected their next Leonidas.

Zak Cherif, the director of scholarship for the Inter-fraternity Council (IFC), will replace the organization’s existing president, Adam Crouch, next semester. 

This decision, which will go into effect January of this coming year, was made Friday, October 24, at the close of IFC’s election process. Nine of 11 other candidates were selected for positions on the council.

During this election, Cherif ran on the concept of five goals he would achieve in his new seat.

In light of his current position and past experience as ASWSU’s Director of Communication, Cherif is confident these goals can be realistically employed.

PROVIDING TRANSPARENCY

The relationship between the university and its Greek community is Cherif’s first priority. Chrif said holding everyone to the same standard of communication is important to him. 

“People think we’re in a bad spot with the university,” he said. “We’re not.”

Cherif is confident the university wants to work with the Greek community.

He said It’s become a matter of making sure the entire Pullman community, the IFC, the Panhellenic Council, and university officials are on the same page. 

An example of this beginning to take shape was given during this last election. 

Bobby Poulton, vice president of Beta Theta Pi and one of the election delegates, said the process was made public and stayed informative.

Delegates kept their votes confidential, but based their decisions on speeches given to a community wide audience, he said. Fraternity brothers and ASWSU delegates were among some of the people in attendance. 

PROMOTING INTER-FRATERNALISM 

Currently a junior, Cherif has desired since his freshman year of college to provide a more intense form of inter-fraternalism on campus.

“I love my chapter,” he said. “I love Beta Theta Pi.”

Seeing a group like Alpha Gamma Delta partner with Theta Chi to raise money for philanthropies through entertainment and activities encourages Cherif to get others on board. 

This partnering provides a support system that is available when serious situations arise, he said. It goes beyond a lecture from authority and becomes a sustainable discussion.

“Each chapter is experiencing the same issues,” he said. “Some chapters have begun to solve these issues. Other chapters are still struggling. I want to match these fraternities together.”

Cherif refers to the Panhellenic Council, IFC’s sister organization, for inspiration.

“We’ve seen what the sorority women on campus have done with Project 13,” he said. “We’d like to do the same thing, but through a different approach.”

Project 13 is a complied list of goals the Panhellenic council set for its community this year.

As Director of Scholarship, he currently works on a sustainable solution for each chapter. This solution is a scholarship workshop and workbook.

This workshop and workbook is applied to the Greek community’s table system of study. There are color coded books filled with member names, majors, and academic abilities. 

When someone is struggling in a class, they can search for assistance there. Contact information for each member is provided so that students can easily connect.

Several chapters already have these available to their members. But most don’t.

Cherif said he desires to change that.

BUILD IFC BRAND

IFC members have great face-to-face communication skills and are approachable, Cherif said. 

However, he said, they lack in positive publicity and brand recognition. That can only be solved by prioritizing more communication with other organizations, he said.

“If the IFC is doing great things but not talking about it,” he said. “How will it become known?”

The Greek system obviously has pros and cons, he said. When the pros are talked about, though, it’s always been that Greek is great because of X,Y, and Z.

Talking about X,Y, and Z isn’t enough Cherif said. Actually doing X,Y, and Z is important.

“If we’re not working on what is good,” he said. “We can’t advance.”

CHANGE STANDARD FROM MAINTAINING TO SUSTAINING

Alumni visit every week, Cherif said. They come to explore campus and reconnect with their house.

“I want to be able to come back in the future too,” he said. “I want to be able to bring my family; my kids.”

When he returns, he doesn’t want to come back to a house alone, but a community too.

“Chapters are nervous about where they currently stand,” he said. “That’s great. But they need to go above and beyond. They need to plan next year and the years to come.”

Cherif said that he wants to change the attitude of each chapter’s executive board so that everyone else responds the same way.

“We need to come together now to ensure that we will be together in the future,” he said.

PROVE TRAGEDY IS NOT A NECESSARY CONDITION OF GREATNESS

Cherif has noticed that the Greek community’s strongest rallies are in the wake of tragedy.

For example, Brian Gurney is one of his Beta Theta Pi brothers. The fraternity has raised a large amount of support and continues to rally for Gurney’s recovery.

Cherif is proud of this and wants to see support raised for other things too, outside of tragedy. 

“It’s so much more than donation,” he said. “It’s the sheer love.”

That love isn’t expected every day, Cherif said. But finding a way to make it more frequent is important.

Each goal has already been put into motion by Cherif. It is his desire to use his new position to continue executing them.

 “I am the best candidate for this job and I will lead this community to heights we have never been to before,” he said during his pre-election speech.

Dan Watson, current president of Acacia, will replace Cherif as Director of Scholarship.

The Panhellenic Council elections begin this week, said its president Madi Phillips. Their council seats will be announced next Monday.