When athletics gets you on IFC's good side

Next year, frats won't just be counting the number of beers to buy for their next party.

Under the newly approved InterFraternity Council "Pillars of Excellence," fraternities can earn points based on their fulfillment of specific goals laid out by the IFC.

The IFC has oversight of all Penn registered fraternities.

Chapters can earn up to 200 points - which will be distributed by an IFC evaluation committee - by participating in as many as 15 categories, such as community-service programs, University-community involvement and new-members education.

Frats will not receive tangible rewards based on the number of points they earn, but a frat that does not take the plan seriously or has relatively fewer points will likely be on bad terms with the IFC as a result, College senior and IFC Vice President of Strategic Planning Bill Breedlove said.

Breedlove authored the plan in collaboration with the IFC's executive board, chapter presidents and Scott Reikofski, director of the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs.

And there's no reason frats should not be motivated to participate, Breedlove said. "There's ways for every chapter to excel in what they excel at."

For example, he said, his fraternity, Beta Theta Pi, is very academic and has several Wharton teaching assistants in the frat. This frat, he said, is more likely to achieve academic-related goals.

Other more athletic fraternities, like Alpha Tau Omega - populated by many Penn wrestlers - would conversely be expected to score points by taking part in intramural competitions, Breedlove said.

Some say the plan's greatest quality is how much wiggle room it allows.

"There's no truly common ground to judge [the fraternities] all against each other" as of now, Breedlove said, adding that, under the plan, frats will be able to compare themselves.

The original version of the plan was far more structured and stringent, but that version was abandoned over the summer, he added.

The current version was modeled after plans in use at other schools like the University of Delaware.

And though not every fraternity brother may be interested in reading the plan, it will likely still have an impact, College senior and Phi Delta Theta president Craig Bergman said.

In the meantime, the IFC executive board will create a goal-evaluation committee next semester to begin implementing the five-year plan, Wharton junior and incoming IFC president Austin Pena said.

Reikofski, the OFSA director, could not be reached for comment.

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