Last night, Wharton and College junior David Ashkenazi defeated two other candidates to become the new president of the InterFraternity Council.
The election was held after College junior Matt Dwyer resigned the post last week due to personal reasons.
The president of the IFC serves as the liaison between the fraternity community and the administration as well as an adviser to chapter presidents
Ashkenazi is currently the president of Tau Epsilon Phi. His post as IFC president will begin after the Spring rush.
Ashkenazi sat down with The Daily Pennsylvanian last night to discuss his plans for the coming year.
The Daily Pennsylvanian: Why did you run for the presidency of the IFC?
David Ashkenazi: I really enjoyed being president of TEP. It's a real challenge to be able to lead your peers, and I sort of saw this as the next challenge.
DP: Do you have any agenda for the upcoming year?
DA: There are a few things that I would like to focus on. The first is making sure freshman are aware of the opportunities available to live in the chapter houses as sophomores.
I'm hoping to promote IFC-sponsored events. Hopefully that will foster interaction between a number of houses.
DP: Do you have any plans on addressing underground societies?
DA: I see myself as the president of the fraternities at Penn. They are not fraternities at Penn.
I strongly believe that every second we spend focusing on the underground societies is a second we could have spent making ourselves better.
DP: The alcohol policy is coming up for review. Do you have any plans regarding that?
DA: I met with [director of strategic initiatives] Stephanie Ives today, and we spoke at length about the alcohol policy.
I really want to focus on registered parties and incentivizing them. As opposed to deterring people from having unregistered parties, I would rather have the alcohol policy create an environment where fraternities are comfortable throwing registered parties.
DP: How would you go about encouraging registered parties?
DA: The main idea is really a logistical factor, making the deadline for registering parties more flexible. The truth of the matter is we're students too, and sometimes we don't have our acts together a week before the party.
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