Improving Greek Life’s image on the Marshall University campus and in the community is just one of the missions the new Panhellenic Council President Hannah Brown has her mind set on.

“I feel like Panhellenic got a really bad rep and nobody had a straight up voice, that someone would be unbiased and had that ability to coordinate everyone else,” said Brown, a junior elementary education major from Glen Daniel, W.Va.

Brown is a member of the Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority, where she served as recruitment director last year.

This year, Brown said she wants to focus on improving Greek Life and PHC’s image and working to improve communications with the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life.

“There was a lot of miscommunication,” Brown said. “We just want to make sure the communication is reaching us and reaching the (sorority) chapters.”

Brown said her communication goal is also in place so there are fewer issues the Panhellenic Council is unaware of and to keep communication with FSL productive and beneficial. Currently, there is not a director in charge of FSL. Matt James and Andy Hermansdorfer, who both work with Student Affairs, are both working with FSL and the Panhellenic Council at this time.

Brown said after being elected as PHC president, she was stressed about what to do and how to handle problems, because they didn’t have a director, but James and Hermandorfer showing support made her feel better.

“Once we got Matt (James) and Andy (Hermansdorfer) in our corner, we finally got someone that empowered us to actually give our positions a shot, to take over,” Brown said.

Brown also said she wants to work closely with Haley Smalley, the vice president of philanthropy for the council. Brown said the PHC will help advertise the sororities’ different community service and philanthropy events on campus to help them raise more money and awareness for their causes.

She voiced her ideas of the council highlighting a different sorority’s philanthropy each month on social media and to work on having more community service events through FSL that Greek students can come to and help with, as well as getting help from other students and organizations at Marshall.

Marshall University’s PHC supervises the four sororities on campus: Sigma Sigma Sigma, Delta Zeta, Alpha Chi Omega and Alpha Xi Delta. The PHC organizes events on campus such as Greek Week and Hazing Prevention Week and they aid in Homecoming Week programming.

Although Brown said she had been nervous about this position and being on Panhellenic Council, now she is confident in the council and what they are going to achieve.

“I was really nervous, but now I’m just excited about what’s to come,” she said.

The Panhellenic Council does not have upcoming events scheduled other than Greek Week, set for Apr. 4-11, but Brown said they are working to make sure the spring recruitment is going smoothly.

Brown said she and the rest of the new Panhellenic Council were installed before winter break and have been working to make plans for PHC’s upcoming year. The council consists of six women from the four sororities to run programming, philanthropy, recruitment and more.

These women apply and are interviewed for their positions. Then, the four sororities are able to approve or deny the newly chosen council as a whole unit. This gives the girls in the Panhellenic community the ability to have a say in who represents them.

Abby Hanlon can be contacted at [email protected].