To Panhellenic Council President Becca Papineau, the Greek community is much more than the negative stereotypes that have come to be associated with the community.
“We have to change what people perceive us as,” Papineau said.
Papineau, a senior from Kappa Alpha Theta, is this year”s Panhellenic Council president. She was elected in January 2015 and will step down in November or December of this year.
Papineau
The Moscow native was part of the council last year. She currently works at Schweitzer Engineering as an intern in their Human Resources department.
Papineau said she chose Greek life because of the many family members who have gone through the system themselves – her grandma, sister, aunt and cousin were all in the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority. Her mother was also in a sorority, though not one at the University of Idaho.
Although Papineau was interested in Greek life, she had a few reservations at first. Papineau also saw the multitude of leadership opportunities in Greek life, she said.
“Leadership is something I have wanted to do and enjoyed doing,” Papineau said. She was active on student council during high school and was ASB president her senior year.
Papineau said she first became interested in the Panhellenic presidency as she began to see the changes take place in the Greek system, such as the changes to the Student Code of Conduct.
Both the director for Fraternity and Sorority Life and the assistant Greek Life adviser left UI at the end of the school year earlier this year.
Papineau said that left her and the Interfraternity Council president to operate without an adviser for some time. She said they had to organize Greek recruitment for 600 students on their own. With the arrival of Dean of Students Blaine Eckles and a new assistant Greek adviser, Papineau said she has had much more support.
“We are thankful and excited to have him,” Papineau said of Eckles.
As president, Papineau said she wants to be approachable and wants people to know how much fun Greek life can be.
She would like the positive things fraternities and sororities do to be heard as their hours of community service and money raised for philanthropies.
“We have to keep doing good things,” Papineau said.
Katie Colson can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @katiecolson007