Although University Greek organizations often compete against each other in sports and other activities, last weekend they were given the opportunity to prove their combined merit outside of Ann Arbor.
Both the University's Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Association took home honors at the Mid-American Greek Council Association Conference in Chicago last weekend.
The University's Greek organizations, which competed with Greek councils from more than 200 schools representing a 17-state region, received three awards. A total of about 1,700 student representatives and Greek advisors attended the conference.
"The conference was a series of educational sessions over the weekend," said Panhellenic Association Advisor Mary Beth Seiler. "In addition to general sessions everyone attended, students were broken into pathways for sessions geared towards their particular areas of involvement."
Panhel received the MGCA Greek Communications Award for its "Timeless Tradition" rush booklet.
LSA seniors Jennifer Kruer and Rachel Goldrich put together the booklet last year as part of their duties as Panhel rush co-chairs.
"This year we made the booklet more serious and aimed toward parents," Kruer said. "It stressed that the Greek system's GPAs were higher than the student body's and the long-time tradition of Greek life at Michigan."
IFC was recognized for achievement in Self-Governance and Judicial Affairs for its policies of judicial review. Its review process was honored for fostering education and development of the Greek community and ensuring full due process throughout the review.
IFC President Ken Tanner, an Engineering junior, worked with Mary Lou Antieau from the Office of Student Resolutions to improve the Greek judicial process - an effort that has been going on for some time.
Tanner said the award was given to the University's IFC because of the educational nature of the reprimands handed down for violations of IFC codes.
"Instead of prohibiting a fraternity from participating in IM sports for a violation, we force a certain number of their members to participate in a seminar on a topic related to the offense," Tanner said.
Both organizations received scholastic achievement awards for maintaining overall fraternity and sorority GPAs higher than the average GPA for the student body as a whole. Only about 15 of the more than 200 schools represented received this accolade.
Tanner said the award is particularly impressive considering the high GPA that the University student body maintains relative to other universities.