Sean Thomas was chosen last week, with the help of student input, to replace Elizabeth Kos as the Greek area coordinator.
Thomas, 24, began his transition period with Kos on Tuesday, spending the day in the Greek affairs office. He will take over the title when Kos leaves at the end of this quarter.
“I’m extremely excited about this job,” Thomas said.
Students expressed satisfaction with both the selection of Thomas and the way in which he was selected.
Associated Student Government has been pushing for student involvement in the hiring of Northwestern faculty and staff, said Bassel Korkor, speaker of the Senate. The idea was included on many candidate platforms during the April elections.
Greek leaders were invited to attend dinners with Thomas and other candidates during the interviewing process, said Korkor, who is also president of Beta Theta Pi. The students then evaluated the candidates with survey sheets and gave the results to Steven Dealph, director of Greek affairs.
For the Greek affairs office, asking for student input was common sense. The Greek area coordinator works directly with individual chapters, the Greek student counselors and house directors. Although the final decision was made by the office, Dealph said he would not have chosen a person whom the students did not like.
“This person works with students,” Dealph said. “I thought it was really important that we have their input.”
Dealph introduced Thomas to the Greek community at the Greek awards banquet Tuesday night. At the banquet, Phil Ordway and Peggy Yu, the presidents of the Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Association, presented gifts of appreciation to Kos.
“I don’t know anyone who has more patience or more dedication (than Kos),” said Yu, a Speech junior.
Thomas, a member of Theta Chi, will receive his master’s degree in student affairs administration from Ball State University this summer. He graduated from Ball State in 1999 with a bachelor’s degree in communications studies.
Thomas has strong Greek ties to Ball State, he said, since his mother founded a chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta there and all three of his siblings are members of Greek organizations there.
While at Ball State, Thomas was involved inside and outside of his fraternity, in philanthropy, risk management, IFC and other Greek organizations. He also interned with the North American Interfraternity Conference and traveled to more than 50 campuses as a leadership and education consultant for Theta Chi.
“He was pretty much, across the board from all the people we interviewed, the candidate that everyone thought had something to contribute to the Greek community,” Dealph said.
The NU Greek community is trying to move toward making its actions consistent with its values, and Thomas’s experience with values advising, along with his energy and enthusiasm, will help, Dealph said.
Thomas plans to connect programming and discipline with values in working with chapters.
“Their values should be congruent to what they are doing on campus,” Thomas said.
