Indiana State University Newsroom

Indiana State University has been selected as one of 14 campuses nation-wide to receive the National Panhellenic Conference Excellence Award for the 2012-2013 academic year.

"This is an amazing accomplishment for Indiana State, and is a testament as to how far we've come as a community and as a group of outstanding female leaders over the past couple of years," said Tracy Machtan, assistant director of fraternity and sorority life. Campuses receiving the award were selected from more than 600 panhellenic campuses in the country, she noted.

Achievements of ISU's panhellenic council include a higher GPA than all undergraduate women's GPA, participation in Panhellenic Day of Service and other campus service programs, and its National Ritual Celebration Week, which won the Sycamore Leadership Award for 2012-2013 Programming Series of the Year.

Machtan credited "great recruitment" for the panhellenic council's recent successes.

"When we focused recruitment to be more on values that was the basis for everything great we've done in recent years," she said. "It doesn't matter what your affiliation is because together we can achieve so much as leaders."

Bo Mantooth, director of fraternity and sorority life, said the award sets a precedent for future Greek members.

"It sets the bar higher which is good because we like to challenge our students and we like to be challenged as professionals," he said.

Mantooth also said that Fraternity and Sorority Life have aligned its goals with those of Indiana State to retain students and increase graduation rates.

"I think the more you can get people to stay on campus the bigger and better the community gets and the stronger the bonds become," he said. "Retention rates are much higher for sororities and fraternities than they are for our non-Greek students, same with GPA and graduation rates. Our sororities have done a great job of keeping their members here from year one to year two and so forth, but more importantly graduate on time."

Staff members in Indiana State's Fraternity and Sorority Life Office hope the award will help boost recruitment.

"People should want to join this community because this community is one of the best in the country," said Machtan.

Machtan and Mantooth both credit the 2013 Panhellenic Executive Board for its hard work to receive the award. Board members are Megan Kaczmarski, president; Caitlyn East, vice president for standards; Lesli Heath, vice president for recruitment; Emilie Gottsche, vice president for public relations; Sarah Hedien, vice president for sisterhood; and Samantha Hyten, vice president for administration.

Contact: Tracy Machtan, assistant director of fraternity and sorority life, Indiana State University, 812-237-3835 or tracy.machtan@indstate.edu

Writer: Emily Sturgess, media relations assistant, Office of Communications and Marketing, 812-237-3773 or esturgess@sycamores.indstate.edu