By STEFANIE HILL

Staff Writer

A new Panhellenic Council was selected and has begun planning events for campus sororities.

The council initiated the new members into office Jan. 7. Each sorority chose two candidates to represent them in the council. Patsy Bourgeois, Panhellenic adviser and a professor of nursing, said the Panhellenic Council has a rotation system to decide which candidates receive which positions.

"For instance, last time Phi Mu had a person who was president, so this time it's [Kappa Delta's] turn to be in this position," Bourgeois said.

The new officers are President Nicole Chico, a junior speech pathology major and a Kappa Delta; First Vice President Joy Keith, a junior biomedical engineering major and an Alpha Chi Omega; Second Vice President Allison Comeaux, a sophomore elementary education major and a Sigma Kappa; Secretary Ashley MacGarity, a sophomore biology major and a Phi Mu; and Treasurer Emily Allison, a sophomore marketing major and a Sigma Kappa.

Also elected were Assistant Recruitment Chairman Alison Willsher, a sophomore biology major and a Phi Mu; Public Relations person Deanna Guyton, a sophomore biology major and an Alpha Chi Omega; Social Director Autumn Putsch, a senior civil engineering major and a Kappa Delta; and Parliamentarian Leslie Brasseal, a junior computer information systems major and a Kappa Delta.

The new council is working on plans for National Badge Day.

Chico said March 1 is National Badge Day, a day when sororities from all around the country celebrate being Greek by wearing a certain badge to represent their sorority.

"The idea is to show you are proud to be part of your sorority," Chico said. "It happens everywhere. So if I wear my badge down in New Orleans [on Badge Day], I could run into someone wearing the same badge, and we would both know that we were in the same sorority. We could share that pride we have for our organization."

Also in March, the council is planning a trip to the Southeastern Panhellenic Conference (SEPC) in Atlanta. Chico said the conference is where Panhellenic councils from across the country come to share ideas and listen to speakers from different organizations. Chico attended the conference last year and said she had a fun time.

"It is an excellent conference put on by the National Panhellenic," Chico said. "We got a lot of new ideas from different councils that we were able to incorporate here to improve our own Panhellenic council."

Keith, who also attended the conference last year, said she agrees it will give them an opportunity to learn.

"We met delegates from many different places," Keith said. "It gave us the chance to see how other university councils operate to achieve their goals."

Although these are the only two events planned for March, Chico said many more activities are coming up, such as Greek Week in April.