GW’s new Greek life director will start Nov. 8.
By Jennifer Eder
For Christina Witkowicki, being involved in Greek life at the University of New Hampshire was more than just strong friendships and good parties.
It was the foundation for her career.
“There is no way I would be in student affairs without that experience,” says Ms. Witkowicki, who most recently was the director of Greek life at Bentley University in Waltham, Mass. “It really gave me a career path.”
Early next month, Ms. Witkowicki will become GW’s director of Greek life, where she’ll be overseeing 16 fraternities, 10 sororities and 14 multicultural organizations.
“Christina has a breadth of experience with both male and female groups,” says Tim Miller, executive director of GW’s Student Activities Center. “She brings a new perspective and will help us rethink how we do some things and will be able to connect well with our students.”
During her four years of college at the University of New Hampshire, Ms. Witkowicki served as the vice president of finance for her sorority, Alpha Xi Delta, treasurer and president of the school’s Panhellenic Council and student body president.
“I learned a lot about how you interact with people, delegating responsibility and general life skills,” says Ms. Witkowicki.
Ms. Witkowicki, who majored in political science, decided to make a career out of university student affairs after she realized she enjoyed leading the student body and the Panhellenic sororities more than anything she was learning in her academic classes.
Two years after graduating, Ms. Witkowicki returned to the University of New Hampshire to be an outreach assistant in the Office of Greek Affairs, where she oversaw five sororities. She was also the house director of a Chi Omega sorority chapter, living in the sorority house and supervising 30 young women.
Because student affairs employees work so closely with students, it can be difficult to draw a line between being a friend and a professional to students, says Ms. Witkowicki.
“It can often feel more like a social situation because you start to get to know them on other levels, but you have to recognize that you’re always the professional,” says Ms. Witkowicki, who also received a master’s degree in higher education and student affairs from Salem State College in Salem, Mass. “And you have to keep boundaries because when it comes time for you to handle judicial issues, the students need to respect you.”
At Bentley University, Ms. Witkowicki supervised six fraternities and five sororities. In addition to directing the 450-student Greek community, she helped coordinate the new student orientation.
“The students here at Bentley are incredibly smart and always come to meetings very well prepared,” says Ms. Witkowicki. “And I’ve seen a lot of parallels between students at Bentley and GW so I’m really excited I’ll be around the same caliber of student leadership.”
As director of GW’s Greek life, Ms. Witkowicki will be responsible for risk management and liability of all 30 chapters. She’ll give guidance to the three governing councils: the Interfraternity Council, the Panhellenic Association and the Multicultural Greek Council. And she’ll support recruitment efforts for the entire Greek community.
While Ms. Witkowicki isn’t officially taking on the role until Nov. 8, she has already identified her top five priorities.
First, she plans to help the Greek community build more relationships with faculty and staff. Second, she wants to strengthen the three governing councils.
“The councils should be lobbying for their chapters, representing the thoughts and ideas of their members and holding their members accountable to the policies they’ve agreed upon,” she says.
Ms. Witkowicki also wants to build more of a community between the Panhellenic sororities, the IFC fraternities and the multicultural organizations by creating an activities council where all chapters would have equal representation. This council would be in charge of planning all big social events and philanthropic programs.
Transparency is another top priority for Ms. Witkowicki.
“The students need to be better educated on what the standards are, who they’re set by and how they’re equal for everyone,” she says.
And lastly, Ms. Witkowicki wants to strengthen the multicultural organizations at GW by giving them more direction and helping them become more a part of the greater Greek community.
“GW students are very passionate, and they want to be a very strong premier Greek community,” she says. “And I’m looking forward to further developing student leaders.”
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