New executive board members were chosen to lead the 2006-07 Interfraternity Council (IFC) at the organization's Tuesday night meeting.

Fraternity presidents voted for three executive board positions including president, executive vice president and vice president of finance.

Ben Jabara will replace current IFC President Brian Bertges; Shaun Clair will replace current Executive Vice President Drew Conly; and Mike Peters will replace current Finance Vice President Dan Sheakley.

Jabara said his presidential platform included plans to improve recruitment, make better connections with the police, local media and the State College Borough Council and form stronger ties within fraternities.

"I talked to a couple of [fraternity] presidents and got their opinions on what needed to be improved in the IFC," Jabara said.

Clair said he and Jabara also spoke about achieving a stronger tie to the Panhellenic Council because many of the policies between the two organizations "mesh together."

Jabara was chosen as the IFC's next president after making a final speech to fraternity presidents at the meeting. Jabara, the council's current communications vice president, said he was excited to be elected.

"[It is] nothing short of amazing," Jabara said.

Clair said that the new executive board members will work on unifying the IFC and making the organization more of an open forum for fraternity members to express their ideas and concerns.

Peters said candidates were nominated at an IFC meeting a few weeks ago. Since then, he has been in contact with a few fraternity presidents to see if they had any concerns.

"I sent out an e-mail to see if any presidents wanted to talk," Peters said.

The IFC moved the elections up and held them a month earlier than they were in previous years to allow elected members to have time to shadow those who are already in the offices, Bertges said.

"[Now] they will know what direction they are heading in," Bertges said.

All three elected board members said they agree extra transition time would benefit the IFC.

Jabara said he would shadow Bertges for the next month to learn more about his new position.

Jabara said that he would attend meetings with Bertges and receive e-mail messages that pertain to presidential duties that he is currently not receiving.

Clair said that although the three men elected have been involved with IFC in the past, it is important to have time to shadow the current board members.

"[It is] always important to have a mentoring program," Clair said.

Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life Kevin Kerr said in an e-mail message that he will be reviewing the applications for the remainder of the IFC board positions within the next week and will be conducting interviews soon after.

Bertges said the rest of the IFC executive board positions will be chosen by Kerr and the three newly elected members.

There are currently five other positions to be filled: vice president of standards, associate vice president, vice president of membership, vice president of communications and vice president of programming.

Kerr added that all the executive board members will officially assume their duties at the last IFC meeting of the fall semester.