When Mike Hacke heard a knock on the door last night, he expected his roommate or another visitor, but instead, he was greeted by five smiling faces and a "Congratulations!"
After a selection committee interviewed applicants and deliberated their decision yesterday, members of the committee went to Hacke's residence to tell him he had been chosen as the Overall Chairman for Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance Marathon 2009.
"I feel great," said Hacke, who served as the donor relations overall chairman for Thon 2008.
"I'm really excited to get everything that [Thon 2008 Overall Chairman] Dan [Cocco] is about to hand off to me. I'm excited to take the momentum from Thon 2008 into Thon 2009," he said.
Hacke (junior-philosophy) said that he sought to obtain the position of Thon overall chairman because he "wanted to be able to lead all the student volunteers who participate in Thon to achieve our goals and visions for the future."
The selection committee, which is made up of Cocco, Interfraternity Council Associate Vice President (AVP) of Thon Alex Middleton, Panhellenic AVP of Thon Caihlin Durkin, Thon advisor Barry Bram and Four Diamonds Coordinator Sara Firestone, interviewed Hacke around 7 p.m. yesterday.
"The interview process was very similar to the interview process for my position this year, and I knew all the people in the room. It was tough, but nice," Hacke said.
Applications for the position were due the Friday before spring break, Cocco said.
The selection committee interviewed the four applicants who applied for the position of overall chairperson last night.
Cocco said all of the applicants had experience on the Thon overall committee.
"Mike, along with all the candidates, showed us his love of Thon and his leadership skills, and I think he will be able to take the momentum we had from this year into next year and beyond," he said.
Hacke said his main goal for next year is to do just that.
"I really want to harness the momentum that we came out of this year's Thon with and involve even more students to make Thon 2009 even more successful," he said.
Cocco, who served on the overall committee for three years, said although he thought he would be hesitant to pass the torch onto someone else, he is excited for the new Thon overall chairman and is eager for the future of Thon.
"Thon was a great time, we had a great year and I know next year they're in for even bigger and better things," he said.
Hacke said that the applications for the remaining overall committee members will be available to those interested tomorrow.
He added that the applications will be due in about a week, and an interview process will be set up at the end of March.
"Right now, I'm really looking forward to seeing the overall committee applications start to come in," Hacke said.
"I can't wait to get the entire team together to start work on Thon 2009," he added.
