Spotlight: IFC President Billy Carberry

In a world where fraternities are synonomous with superficiality and booze, Billy Carberry has seen Northwestern’s Greek community flourish. Since becoming the president of the Inter-Fraternity Council four months ago, Carberry has already supported the largest fraternity influx in over a decade. This success, however, has come only after much tension and stress.

“It’s a rollercoaster of emotions, with ups and downs,” said Carberry, 21. “One day things can just be going great. The next day things can take a turn dramatically for the worst.”

Carberry, the former president of Northwestern’s Chi Psi fraternity, had previously been active within the IFC forum, a group of all fraternity presidents on campus. As a member of the forum, Carberry attended meetings biweekly. Now, as an officer on the executive board, he is dedicating much more time.

“Things tend to come up all the time,” said Carberry. “We have to be ready to meet and talk things over and strategize depending on how things are going during the week. It’s a full time job.”

As the IFC president, Carberry supervises the tasks of the other executive board members. He oversees the handling of recruitment, risk management, academics, service, and public relations. Most importantly, though, he serves as the link between the fraternities and the administration.

“Probably the biggest responsibility I have is communicating with the administration of the school, such as Mary Dessler, the vice president of Student Affairs, and the director of Fraternity and Sorority Life,” said Carberry. “I am the primary liaison between the university and the Greek community.”

IFC’s role has changed over the past year. While it had traditionally served a judiciary function, IFC has now become more of an advisory board. It acts as a resource, assisting fraternities to better themselves and stay out of trouble.

“Rather than be the bad guys on campus, we’re becoming more of the advisors and supporters,” said Carberry, a Slavic and mathematics double-major.

One IFC-supported event, Dillo Day, is just a few weeks away. IFC makes financial contributions to the event’s bands, lunches, and tents, but also promotes safety and risk management.

“Probably 60 to 70 percent of what we do during [Dillo Day] is making sure everybody is safe during a weekend of a lot of fun [but] also historically a lot of drinking and a lot of hospital visits by a lot of Northwestern students,” said Carberry. “We don’t want the Greek community to be overrepresented in the emergency room.”