Iowa State Student Government election polls open Monday. Two of the seats on the ballot are represented by the Inter-Fraternity Council. Cody McCreedy, a junior in history and secondary education, is one of two candidates running to serve on the council.

Why do you feel you are qualified to represent the Inter-Fraternity Council?

The reason I am running is I have been in a fraternity for almost a year now. With the moratorium, and when we got shut down with COVID, everyone at our house was a little upset. But when we came back, the frustration has been boiling up to the point where I wanted to run. I have worked at the capitol here as a representative’s aid, I have the governmental background, and I felt like I can’t sit back and watch my brothers in my fraternity really struggle with the fact that they don’t know who to talk to. Half of them didn’t even know we had a Student Government.

The two big things that are on my platform are figuring out this moratorium and hopefully putting an end to it and the communication and transparency aspect between fraternities, IFC, the SFC office and Student Government as a whole. The miscommunication and transparency issue is one of the big reasons why I am running, along with the moratorium, but that connects with the communication and transparency issue. The guys I live with, we are frustrated, and a lot of fraternities are frustrated because there is such a lack of communication … we need to have more communication within the greek life as a whole to get things done, and that is why I am running — because I want to fix the communication, because I don’t like these frustrations.

I don’t like [that] my brothers in the fraternity feel like they don’t have a voice. It just kills me because I love these guys like brothers, they are my brothers, and I had to do something about it. … We have to fix these communication problems and transparency problems with the university, with Student Government, with the fraternities so these guys feel like they have a voice and feel like they are welcomed here on campus.

Along with the moratorium aspect, it is really hard to have philanthropies and community service projects when we have all these restrictions with ISC and SSC placed on us, but we don’t get an explanation as to why they are happening. We will ask for meetings with some individuals from both offices, and we don’t get answers. … One of the things I am questioning is why there is so much confusion. Like I said, the moratorium ties in with this communication transparency issue because no one is talking to each other. No one knows where all this information is coming from, so we need to connect this puzzle back together because this puzzle right now has been destroyed, and all the pieces have been spread across the Iowa State community. We need to connect the puzzle back together and make greek life feel that they are welcomed back to campus once again.

Talking with some fraternities and with some presidents, those are the two big issues they have as well as me, the communication and transparency aspect and the moratorium, which all three are tied together. Those are the big issues, and that is what they want fixed, and I know I can fix them — because I have the dedication, and the love I have for my fraternity brothers, I know I can spread to Student Government. I want this fixed because I want my brothers to be happy again because that is why they joined this fraternity, is the brotherhood and the fun that it is. Right now, they just feel like a burden to the university, and I hate that feeling because if you get to know some of these guys, they are some of the best guys you will ever meet.

What are some of the biggest issues you feel need to be addressed in the next year?

Another thing is communication and transparency with me. I need to be held accountable for what information I release to these people, especially Greekland. I am not going to go there and just be a hidden figure and this big-headed figure that never talks to these fraternities anymore. I need to give communication out to them as well.

Another thing I am preaching about and is on my platform is communication with other fraternities. With me, after Student Government meetings, what I want to do is a short video explaining what we did during that meeting. I have asked a lot of brothers in my houses and other houses that ask what do you think we do in Student Government, and they don’t know. What I want to do is release videos. I know Student Government does this, but I want to do my own every week saying, “This is what we did during the Student Government meeting and this is how it pertains to fraternity land, and it could help or damage fraternity life.” On Thursdays, I want to release a newsletter saying what all I did that week. People need to know what I am doing. I am not going to be a hidden figure or one of those people that live in the shadows. I am going to be out there, and I am going to let the people know what I am doing because that is only right. They elected me in, I am not going to fail them. I have the determination for this, I have the passion, I am not going to let them wonder what I am doing in office.

The other thing is tying back to that communication and transparency, I am going to extend my office hours and provide my phone number, my Instagram, my email, I am going to throw all that out there because I cannot represent these individuals if I am not readily available. That is another thing, when they have issues, they don’t know who to talk to. They talk to our fraternity president, and then our president doesn’t know who to talk to. So these guys feel like they are talking to a brick wall with no response whatsoever. I am going to extend my office hours, and I am always going to be readily available to talk to fraternity individuals and members of Greekland because they need someone to talk to, and they need someone to make them feel like their issues do matter. 

How would you like to represent your constituents? 

Be readily available, that is really all I gotta do, is be readily available. Like I said, you can’t represent someone if you do not listen to them. I don’t know everything, I will be the first person to tell you that, and that is why I talk to people. That is why I have been talking to other candidates running for other offices in Student Government, because I don’t know everything. I am more than happy to announce that I am not a genius and I need to talk to other individuals to get ideas and ponder my ideas off of them and to build on my ideas and theirs to make them the best possible and to make students’ lives better. That is why I always love to have someone co-sponsor a bill for me because I don’t know everything. If I write a bill myself, I know I would leave something out or another aspect that I would have never thought about.