Student leaders hope the University’s director of student involvement who began this month will help student organizations receive more funding and attention on campus.

Meredith Bielaska, who has served as the chief Panhellenic officer at the Delta Phi Epsilon International Headquarters for the past four years, is the new director of student involvement in the Office of Student Life and will oversee leadership programs like GW TRAiLS, Fraternity and Sorority Life and student groups, according to an email last month sent to members of Greek life. Student leaders said they hope Bielaska will address consistent organizational challenges like a lack of funding for multicultural Greek life, adviser shortages and improving communication between officials and students.

Roy Montgomery, the former director of student involvement, left GW in October 2023, and the role remained vacant for the rest of the academic year, according to web archives. The Multicultural Greek Council restructured its executive board last year following Montgomery’s departure and frequent adviser turnovers caused a lack of council-wide events and support from officials.

Bielaska said the Office of Student Life continually evaluates advising and support for student organizations and student-led governing councils. She said this year, student life officials reviewed advising assignments to ensure student groups were supported through the Pathways framework and by knowledgeable staff.

“We also encourage our students to gain leadership skills and build agency through their roles to be able to advocate for their organizations and develop programs that best speak to our current student body and their needs,” Bielaska said in an email.

Officials launched the Pathways advising system in May to categorize advising for student groups based on four “paths” color coded by Metro lines — red, blue, orange and silver — depending on the groups’ funding, travel and space needs. Bielaska said Pathways will enhance the student experience by increasing student engagement and adviser involvement.

“All student organizations will have full access to advisors through Org Help, the Excellence in Leadership Sessions, and online guides,” Bielaska said in an email. “In addition to these resources, some organizations will be assigned a specific staff advisor based upon individualized needs and criteria such as levels of spending and programming.”

Stephanie Animdee, a senior and the president of the Mu Beta Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., said she hopes Bielaska will assist chapters of National Pan-Hellenic Council — which represent historically Black fraternities and sororities — to receive more funding from sponsorships or the University Wide Program Fund, an allocation program between the Student Government Association and the OSL for student organizations to fund events and celebrations.

She added that her chapter has had issues with a “severe” lack of funding while planning a celebration for their 50th anniversary on campus.

She said she hopes Bielaska can help the chapter connect with potential sponsors or NPHC alums who can donate, as well as help organize council-wide fundraisers.

“Sorority life and fraternity life, it’s very expensive,” Animdee said. “A lot of the events that each chapter holds is also very pricey.”

Animdee said she relies on her FSL advisers to help boost the visibility of her chapter because there are only three members total and the members can’t make it to every event. She added that she hopes FSL and the new director will assist in providing Black members of Greek life an “open space” to feel heard.

“In terms of getting advice, I would think that’s definitely a good example, having them support us with the amount of members that we have, increasing visibility and letting people know, we’re still running things,” Animdee said.

Junior Thomas Broyles — the president of GW TRAiLS, an outdoor leadership program that connects students to the outdoors — said the organization has struggled with advising in previous years, which limited its capacity to carry out some planned trips and activities last semester. Broyles said TRAiLS gained a new full-time adviser in June through the office of Campus Recreation after cycling through part-time advisers since 2019.

Broyles said the new adviser, Senior Outdoor Education Coordinator Lucy Puentes, has 15 years of experience in outdoor education and has already helped the group with their programming, including their pre-orientation cohort Adventure Bound. Broyles said most of the organization’s direct support comes from Campus Recreation, but TRAiLS wants to work more with the Division for Student Affairs and Bielaska to promote the group’s programming and engage in more campus-wide events, like First Night and Late Night @ the Rec, an orientation tabling event introducing first-year students to Campus Recreation.

“In the past, we’ve struggled with communication from higher-up officials within the Division of Student Affairs,” Broyles said. “I’m hoping the creation of this new position can help us get more concrete answers and support.”

SGA President Ethan Fitzgerald said he plans to meet with Bielaska to raise frequent concerns from student organizations like the availability of campus spaces for events, fundraising and access to “effective” advising for student organizations.

“They already have to go through enough challenges with not being able to get enough resources in terms of funding, whether it be booking spaces,” Fitzgerald said. “So we want to make sure that this person is accessible to our students.”

Fitzgerald said the SGA also plans to work with the DSA and Bielaska to organize events like the annual Career Expo, a mental health resource fair and a student organization summit that will invite presidents of different student groups to connect with fellow student leaders.

Bielaska will co-advise the Panhellenic Association this year — along with Andrea Davis, the assistant director for student involvement — according to the email sent to members of Greek life last month. Panhel President Rachel Salop said in the past, FSL advisers have been helpful with mediating standards violations between individual chapters and Panhel.

Salop said Panhel council-wide events like recruitment and philanthropy weeks are a complex operation because chapters are “self-governing” and only work together for structured events. She added that Bielaska’s previous experience in Panhel is helpful because she is already familiar with the “system,” recruitment and terminology like “PNM” — a potential new member.

“I feel like this is a really niche field, and it’s really great to have someone who has been in it for so long,” Salop said.