By martin Haskell ’68, theta chapter house corporation president
Something progress requires stepping back before moving forwards over the past three years, considerable progress has been made in chapter management and operations. The undergraduate members have taken increased responsibility for house and kitchen management and have initiated improvement to the facility. This summer two undergraduates are painting the interior of the house and performing other routine summer maintenance so that the house will be in excellent condition upon the resumption of school in the fall.
This year three were a number of unfortunate incidents and allegation related to alcohol, rush and risk management. The interfratenity council of the university fined and placed the chapter on social probation for one semester for pledging and initiating academically ineligible freshmen.
These incident led the general fraternity to suspend the character of the chapter in spite of the overall improvement noted above. In order to have the suspension removed, and in order to avoid charter revocation, the chapter must complete a 10-point improvement plan.
This plan includes:
*developing clear chapter goal related to rush and chapter operation.
* holding a summit meeting with representative of the general fraternity, the university and the alumni board;
* defending chapter before a review committee at the annual convention; and
* participating in all-member, all-day retreat with members of the alumni board
Through the suspension came as a surprise, the effort has been to galvanize the attention of the membership and focus its energies on improving its status and image. It has also served to awaken the leadership within the chapter. This chapter is filled with many good and capable men of high character. Also, through, the chapter takes a rather laissez-faire view towards individuals’ behavior with in the chapter. This is beginning to change, as the chapter’s leadership is becoming more vocal about individual responsibility and developing and enforcing penalties for under-performance.
Working with young college fraternity men is a never-ending source of challenge. It provides unique opportunities to develop management and leadership skills not available through a university curriculum. Theta chapter learned its lessons well and seems to be on a path of continuous improvement.
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