Quantity is not everything

By Martin Haskell ‘68 House Corporation President

The 1997-98 school year ended positively for Theta chapter, and the 1998-99 year is off to a great start. The undergraduate chapter is at a zenith and continues to grow stronger. We ended the year with 28 undergraduates after initiating a pledge class of eight. That places Theta chapter as one of the largest houses at °OWU. But quantity is not everything. This is a very fine group of young men who are accepting the challenge of self growing and are doing very well at it. The house continues to improve in appearance and upkeep. This latter effort is aided by our strong financial position. We ended last fiscal year slightly in the black on a cash basis, but that is after placing roughly $15,000 in improvements and upgrades into the house. The chef we hired second semester has done an excellent job of managing our kitchen costs as well as feeding the men very well. He continued to work through the summer performing maintenance and improvements to the house. Brother  Urlin Harris ’58 has done a superb  job   of orchestrating a facelift to the living and dining rooms. This year has had a good start. With 28 resuming under graduates. the house is near its capacity 32. We have already met our OWU imposed occupancy quota for thy year 2000. We have three fall pledges and the chapter is expecting to pledge at least 10 in the spring. We many actually have the problem of limiting occupancy next year. With these numbers, We hope to end the year with significant cash reserves.

Dick DeVos ’54 continues to work hard putting together alumni events. Make plans to attend Theta’s 150th birthday gala in the year 2003. Dick promises that it will be memorable. Tom Tatham deserves all our thanks for the excellent Theta  Deta we have been enjoying for the last  several  years. Eric Eickhoff ’00 has been ably assisting him  last year and this year. It is a big job. Our next House Corporation meeting will be in conjunction with initiation and our Fraternal Fifties ceremony on Saturday, March 20. Please join Us for  the meeting, these moving ceremonies. and the evening banquet prepared by  our superb chef Wives are invited.