To begin with , I hope that everyone has had a moment or two to see the physical improvement to the house. The interior to the house. The interior and the exterior have both been painted since the summer , and the last winter we added a television room in the basement . With the combined effort of undergraduate brothers and our house corporation, we have improved the day-to day care and maintenance of the house to the point of winning accolades for house management even from the university, normally a pretty tough grader when it comes to fraternity houses.
Last we made a conscious effort to recruit the young men whom we could be sure not to lose to academic problems, as has been the case too often in the past . The result were the highest pledge class GPAs in the fall and spring and an overall house GPA of 2.26, third among 12 and climbing.
As proud as we are of our scholarship , I take special pride in the way that the enthusiasm in the house has spilled onto the athletic field. Aside from our many varsity athletes, support for the intramural program has tripled since I was a freshman and again the results are obvious : winning seasons in every sport last year and a 14-2 record in football, soccer , and volleyball this fall so far. I consider intramurals to be a great indicator for house strength in terms of morale and brotherhood within the house , and as i look around the Hill these days, it’s the same house that struggled in those areas that are forfeiting games or losing to us by four touchdowns.
None of this means much though-I’m constantly reminded by Dick and Tom and other alums-without that ever-important large pledge class that , with so much going for us, we seem destined for. Our rush chair Ramsy Mahjoub’98 , the “rush machine” we him for his tireless efforts, has done a job this first month-and –a half that has me extremely confident in rush. More importantly , however, I see that the burden of responsibilities has not fallen completely on his shoulders and instead, the quiet and unsure sophomores of last year have become confident salesmen for what they know is the best product OWU has offer- Beta brotherhood. As for this year’s sophomores, they never seemed unsure of themselves and have helped more than i think anyone expected of them. Even the stereotypically apathetic seniors are excited about rush, typified by fifth year student Pindar VasArman’96, who won’t even be here in the spring , but nevertheless works as hard as anyone to ensure us a pledge class that has the chance to define this house. Graduating just three seniors next spring means that we can nearly double the size of the house with a class of the quality and quantity that I anticipate.
Rush is not a simple thing these days though, and at times, four months of rushing- which was confined to a week or two when most of you went through it- can be enormously taxing both physically and financially. That is why events like this are so important to recharge the chapter in its efforts, and why alumni like Dick DeVos’54 , Tom Tatham’56 and Bill Rowland’68, who help raise and manage our funds, are appreciated.
As I said before , there is still room for improvement in academics , and the size of the recent years has limited our philanthropy effort; however , i consider these areas to hopefully someday simply complement what in my estimation- and hopeful yours after this weekend-is a chapter worthy of carrying the Beta name and the Theta Legacy that you have created for us.
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