Inside Phi Delt News

Editors:

Ken Jacobson 1111
Matt Grogan 1114

Authors:

Joe Davis 1107

Matt Grogan 1114

Keith Gruber 1106

Ken Jacobson 1111

Letter from the Editor
Ken Jacobson

It has certainly been a busy year for PA Gamma. Lets reflect on some of our achievements.

· This year we’ve celebrated our 125th year at W&J.

· We won the Homecoming float contest with the help of the Thetas.

· We established this news letter.

· We created a PA Gamma webpage.

· We held multiple alcohol free dances and mixers.

· We’ve had a winter formal and a pinning.

· We’ve had brothers elected to IFC executive positions, brothers initiated and elected to Order of Omega executive positions, and brothers elected to student government executive positions and chairs.

· We received a plaque for having the highest GPA of any male fraternity.

· We received special recognition in newspapers for our philanthropic efforts and have been featured in several newspapers including the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette which did a feature article on PA Gamma Phi Delts being a dry fraternity.

· We held a city-wide cold weather clothing drive which benefited the Washington City Mission, painted holiday scenes at the Washington Health Center - and cleaned the windows afterwards, set up an outdoor Christmas light display for Presbyterian Senior Care, took part in the couch potato marathon, helped purchase Christmas lighting for the City of Washington, are going to be participating in a bowling tournament to benefit Big Brothers and Big Sisters, participating in the March of Dimes and participating in the Cancer Walk.

· We have arranged for our brothers to move in before the freshmen so we can help them move in and make new contacts.

· We participated in the Phi Delta Theta Presidents Leadership Conference, held yearly in St. Louis.

You can see we have had a very busy year! The year certainly isn’t over and we plan on doing even more next year. Hope to hear from some of you soon, maybe play some golf, and we are already looking forward to Homecoming next year.

Phi’s Celebrate 125 Years at W&J

A Note from the President

President Keith Gruber

Greetings Brothers, as is customary with the beginning of a new year comes the election of new leaders in the Pennsylvania Gamma Chapter of Phi Delta Theta.

After a tremendously successful year characterized by improvement and enthusiasm, the newly elected officers eagerly accepted their positions and began their mission of continued growth. The new officers are full of ideas, incredibly motivated and committed to seeing this Chapter thrive in the new year.

We have set our sights on gaining the GHQ trophy and fulfilling the goal set by the last officers. After having a disappointing spring rush, characterized by numerous deferrals, we have high hopes for a large fall class made up of quality individuals, and we fully intend to improve financially. In the last two years we have made leaps and bounds to improve our financial standings, but there is still a great deal of improving to be done.

Our Fraternity is also on course to win the college's Community Service Award for the year 2001. We have been very active already as a Chapter running a successful winter clothing drive to benefit the City Mission, decoratively painting many windows in the Washington County Health Center for the holiday season, assisting the Presbyterian Senior Care Facilities in setting up their Christmas celebration and finally teaming up with the other Fraternities here on campus to raise nearly $6,000 for the purchase of new festive street lights for the city of Washington. The Brothers here recognize the value of being active in the community and helping those less fortunate, which is why we fully intend on continuing in the new year. Our biggest philanthropy is currently being organized for this spring which will entail a very large golf scramble with sixty percent of the proceeds going to benefit the Washington Fire Department (we plan to have the date and information in the next news letter, and hope that you will come out to show your support and to hit around some golf balls).

Another area which we see as important for the continued success of our Chapter, is relations with our Alumni. We had a very successful homecoming weekend which culminated in our celebration of 125 years of Phi Delta Theta here at W&J. Many Alumni turned out for this and we were very pleased to get the opportunity to swap stories and spend time with fellow Phis. We also feel that this newsletter as well as our new web page is a valuable tool for reaching out to our Alumni which we are excited to see develop into the new year. The current members are aware of the value of having good relations with our alumni and want to help Phi Delta Theta live up to being a life-long Fraternity.

We hope that the new year finds you in good health and spirits and are very grateful for your support

YITB President

Keith A. Gruber 1106

Congrulations!

Ken Jacobson

On Tuesday, October 10, the first fifteen initiates were inducted into the College's newly founded chapter of the Order of Omega. The Order of Omega was founded in order to recognized outstanding Greek leaders for their service to the fraternity system and the University.

Joe Davis '02 and Sam Pazicni '01, both brothers of Pa Gamma, were inducted on October 10th to the alpha class and our new president, Keith Gruber was initiated into the beta class.

We are especially proud of Sam Pazicni for being elected president of the Alpha class, and also wish to congratulate Joe Davis for being elected vice president of IFC and Chris Gisler ‘02 for being elected vice president of Student Government.

Our final congratulation goes out to Justin Henry who pinned Amanda Shogan at our winter formal held in the house.

Fore!!!

Keith Gruber

Hey! Come play some golf with your brothers and the Washington City Firemen! Proceeds are going to benefit the Washington Fire Department’s philanthropy - Children with muscular dystrophy and the PA Gamma housing and general fund. Read the attached flyer for details.

Note from the Alumni Secretary.

Ken Jacobson

Hi. In addition to being our IFC representative, Student Government Representative, House Chaplain, House Chorister, House Awards Chairman, PR Committee Chairman, and exec. board members, I am the new house Alumni Secretary. My job is to serve as a liaison between you, the alumni, and the brothers of this house. My responsibilities include getting this newsletter finished, sending this and in most cases the first newsletter too and being available to alumni that wish to contact the brothers in the house.

Our ultimate goal for this publication is to make it more an Alumni Newsletter than a house one, but to do that we need alumni news. Any feedback you can send us about yourselves will help make our newsletter better and more interesting so we hope to get some. If you have information, concerns, stories, etc please be sure to get them to me and I can include it in the upcoming newsletters.

Also, while planning to get this and the last newsletter sent out to everyone, we realized what an expensive prospect this is... when all is said and done it will cost about 300 dollars to make copies, buy stamps, envelops, etc. I know some of our alumni expressed interest in helping fund the newsletter, so if you want to cut Rob Langley a check at any time for any reason, I’m not going to stop you. We thank you all for the support we’ve received this year (especially Rob Langley and Tony Taylor) and hope to have even better relations with our alumni next year.

If you need to get ahold of me for any reason, my campus address is: Ken Jacobson, Box 595, 50 S Lincoln, Washington, PA, 15301 My email address is jacobsonkw@washjeff.edu.

Letter from Vice President Docking

Letter sent in the middle of Rush Week to every student on campus.

February 12, 2001

Dear W&J Student:

For the past four years, I have expressed my strong belief that the Greek system at W&J has great potential to enhance the academic and social experience of many students on our campus. I believe that Greek traditions foster strong friendships and a lifetime of memories for students once they leave the College. I respect these traditions and I fully intend to continue working with the Greek community to unsure a positive future for these organizations.

At the same time, I also believe that several Greek houses (although certainly not all) have adopted unhealthy social norms. Security reports indicate excessive drinking continues to plague our Greek system leading to fights, vandalism, noise, and disrespect for others. These problems must be addressed in order for our Greek system to survive.

In Considering these problems, I believe that a renewed commitment to leadership within the Greek community is our best hope for transforming our Greek system into a campus asset. It is student leaders, living in Greek housing and committed to the highest ideals of Greek life, that have the best opportunity and strongest impact in re-imagining a more positive future for our Fraternity and Sorority system.

To this end, Greek students will enjoy an exclusive series of opportunities through-out the 2001-2002 academic year to cultivate their leadership skills and learn more about transforming organizations and implementation change. These opportunities may include off campus retreats, regional leadership conferences, developing a comprehensive recruitment process, providing nationally recognized speakers, and enhancing Greek social activities.

These opportunities will not be provided free of charge. Beginning with the fall 2001 billing period the College will charge each member of a Greek organization $50 per semester for the privilege of participating in these events. This fee will be included on your regular invoice from the College and billed similarly to you classes, room, and board.

Mr. Lenny Chan, Director of Greek Life, will work with student leaders to organize these activities. He will remain the point of contact for groups and individuals who want to provide input and participate in new leadership opportunities.

I am providing you with this information so that each student will understand this new fee structure prior to deciding whether to join a house this Spring.

Sincerely,

Jeffrey R. Docking

Vice President, Student Affairs

JRD/cm

cc: Brian C. Mitchell, President

Ronald P. Sandmeyer, Sr., Chairman, Board of Trustees

(END LETTER)

We thought our alumni might be interested in the letter sent out during rush week.

IFC Note

Joe Davis - IFC Vice President

The Interfraternity Council of Washington & Jefferson College is committed to making sure that the funds raised by this "Greek Tax" stay within the Greek Community. We are in the process of establishing a FINCOM within IFC and Panhel to administer these funds. Proposals include a revamped Greek Week, aid to fraternities and sororities to pay for leadership functions within their organizations, philanthropic donations, rush activities, Free Greeks Only parties, and Greek Community leadership activities. Rest assured, the collected money will be well spent on the Greeks.