Through hard work, fraternity gains significant growth
Chi Phi goes from having 29 to 61 active fraternity members in a four-year span
Kate Welter – Daily Barometer
Many students choose to attend college not only to obtain a degree, but to also form a social network of friends whose interests and values are similar to their own.
For Jacob Curtis, one large part of his network was Chi Phi fraternity.”I was getting discouraged at being at Oregon State and not really meeting anybody,” said Curtis, a recent OSU graduate who majored in new media communications.
“Then I found Chi Phi during the spring term of my freshman year, and I found the opportunity to surround myself with my best friends under one roof.”While OSU Greek Interfraternity Council allows Greek fraternity chapters to recruit formally during the summer and fall, a chapter may also be allowed to informally recruit their members during the spring, depending on the number of members they have in their house.
In spring 2007, Chi Phi was only housing about 17 brothers, with a few additional members living outside the house.
Curtis and the six other members that joined with him that spring were told that unless more men joined the fraternity, their chapter house would be shut down.
Despite this ultimatum, the new pledges were not deterred from joining Chi Phi. In fact, they were up for the challenge that was before them.
“Joining Chi Phi appealed to me because I didn’t want to be a number or just another guy on campus,” said Alex Craig, former Chi Phi president, a recent OSU graduate who majored in general science with a pre-optometry option and a minor in psychology, as well as one of the seven members that joined in spring 2007. “I believed in Chi Phi’s ideals and I saw a house with potential and the opportunity to be a part of something bigger, the sense of belonging and family, and something to strive for and be proud of.”
Curtis experienced a similar sense of belonging in Chi Phi.
“Although there weren’t a lot of members at the time, I was able to build a lot of relationships with the current members,” Curtis said. “I started to recognize the situation of, ‘Hey, maybe in four years when I’m a graduating senior, I could be surrounded by some of the best people I’ve met, and if they’re under one roof, even better.'”
Immediately after joining the house, Curtis was elected to serve as Chi Phi’s recruitment chair. He and the six other brothers in his pledge class, who called themselves the “Best Class ’07,” focused on reestablishing Chi Phi in the OSU Greek community.The existing older members of Chi Phi were well-respected by the new pledge class, whom they helped to mature and prepare for the work that lay ahead of them.
Their goal was to expand the house by recruiting a larger pledge class in the fall filled with proactive, motivated and diverse young men.”The goal for the seven of us was not only for our house to improve numbers, but to also be selective with who we recruited to our brotherhood,” Craig said. “We weren’t going to take just anyone.”Curtis also stated that the new pledge class needed to understand the type of commitment that pledging Chi Phi entailed.
“I believe that when you pledge yourself to a fraternity or any other kind of organization, you’re making a pledge to not only benefit the organization, but to benefit and help develop yourself into a better person,” Curtis said. “When I joined, one of the things that I recognized was that Chi Phi was a mixed bag of genuinely nice guys. It really felt like there was a genuine brotherhood that existed in the house. So I wanted to maintain that the best way that I could.”
In addition to increasing the number of members in their chapter, the OSU Chi Phi chapter was also faced with the issue of changing houses.The house that they used to live in, located on Northwest 23rd and Taylor, was torn down in summer 2008. The members were moved into a different house, formerly an abandoned transient shelter, located on Northwest 23rd and Tyler.Curtis stated that having moved into a different house soon to be filled with a new generation of members, it was important to ensure that Chi Phi’s traditions would not be lost. They would need to work hard at making the house their own.
“We started to set the culture and standard that if you put some hard work in, you could have something beautiful,” Curtis said. “It was all about preparing for the future of the house.”
The collective hard work and efforts of the members over the past few years has paid off. Chi Phi has more than doubled its numbers, currently holding 62 active members.
Recent achievements include winning Greek Week 2010, coming in second place for the all Greek Sing competition, and participation in various intramural sports teams.
Chi Phi has also been active in philanthropic activities by participating in and winning other Greek house philanthropies, fundraising for Haiti, and teaming up with the Delta Gamma sorority for Relay for Life in May, where they altogether raised $1,100.
The OSU Chi Phi chapter also won the Ghering Award in 2008, nationally recognizing them among all other Chi Phi chapters across the country.
According to Sean Gordon, Chi Phi’s philanthropy chair and a junior majoring in managerial accounting, each member is required to complete 15 hours of community service per term. They are encouraged to branch out and serve in various parts of the community, rather than just going to the same place every time.
Keegan Warrington and Tate Koenig, two of Chi Phi’s members, even went as far as Africa for their Citizens of the World philanthropic organization. The pair travelled across Africa for three months this past winter in order to raise money for charities.
“Our recent accomplishments have been really confirming to the house that we’ve been doing something right,” Curtis said. “However, it is important to remain humble and remember how far we have come over these past few years. A civilization that forgets its history is nothing and has no foundation.”
The future of Chi Phi’s leadership is now left in the hands of many of its younger members. The seven member pledge class that joined in spring 2007 graduated this spring, leaving behind a house that they spent much time and effort to rebuild over the past three years.
Although many of the significant leaders in the house, such as Craig and Curtis, are gone, the current members look forward for the continual positive growth of Chi Phi fraternity.
“When I joined in fall 2008, the house was growing very fast,” Gordon said. “I want to see our house keep growing and also pave the way for the new members to join.”
Kate Welter, news editor
737-2231, news@dailybarometer.com