STATE OF THE CORPORATION April 2009
As I have discussed for several years, there is significant concern regarding the diminishing number of incoming freshmen participating in rush. Consistently during this time, less than 50 men are participating in rush. This year only 37 men pledged fraternities. While once again Beta Tau had the greatest number of pledges, 15, it is not an overstatement to suggest that the future of fraternities at Baker University is at a crossroads.
In recognition of this problem, the university organized a Greek Summit in the fall of 2007. Representatives of Greek organizations, administration and athletics discussed the decline of participation in Greek Life. All agreed that it was beneficial for the university, for the Greek organizations to thrive.
As a result, the Greek Summit provided a number of suggestions for improving the commitment of the university to Greek Life. Unfortunately, in our view, little concrete action was initiated and the impediments to participation in rush, in particular with respect to fraternities, continued.
Therefore, a number of Beta Tau alumni have spent time this year aggressively pushing the university into not only recognizing its stated commitment to Greek Life, but to demonstrate that commitment. Before this school year, a meeting was held with the athletic director and his staff to insure that coaches would not interfere with scheduling practices and other activities that conflicted with rush. I want to thank Darin Liston for his participation in that meeting.
Unfortunately, throughout the fall semester, it became apparent to the Alumni Board that there continued to be inequitable treatment of Greeks and segments of the university were resistant to promoting Greek Life, although that was a stated policy of the administration.
Subsequently, meetings have been held throughout the year with the administration, including President Long and members of the athletic department. From all appearances, a dialogue has occurred that has begun to establish an atmosphere of cooperation and recognition that Greeks and, specifically fraternities, are important to the continued success of the university. Brothers Alan Mauch and Walt Pinnell, of the university Board of Trustees, have been instrumental in organizing these meetings.
For the first time in several years, we are cautiously optimistic that barriers that made it difficult for fraternities to compete for members are being eliminated. However, this work has just begun and we need everyone’s help to keep this momentum going. This will be an important year for rush. The Active Chapter is likely to need our assistance. There will be opportunities for alumni to contact incoming students and their parents; perhaps host rush parties and provide resources for entertaining prospective rushees. I know if asked, the Active Chapter can count on its alumni to help.
As part of promoting Beta Tau, the Board continues to make every effort to maintain the facilities to make them as presentable and safe as possible. A new chapter room floor should be installed before Stag. We understand communication with alumni is important and, therefore, a new and more user friendly website has been created, www.kappasigbu.com. We are in the infancy stage of building the alumni portion of the website, but the hope is that more news can be transmitted electronically to our alumni.
We once again are encouraging all alumni to participate in the membership dues program. Simply stated, our annual budget cannot provide the necessary funding for all the maintenance expenses to keep the Chapter House in the condition it needs to be in to compete with other campus housing. Please consider being a dues paying Beta Tau alum.
In conclusion, this has been challenging year, but with the continued support of all alumni, we believe Beta Tau will continue to be the best fraternity on campus.
Mike Preston, President, Beta Tau Board of Directors