Chapter President Letter
I hope this letter finds everyone in good spirits. This past semester, the undergraduate brothers have been working diligently to return Theta Chi to the foreground of Penn State’s Greek community. Due to our small numbers, in the past month, we have shifted our efforts to focus on four areas that we believe to be the most pressing issues at the moment.
Recruitment and Numbers
Unfortunately, we have been struggling with our numbers. This semester, we’ve lost two brothers. Our Vice President, Bill Hertrick, was called to active duty in Pittsburgh. He serves as an aircraft mechanic for the Air Force. We expect him to return to us in the fall. To fill his position, we have elected Chaplain Matthew Schwartz to be Vice President for the remainder of the semester.
Our Treasurer, Steve Brummel, dropped this semester and has returned home to Illinois for health reasons. His return for the fall is questionable as he is currently looking at other colleges to attend that are closer to his home. Brother Avi Sadiky has been elected as the new Treasurer.
This spring we have two new members, Ryan Rastelli and Dominic Depasquale, both of which are very eager to join our brotherhood. We are now focusing on planning our recruitment calendar for the fall. We have a lot of great ideas that we believe will help to increase our size greatly. However, we are always looking for new ideas for activities for recruitment. If you recall a particular event that was successful in recruitment, please feel free to share it with us. With our ideas and enthusiasm, I expect we will be able to at least double our size in the fall.
Alumni Relations
Communication between alumni and the undergraduates have been minimal this past semester and we would like to remedy this problem. With undergraduates and alumni working together to rebuild this chapter, we hope to renew and strengthen our ties with our alumni. We will be utilizing the website to provide frequent updates on our activities. Also, with events such as the Blue-White weekend and Homecoming in the fall, we hope that we may have the opportunity to meet many of our alumni.
For those of you will be visiting on Blue-White weekend, we encourage you to stop by the house. Undergraduate brothers will be at the house all day. At noon, we will have a BBQ that will last most of the day. In the early evening, we would like to hold an Alumni Ceremony for our senior brother, Jordan Glastein, who will be graduating this May. We hope to see you that weekend!
The House
On Saturday, March 22, undergraduates and alumni met with the architect to discuss the renovation plans for the chapter house. The details of the renovation plans, along with photos from the meeting, are now available online at our chapter website
Alumni in attendance at the meeting:
While we await the start of construction on the house, the undergraduates have been working to make minor repairs around the house and to improve the overall look of the house. In the coming weeks, we will be organizing furniture, cleaning the rooms and yard around the house.
K.I.C.K.S.
Last, but certainly not least, we have already begun making plans for our philanthropy in the fall, Kids in Cooperation with Karing Students (KICKS). Last year, unfortunately, due to our late recruitment of the brothers, we were only able to provide moderate assistance to Alpha Xi Delta in conducting the philanthropy, which raised approximately $2,000. This coming fall, we will once again be doing KICKS with Alpha Xi Delta. However, Theta Chi will be sharing an equal role of responsibility this year. I am excited to say that both Theta Chi and Alpha Xi Delta are very eager to make KICKS one of the largest philanthropies of the year. We will continue to provide updates on our progress for KICKS in the coming months.
That’s all for now from the undergraduates. We will be providing more information about our activities over the coming months on our new website. If you have any questions/concerns/comments that you would like to direct towards us, please feel free to contact us. I hope to see you on Blue-White weekend!
Fraternally,
Cameron Lefevre
President
Theta Chi - Omega Chapter