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Delta
Psi recognized
for
"Community
Service" and "Challenging the Process" at
Indiana University Fall
2004 Greek Awards Ceremony
The
Delta Psi chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon earned two awards
November 5, 2004, during Indiana University’s annual Greek
Awards ceremony. Scott
Shtofman ’06
and
Drew Smith ’07 each wrote applications for
I.U.’s “Community Service” and “Challenging the
Process” awards, two of approximately 20 individual and
chapter honors presented during the annual event sponsored
by the Interfraternity Council and PanHellenic Association.
Indiana
University is home to one of
the largest and oldest Greek systems in the U.S., with a
strong Greek tradition dating to 1845.
Each year, nearly 5,000 students become involved in
one of 56 fraternities or sororities. Greek
affiliation provides a "home away from home," encouraging
members to excel at I.U. through academics, friendships,
community involvement, athletics, leadership experiences,
and other unique opportunities.
Delta
Psi’s efforts and achievement have been included in
previous award applications, and the chapter was honored to
be recognized by I.U.’s Greek community for the first time
with not only one, but two, prizes.
Delta
Kappa Epsilon Winning
Application for
“Challenging
the Process” Award
Delta Psi of Delta Kappa Epsilon is not
a status quo chapter. We
are constantly thinking of ways we can stay true to our
membership, rather than going along with the herd.
We are going into our fifth year as a chapter at I.U.,
and we spent the first four living in houses and apartments
around Bloomington. During
this time, we didn’t get down on ourselves, we
participated in as many events as possible, and we kept our
uniqueness as a chapter.
In our everyday operations we are
unlike many chapters. Our
seniors don’t deactivate, and almost every brother in the
house holds a position.
Everyone does their fair share in being involved with
the community. During
spring semester 2004, we averaged 12 hours of community
service per brother, and I don’t see chapters on campus
taking this kind of devotion to being involved.
As a result, in the past, we have earned Deke
International’s Community Service Award.
Setting
an example for others is something we pride ourselves on
doing. We always
try to be nice to others and not hold grudges for petty
events or ridiculous rivalries.
In rush this semester, it has been apparent that we
are different from the rest.
It makes the brothers feel good and bad at the same
time to hear rushes say we are the nicest house on campus,
all we do is treat them like people.
We don’t try to force anything on them, we approach
rush as a process where you try to find the house that fits
you best.
If there is a need for help in the
Greek community, we always are eager to be there.
Just recently, during Greek Week, we were asked to
help move the BBQ, and without hesitation we went around the
house and asked every brother available to help.
People dropped what they were doing and went outside
to do just that. We
take being in our new housing situation as a gift and an
opportunity to show the rest of the Greek community who we
are as a chapter and as people.
We always are trying to be the best
chapter that we can possibly be, and one of our goals this
year is to win Deke International’s highest honor, the
Lion Trophy. Individual
chapters submit applications to show how they excel in the
areas of chapter improvement, scholarship, alumni relations,
and community service. We
are making strides to do well in all these categories, and
we believe this will help us to set a good example for other
chapters.
We always try to instill a level of respect for our
chapter’s heritage, and in years past, this has been done
through mild amounts of hazing.
One of the practices we are trying to implement is
becoming an actual non-hazing fraternity.
We believe there are better ways for incoming members
to learn about our organization.
There always is the pressure from members past to
stick with the traditions and practices we used to apply,
but we have moved forward since our original days of being a
chapter at I.U. We
have realized we are a unique organization on this campus,
and our hope is to bring in new individuals who fit with our
values. As we
make this change within our own chapter, we hope other
fraternities will see the positive impact and adopt a
similar plan themselves.
-- Scott Shtofman ’06
Delta
Kappa Epsilon Winning
Application for
“Community
Service” Award
On April 3, 2004, my fraternity
participated in the third annual Hunger
and Homelessness campaign, run in conjunction with
INPIRG (Indiana Public Interest Research group).
In all, with 75% (15 members) of my
chapter participating, we brought forth more than 210 pounds
of food which will be sent to some of the 33 million hungry
and starving people in this country.
The day started at 10 a.m. at the Indiana Memorial
Union and ended at 4 p.m. at our food drop-off spot in
Bloomington. We began the day hearing from Senator Evan
Bayh’s representatives and ended it feeling rewarded,
having helped a worthy cause.
Even though going door-to-door at large residential
communities in town—the Varsity Villas and the University
Commons—on a dreary Saturday morning at a time when people
were just waking up might not sound like an exciting idea,
we had fun knowing we were making a small difference in the
country.
As team leader for this project, I worked with INPIRG
to determine whether we could be large contributors to the
cause. I made sure we had shifts set up to canvas the
aforementioned locations across town and that everyone would
be on time and do their job. Everything ran smoothly.
While other community service ventures like Habitat
for Humanity are great ways to do service, I decided to
push our chapter to do something new this year. This
wasn’t a regular can-food drive. This was a good learning
experience for all who participated.
-- Drew Smith ’07
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