P HI G AMMA D ELTA T HE B LUEGRASS F IJI N EWS A P UBLICATION OF THE B ROTHERS OF THE U PSILON K APPA C HAPTER OF P HI G AMMA D ELTA Spring 2011 2011 Pig Dinner Invitation 6:30 p.m., April 16, at the Hyatt in downtown Lexington. Register for Pig Dinner at http://pigdinner.eventbrite.com or by calling James Chapman at 270-348-2350. President’s Letter Purple Legionnaire’s Letter Brothers, Brothers, I want to let you know about what’s going on in the Upsilon Kappa world. It is safe to say that we have met many of our goals as well as created many new ones. We have kept up with the great tradition of being in the top three in grades, we have a 3.3 accumulated GPA and are ranked 3rd among all fraternities. We have also moved up to 5th in athletics, a high ranking that I also hope will become a year-to-year tradition. At the end of this semester we will be losing 22 seniors to graduation; they will be missed, but I know they have taught us how to become an even better chapter. This fall our chapter will be focusing primarily on recruitment and retention. We have gotten a good head start on recruitment so we have already started taking the right steps to having a good fall pledge class. We have a very young cabinet; four of our five are sophomores. At first I was a little worried about how it was going to work out, but all of us have stepped up to the plate and become great leaders. Our primary focus as a cabinet to improve the chapter is to cut back on apathy and people missing meeting and mandatory events due to a lack of caring. In the past few weeks, many more people have started coming. It’s great to see guys start to care a lot more about the chapter. Our goal in the upcoming years will be to get the great name of Phi Gamma Delta out to the campus. Right now a lot of people know the name Fiji, but we The undergraduate brothers of Upsilon Kappa continue to do an outstanding job representing Phi Gam at Kentucky. They are respected by the campus administration, give back to the community and are involved in campus affairs. The chapter's strong relationship with the campus administration was instrumental in receiving UK's support for the study lodge project. The current cabinet along with the outgoing officers recently completed a transition retreat and created a focus for the coming year. First, the brothers identified the following as strengths of Upsilon Kappa: Finance Administration Ritual Scholarship Campus involvement Conflict resolution Graduate relations Reputation Standing within FIJI Pride \r\nP HI G AMMA D ELTA P AGE 2 PL’s letter, cont’d President’s letter, cont’d want them to know what we stand for. Not just a great group of college men, but a group of men who excel in scholarship and build one another up. A better public image will help us with many of our problems, mainly recruitment. Murphey Coy has been working hard to put on a basketball tournament for philanthropy along with the UK dance team. Our chapter started doing this philanthropy event two years ago and it has gotten better every year. This year all the proceeds will go to the American Red Cross. Pig Dinner has been in the works for a long time now. James Chapman did a great job last year of putting it on at the Hyatt; it will be at the same location this year on April 16. I look forward to Pig Dinner every year because it exemplifies the reason I joined this fraternity: to make friends that will last a lifetime. Remember, Phi Gamma Delta is not for college days alone. The following challenges were identified: Accountability Numbers/recruitment Pledge education Campus image The following areas will serve as focus points for the new administration: Recruitment and chapter growth Enhancing the pledge education experience Increasing participation by all brothers I am confident the chapter will meet or exceed its goals for the coming year. The brothers have the desire and effort to be successful. Nick Altwies (Arizona State ‘90) Perge! As I talked about earlier we have moved up the ranks in athletics. I am very proud of this because it is a Campus Activities Update goal that we set when I first pledged. This year we have The Upsilon Kappa from the UK Dance Team, we made it to the finals in inner-tube water polo, racquetchapter here at the University hope to bring the Greek comball, and ping-pong, and we have made strong showof Kentucky has and will con- munity together to raise as ings in swimming and handball. tinue to uphold the value of much money as possible for the service. Earlier in the year, inspiring program at the I think the biggest news this year is the approval to the FIJI brothers displayed American Red Cross. build the new house. It will be built on the corner of great dedication and leaderColombia and Woodland. Our House Corporation has Greek Madness is not worked very hard to make it to this big step, and we are ship by leading the country’s the only event that the brothers largest student-run philanvery grateful for all of them. The new house will be a of FIJI plan on attending for the thropy event, Dance Blue. state of the art study lodge, and we hope that by the With Matt Dempsey being the support of our community and time we move in, we will have an 80 man chapter with chair of Dance Blue, and school. With Earth Ball, 5K a great name and a character that, just like the house, eight other brothers particiWalk/Runs, and Stomp-Ahas never been seen before. pating in the event, FIJI pride I am looking forward to finishing out my presidency and helping this chapter grow as much as possible. I hope that next year you will see that our chapter has continued to grow and set new goals. Hope to see a lot of you at Pig Dinner and Recruitment in the fall. If you have any questions or comments, email me at awethall@gmail.com. Andrew Wethall (UK ‘13) Perge! Palooza rapidly approaching, we plan on attending as many Later in the year, our events as we can to show that chapter will continue to show the brothers of Phi Gamma FIJI pride on the University Delta hold friendship, excelof Kentucky’s campus with our philanthropy event Greek lence, knowledge, morality, and service above all else. Madness. Similar to March Madness, fraternities and sororities around campus will compete to be the Greek Bas- — Ronnie Duerr (UK ‘14), Campus Activities Chair ketball Champions of 2011. With a special performance was heard loud and clear. \r\nP HI G AMMA D ELTA P AGE 3 Athletics Update Rebounding from a disappointing season last year, FIJI athletics has made quite an improvement. Currently we are ranked 5th out of 17 fraternities and are continuing to rise. The goal for athletics is a top 3 finish by the end of the spring semester. As long as brothers continue to participate and succeed, then this becomes an extremely attainable goal. Some highlights from the fall semester are as follows: Matt Renner and Bradley Martin winning Golf Doubles, and 3rd place finishes by both the volleyball and Wiffleball teams. These results helped score a plethora of points for the fraternity and started the year off right. After the fall semester, we finished at a respectable 7th place. While this is good, we strived to do better. With increased energy and enthusiasm Philanthropy Update from all the brothers, in less than two months we now sit in 5th place with only 40 points separating us from the 4th place fraternity. Some notable finishes from the spring semester have been: Andrew Wethall and Matt Renner with 2nd place finishes in racquetball and table tennis respectively, a 3rd place finish in Handball and a 2nd place finish in Inner-tube Water Polo. This means that in 7 spring events, we have had an individual or team finish top 3 in four of those events. Hopefully we can keep the momentum rolling and continue to experience success. It has been a great start to the semester and we will continue to strive to be in the top 3. - Jordan Caldwell (UK ‘12) and Matt Barbiea (UK ‘11), Co-Athletic Chairs The brothers of the YK chapter were quite busy last semester performing community service at a number of opportunities. The chapter was well represented throughout the community as brothers participated in many different events. Below are some of the examples of community service performed over the past semester: -6 brothers participated in FUSION, the campus-wide day of community service at the beginning of the semester. -5 brothers worked at a Habitat for Humanity build sponsored by the Interfraternity Council. -7 brothers volunteered at the Athens-Chilesburg Elementary PTO Fall Festival. -8 brothers worked the phone banks at the KET Fall Fundraising Drive. -5 brothers volunteered at the Riding for Hope event, a horse trail ride for disabled children. -Deron Johnson (UK ‘13), Philanthropy Chair DanceBlue Update On Friday and Saturday, February 18 and 19, 11 Upsilon Kappa brothers participated in DanceBlue, UK’s 24-hour nositting, no-sleeping dance marathon that benefits the UK Clinic’s Pediatric Oncology Department. The following nine brothers participated as dancers in the event, each raising at least $300 to get on the floor: Justin Bowling (’11), Jordan Ellis (’12), James Chapman (’11), Jordan Candea (’13), Deron Johnson (’13), Travers Manley (’11), Kelsie Willett (’11), Brad Harris (’13), and Colin Dempsey (’11). Brothers Jacob Wallingford (’11) and Matt Dempsey (’11) worked as organizers of the event with Matt being the Overall Chair. At the end of the 24 hours, the total amount raised was $673,976.60 with Fiji’s contribution being over $5,400. Fijis have participated in this even every year and have become an integral part of this new campus tradition. — Matt Dempsey (UK ‘11) \r\nP HI G AMMA D ELTA P AGE 4 Pledge Education Update As a first time pledge educator, I was extremely excited to get the pledge semester started. This pledge class has not disappointed. We have three pledges currently: Amit Shanker, Haziq Zikri, and Nathan Graves. Each individual brings his own unique personality and characteristics that mesh well with one another. Whether it is one who excels in sports or scholarship, each of them adds to the uniqueness of the pledge class that makes it enjoyable as the pledge educator to watch them mix so successfully. Sometimes pledges need to have a small push towards being active in the A few reminders… fraternity during their  pledge semester, however, these men are quite the opposite. It doesn’t matter what event is taking place, each one is ready and extremely willing to come  support intramural sports or take part in a philanthropy event. Bonding between brothers has begun to develop even faster than I remember when I was once a pledge. It’s very rewarding, not only as a pledge educa-  tor, but as a brother, to see each pledge be so successful in the fraternity with the strong possibility of calling him a brother in the near future. - Josh Lynn (UK ‘13), Pledge Educator KET volunteering On Saturday, March 5, Upsilon Kappa had 12 brothers volunteer to answer phones at KET’s spring pledge drive. We got involved with this project two years ago after getting the idea from Brother Mac Wall, the Executive Director of KET at the time. It has turned into one of the chapter’s favorite philanthropies now, and it is always a fun and rewarding time. Pictured to the right: Brother Deron Johnson (far R) sings the national anthem at Rupp Arena If you do not receive emails from our graduate listserve, please send an email to jtchap2@gmail.com, and we will get you added to the list. It’s a great way to stay in touch with your fellow graduates and stay upto-date on the latest happenings. If you know any quality high school seniors who will matriculate to the University of Kentucky in the Fall 2011 semester, and who you think might be interested in pledging a fraternity, please let us know as well. We are looking for as many recruitment recommendations as possible. The graduates signed up to attend Pig Dinner are, in no particular order, Dick Bierman, Aubrey Brown, Jeremy Patton, Wes Flagler, Frank King Jr., Ben Simmons, Justin Lawrence, Ken Carpenter, Harry Dadds, David Leever, Steve Wilson, Kevin McKiernan, Adam Bethel, Phil Feigel, James Morrison, Ryan Shrout, Randy Connell, Patrick Bean, Seth Kirk, and Tom Bloch. You can view this list at pigdinner.eventbrite.com.