PARENTS NEWSLETTER Volume 1 Issue 1

Parents Newsletter

Winter 2017

I find it both odd and exciting to be writing this particular letter. My name is Bradley Myers, a sophomore political science major from Hartsville, SC, and I have been the President of the Delta Theta Colony of the Chi Phi fraternity at Clemson for the Fall 2017 semester. Before I was the president, I was Vice President in 2016. While my term will end at the start of the spring semester, I would like to take this time to introduce all of you to the brotherhood we have built and are building. We are currently a 49-man brotherhood, and we are continuing that growth, which is a very exciting thing to say! This Brotherhood has come such a long way in such a short amount of time, and it is truly something I am proud to be a part of. If you had asked me at the beginning of last year if I felt that it would be possible for our humble colony to

achieve the highest accreditation score in the nation, I would have laughed. Yet that is what we have done. Our commitment to excellence in and out of the classroom is top notch as we have achieved the 5th highest overall GPA and 3rd highest new member GPA this past semester of all 20 fraternities at Clemson.

Now that I have introduced myself and the brotherhood, I must also say goodbye. With my term ending, I have some people to thank. I would first like to thank all of you, the loved ones of my brothers, for giving me the opportunity to be in the lives of all of your sons. They are all incredible young men who have so many different talents and quirks, and they have been a joy to lead. I would also like to thank our advisor, Jonathan “CD” Rawls for his guidance and wisdom when I felt I had no way to navigate the situation.

And lastly, I would like to thank all of my brothers for allowing me to lead them through this semester. It has truthfully been the best experience of my life. I hope you all enjoy your Holidays, and as always Go Tigers!

A Letter from the President by Bradley Myers

PARENTS NEWSLETTER | Winter 2017 2

The Brotherhood

2017 Executive Council President (Alpha): Bradley Myers, Hartsville, SC; Sophomore; Political Science

Vice President (Beta): Hunter Bond, Laurens, SC; Sophomore; Electrical Engineering

Secretary (Gamma): Seth Hester, Greenville, SC; Sophomore; Computer Science

Treasurer (Delta): Karl Martin, Churchville, PA; Sophomore; Mechanical Engineering

Judiciary (Epsilon): Jason Brule, N. Charleston, SC; Sophomore; Mechanical Engineering

Historian (Zeta): CJ Connelly, Prosperity, SC; Junior; Industrial Engineering

Risk Manager (Eta): Benjamin Bloom, Gaithersburg, MD; Sophomore; Business Administration

New Member Educator (Theta): Braxton Baird, Lexington, NC; Junior; Genetics

Recruitment Chair (Iota): Gabriel Nadolski, Barre, MA; Junior; Biochemistry

2017 Committee Chairs Academic: Derwin Simpson, Charleston, SC; Junior; Industrial Engineering Community Service: Brandon Russ, Charleston, SC; Junior; Industrial Engineering Fundraising: Eric Strickland, Cincinnati, OH; Sophomore; Marketing Greek Relations: Jeremy Lutz, Marietta, GA; Sophomore; Industrial Engineering Intramural League: Johnny Newell, Fairfax, VA; Sophomore; Architecture Philanthropy: Quinn Ussher, Demarest, NJ; Junior; Civil Engineering Public Relations: Rob Gruskos, Oceanport, NJ; Sophomore; Chemical Engineering Social: Sam Ferguson, York, SC; Sophomore; Forestry Tailgate: Jonathan Pugliese, Charlotte, NC; Junior; Computer Engineering

Members at Large Dakota Avera, Columbia, SC; Freshman; Engineering

Jack Beck, Fairfield, CT; Sophomore; Business Management

Matthew Beach, Decatur, GA; Freshman; Engineering

Jake Canavan, Scotch Plains, NJ; Freshman; Chemistry

Jay Carl, Media, PA; Freshman; Computer Science

Isaiah del Campbell, Flowery Branch, GA; Freshman; Engineering David Favrot, Birmingham, AL; Sophomore; Mechanical Engineering Bryan Friers, Mechanicsburg, PA; Sophomore; Mathematical Science Noah Fuller, Laurens, SC; Sophomore; Construction Science and Management Daniel Greene, Greensboro, NC; Sophomore; Environmental Engineering Jack Grozier, Haddonfield, NJ; Freshman; Engineering

Caleb Hardison, Cheraw, SC; Junior; Industrial Engineering

Karr Hersh, Portsmouth, VA; Freshman; Engineering

Alex Hoffman, Canal Fulton, OH; Freshman; Engineering

Ryan Irwin, Coral Springs, FL; Freshman; Engineering

Mason Kingery, Goodview, VA; Sophomore; Construction Science and Management Sohan Kotecha, Charleston, SC; Freshman; Engineering

Colby Krimm, Greer, SC; Freshman; Mathematical Sciences

Drake Lewis, Arlington Heights, IL; Freshman; Engineering

Scott Liggett, Sonora, CA; Junior; Marketing

Alex Long, Orlando, FL; Freshman; Bioengineering

Fedey Martinez, Summerville, SC; Freshman; Health Sciences

Alex Mueller, Atlanta, GA; Sophomore; World Cinema Communications Will Owen, Pendleton, SC; Freshman; Computer Science

Ryan Pendergrass, Greenville, SC; Sophomore; Industrial Engineering Anthony Signorelli, Chester, NJ; Sophomore; Environmental Engineering Aaron Toler, Ft. Mill, SC; Freshman; Engineering

Jack Troiano, Barrington, RI; Freshman; Mechanical Engineering

Brendan Van Cleave, Troy, MI; Freshman; Mechanical Engineering Eric Vo, Aiken, SC; Freshman; Engineering

Miles Weiss, Simpsonville, SC; Freshman; Economics &

Accounting

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Alex Hoffman, Jake Canavan, and Jack Troiano having fun painting tiger paws outside of Death Valley

Miles Weiss, Bradley Myers, Fedey Martinez, and Eric Vo giving out candy to children on Halloween in downtown Clemson

My name is Will Owen and the reason I was chosen to write this letter was because I served as the president of the most recent new member class. First, I would like to say to all the parents whose sons most recently rushed, I couldn’t have asked for a better new member class to share my fraternity membership with. All of your sons are great brothers and will be brothers for life to me. Secondly, to the parents of the brothers who gave bids to us, your sons showed me and the other new members exactly what it means to be part of the Chi Phi Fraternity. They continue to give me advice on school and college living. They are all great brothers. Being part of Chi Phi was not exactly what I expected when I decided to rush a fraternity. With all of the recent events that have occurred within Greek life all over the nation, I am positive that you will not hear the name Chi Phi of Clemson on the

news anytime soon. This colony of Chi Phi isn’t just a fraternity, a club, or even just a brotherhood, this is a family. One of my favorite memories from this semester was the Chi Phi Thanksgiving dinner that was held. It truly was a great time where all of the brothers of Chi Phi bonded. I’m positive that I made the correct choice in a fraternity and am having a great time getting to know and bond with all of your sons. While they might be hard to work with sometimes there is no other group of guys I would rather be with for my time at Clemson.

Letter from the New Member Class President by Will Owen

Awards by Gabe Nadolski

This past June, I had the honor of representing the Delta Theta Colony at the Chi Phi Congress in Richmond, VA. Along with President Will Greene, we met other Chi Phi’s from all across the country. This was a unique method of learning about how to run a successful chapter. We also saw how well our colony was doing compared to other colonies nationally, and took note of the same problems they were having that we have experienced as well. These are a couple reasons why I always leave a national Chi Phi event with a lot more knowledge than when I came in. Communication among chapters is an important backbone of our fraternity, as the sharing of successes and failures strengthens other chapters who are looking to make their own success and avoid common mistakes. Speaking of success, Delta Theta had a considerable amount of recognition at the Chi Phi Congress. Brother Braxton Baird won the National Award for Athletic Excellence (originally established by the Delta Theta Chapter!) for excellence in swimming by setting six Clemson records last year. Brother CJ Connelly won the William D. Parr Outstanding Zeta Award for his amazing job as our Historian & Ritual Chair. Delta Theta was also recognized for excellent Public Relations with the Outstanding Communications & Public Relations award. Finally, our Chapter Advisor Jonathan “CD” Rawls also received a Distinguished Service Citation for his service to Chi Phi. Without his efforts, we would not have received the top Accreditation score among all the Chi Phi chapters and Colonies in the entire country!

From Left; Gabe Nadolski, DΘ’19; Past Grand Alpha Jim Soderquist, A’67; Past Grand Alpha Ron Frank, ND’83; Will Greene, DΘ’18; Current Grand Alpha Bob Walker, ID’ 70; and Past Grand Alpha Dick Gilbert, R’62; pose with the National Awards earned by the Colony

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Chi Phi Chili Cook-Off! by Quinn Ussher

Homecoming by Jeremy Lutz

This year was the Colony’s first year participating in the Annual Clemson Homecoming Float Build! We had an amazing time partnering with Alpha Phi sorority and Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity for this year’s event. A little background about Clemson University’s homecoming: each of the floats are built on Bowman Field. Organizations get one entire week from Noon on Sunday, October 1st to Friday afternoon, October 6th. A week for this huge amount of time definitely equates some late nights and early mornings! The theme for this year’s float build was “Orange Crush.” The theme centered on the play that won Clemson the 2016 National Championship: the symbolic throw of Deshaun Watson to Hunter Renfrow — The play that was constantly broadcasted throughout the nation. Every Clemson fan will forever remember that play and it will go down in history as one of the most exciting final minutes in college football we have ever seen. The theme also was about the general crush everyone has towards Clemson. Delta Theta had all our members constantly working on the float throughout the entire week. In total, we put in over 750 hours towards building our float with the help of our other two partners. We interpreted the theme as our full out love for Clemson and how SOLID we believe in the school. Even Coach Dabo Swinney stopped by to admire our work! Overall, an amazing week, an awesome Float build, and some great memories! We can’t wait for next year!

This fall semester the brothers of Chi Phi at Clemson University planned and hosted a Chili Cook-off philanthropy event on December 2, 2017, at the Pier at Clemson. The fraternity sponsored both Water Mission in Charleston, SC and The Boys and Girls Club in Greenville, SC. Water mission is an organization that does hurricane relief and water treatment for countries in need of fresh water. Raising money for them to help their goals of installing pure water facilities in countries that don’t have the money or technology of their own as well as their goals of helping many people affected by the three most recent hurricanes that hit our nation the in latter half of 2017. Raising money for the Boys and Girls Club, Chi Phi’s national philanthropic sponsored

organization, will give them more funds to help see their mission of enabling all young people, especially those who need the help the most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens. The event was a fun-filled morning with competitors coming with some delicious recipes and guests coming to sample the array of chilies. Out of 17 competitors, Autumn Brown from CEDC, a creative inquiry that works hand in hand

with water mission and various other water treatment organizations, won first place, with brother Mason Kingery in second, and the team of Brothers, Gabe Nadolski and Sam Ferguson, in third place. Overall the event was a huge success! Over $800 was raised and a great time was had by all who participated in the event. We look forward to doing more philanthropic events in the future.

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Hello, my name is Brandon Russ and I’m the current Community Service Chair of the Delta Theta colony. A lot of changes are happening to our community service system, and I’m excited to update everyone with our current progress. Being a member of Chi Phi means we emphasize service and philanthropy, and so far our brothers show that. In one short semester, our brothers were able to donate 785 hours to helping Clemson’s community and the surrounding areas.

Our new community service system focuses on getting involved with other organizations on campus. We require every brother to achieve 15 hours per semester, and 30 for the year. One thing we just started this semester was rewarding hours for getting involved in philanthropy events, and percent nights. If one of our brothers enters another Greek organizations philanthropy event, they will receive 2 hours towards their 15-hour goal. These 2 hours reflect their impact, by raising money for an organization, and getting Chi Phi involved across campus. By doing this, our brothers get to bond over fun and meaningful events, as well as network with other Greek organizations. The same idea goes for percent nights. It’s very common for Greek life to hold percent nights at surrounding restaurants, such at Groucho’s or Chipotle. A brother will receive 1 hour for spending $10 at a given percent night, where all the proceeds benefit a charitable organization.

Looking ahead, we have a ton of events planned for the brotherhood. In January alone, we already have 14 service opportunities lined up! Personally, I’m networking as much as possible with on and off campus organizations, getting involved every chance we get. Coming up soon, we plan on working with Special Olympics, Clemson Life, the Boys and Girls Club of Greenville, and the Botanical Gardens. In the end, the Delta Theta colony achieved a lot this semester! Overall our brothers have donated 89 hours at the Boys and Girls Club in Greenville, helped raise almost $2000 for various nonprofits and helpful organizations, and obtained a colony average of 16 hours per brother! This semester was a huge improvement from previous semesters, and we have high hopes looking towards the future! I hope this report is successful in showing how dedicated our colony is, and the goals we’ve set forth for the year. Go Tigers!

Braxton Baird finding ways to lift and get his hours in

Bradley Myers and Johnny Newell Cleaning the dog

kennel at Crossroads Animal Rescue

Scott Ligget and Bryan Friers cafting tiger paws

Community Service by Brandon Russ

Quinn Ussher and Anothony Signorelli having fun with some hay

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The Delta Theta Colony recently participated in an amazing fundraiser at the Music Midtown festival in Atlanta this September. It was one of the biggest events the colony has done together to date, with the funds raised going towards chartering expenses for the Colony. The fundraiser consisted of selling beverages to concert goers all weekend at the festival craft beer garden. A lot of planning went into this event. Our location had to be approved, and vendors’ credentials had to be given to every member; nearly all brothers and new members participated, and with the event being in Atlanta—two hours away from Clemson— transportation, work and break schedules, and managers and training had to be a part of the planning.

Brothers and new members had to run registers and serve beverages for tens of thousands of people — and all tips benefitted the chapter. Once the work began it was a long and busy weekend, but despite the hard work the brothers had a great time working so close to one another and being there for each other. On top of that, the amount of funds raised greatly exceeded expectation, so the fundraising event was a big success for the colony. Many thanks to the parents who hosted some 40 members overnight to allow us to make this project a success!

Music Midtown by Eric Strickland

New Member Program by Braxton Baird

Delta Theta finished a successful New Member process by initiating 20 new Brothers into the Fraternity on October 8th, 2017. This class almost doubled our size and is composed of men that are looking forward to bettering the fraternity and the campus as a whole. Many of the new brothers are in the Honors College and others are involved in other organizations across campus. We did not just get quantity, but we also recruited quality this semester. They were initiated the weekend of Homecoming here at Clemson, thus ending the five-week New Member Education program. It is not a normal practice for a colony to be allowed an extension on the four weeks that is customary for the current National new member program. We were granted permission from the National office to have five weeks for the brothers and new members get to know each other more effectively, and to allow more time for the new members to learn what it means to be a Chi Phi. We had one of the largest new member classes among Clemson fraternities this fall, which is an incredible achievement for a colony. But it is not just about the numbers. We have received a group of men that are determined to Be the Best at whatever they do. They all strive for good grades, and for Delta Theta to be admired and respected by everyone at Clemson as a model for what a fraternity should be.

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Letter from the Public Relations Chair by Robert Gruskos

My name is Robert (Rob) Gruskos and I am the Public Relations Chair for the colony. That means I run the Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts. We would love if you followed us on social media so you can see what we are up to. On top of it all we have also made a website for you to look at. With the help of Clayton Curtis, a Delta Theta Alumni, we now have a Website up and running! https://ClemsonChiPhi.org This is my first time managing a website so there may be some formatting issues as we are always making constant improvements, however this will be a great tool for you to check up on what we have been up to by looking at the news tab. I encourage you to give it a look and you are always welcome to give feedback to our committee by reaching us at chiphiclemsonpr@gmail.com.

Having Fun at the Chi Phi Tailgate for Parents Weekend

Academics by Miles Weiss

Being a part of a fraternity can make for an incredibly hectic schedule. Amid functions, rush, and keeping up with the operations of the colony day-to-day, it can be quite easy to forget that academics play an important role in Greek life; that said, it seems that the Delta Theta colony has not forgotten the importance of maintaining a strong academic record. This semester, Delta Theta saw a dramatic improvement in our average chapter GPA, climbing to #5 on campus! Academics is also a major part of our New Member Program. We work hard to ensure our new members are attentive to their studies and that activities do not tamper class attendance or time to work on homework and projects. This past semester our New Member class ranked 3rd of all fraternities at Clemson. As we begin the long process of petitioning for a charter, it’s nice to know that we have the right mindset and goals. While the colony seeks to build better men, at the same time we seek to build better students. The re-implementation of mandatory study hours has been a strong step in the right direction as numerous brothers have found the academic assistance they need and have made excellent use of this time to get homework done and prepare for upcoming tests. It’s always a welcome sight to see brothers assisting one another with an assignment or studying together; it just goes to show the strength of our brotherhood and our common commitment to excellence, whether academic or otherwise. I am confident that this is only the beginning of Delta Theta’s academic development; with the right leadership, and by maintaining our desire for improvement, we can reach greater heights every semester. When we put forth our best effort, and combine it with the strength of our brothers, we can achieve not only the victory of continual existence, but the victory of academic greatness.