ECU HOOPS EARN WEEKLY CONFERENCE ACCOLADES A6
East
Carolinian The
YOUR CAMPUS NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1925
VOLUME 99, ISSUE 12
Thursday, 11.16.23
ECU football seeks its third win against Navy Trevon McGlone TEC STA FF
COURTESY OF PI KAPPA ALPHA
Members of the fraternity, Pi Kappa Alpha, also known as Pike. The fraternity is back after a suspension for hazing.
Pike fraternity makes comeback Trisha Rangaraju
FO R THE E A S T C A R O L I N IA N
A reemerging fraternity, Pi Kappa Alpha (PKA), also known as Pike, recently made a comeback and joined the East Carolina University community once again. Daniel Walker, a founding member of the new chapter and Internal Vice President of Pike said a “Meet the Pike Night” was held, informing the community that the fraternity is back as a provisional chapter. Walker said it was ver y beneficial in giving the new members connections with the immense alumni network of Pikes and allowed them to hear stories of where Pike led the alumni in progressing through their lives and careers. The original PKA fraternity got banned in 2017 as a result of issues regarding alcohol-related hazing, Walker said, and they had to wait for all the members of the fraternity at the time to graduate before the reforming process could begin. The alumni of Pike, Walker said, aspired for the reemergence of the fraternity so nationals then got involved. “I wante d to j oin in on Greek Life for a while but I didn’t want to go through the traditional process,” Walker said. “In this fraternity, I can say very confidently I won’t have to deal
with things like hazing. Our new member process isn’t even called pledging, it will be much more based on brotherhood.” Wa l ker s aid PKA is t he s e c o n d l a r g e s t c h ap t e r i n the United States and a very prominent fraternity; also, there are six provisional chapters of PKA in the country currently. Coincidentally, along with ECU, Walker said, North Carolina State University is one of the six, as they are establishing a PKA chapter as well. With PKA, Walker said he really wanted to be a part of something larger than himself, a l arge n e t wor k of p e op l e with similar ideals. When he discovered that all his friends from the Honors College were also joining PKA, Walker said he was drawn to joining as he knew the boys understood having a healthy work-life balance and had goals similar to his own. “I really wanted to build a brotherhood and build that deep connection with some other guys,” Walker said. “You really need that group of people that you know you can count on and that's what I hope PKA will provide for me.” Aaron Mu l ke y, anot her founding member of the new chapter and recruitment chairman of PKA believes the most significant difference
between their organization and others is that they provide the members with tools they need to grow as men with strong moral compasses. Mulkey said PKA focuses on finding members with the core values they are looking for and help them transform into their best selves in every aspect. “I joined PKA because I wanted to be in a place where I could be surrounded by people who push me to be the best version of myself, while also having a great time,” Mulkey said. George Love, a former Pike at Western Carolina University who is now a local business owner in Greenville, is very excited to see the reemergence of the chapter at ECU. He knows PKA strives to equip young men with the skills needed to change the world. “PKA was influential in my collegiate development beyond educational aspects,” said Love. “The skills I developed in the fraternity gave me advantages in business along with social networking. I look forward to giving back to this chapter and know that Pi Kappa Alpha will make ECU a better university.”
This writer can be contacted at news@theeastcarolinian.com.
East Carolina University’s football team (2-8,1-5 American Athletic Conference) is looking for their third win of the season against the Naval Academy (4-5, 3-3 AAC) on Saturday at noon in Annapolis, Maryland. The Pirates are coming off a big win against Florida Atlantic University (4-6, 3-3 AAC) 22-7 last weekend. ECU sophomore kicker Andrew Conrad nailed five field goals to give the Pirates their second win on the year. Going into this game against the Naval Academy, ECU has found success in scoring earlier in games. In their last three games, the Pirates have maintained a first quarter lead in each of them, the first time they’ve managed to do so this year. While ECU’s record is 1-2 in those games, they’ve kept it within one possession or less in all but one.
“ The triple option s tu f f i s a l w ay s a challenge to prepare for, but now you factor that in with everything else you're having to prepare for and it's a lot,
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few weeks back, Navy still rushes more than they pass statistically. “The triple option stuff is always a challenge to prepare for, but now you factor that in with everything else you're having to prepare for and it's a lot,” Head Coach Mike Houston said in his weekly press conference. We faced teams like this in the past and when they can do all of it well, it's really challenging for your defensive players to play one thing one series and then be playing a different style the next snap." The Pirates are solid against the run so far this year, allowing only 114.3 rush yards per game to opponents. That number ranks ECU No. 25 in r ush defense. Navy record is 0-1 when facing a team ranked in the Top 25 for rush defense. On Offense, ECU would like to see the continued progress of making possessions count. More often than not, the Pirates have walked away from most of their drives without points or pushing into opponents territory before punting the ball away. "I think we've just got to maximize our possessions,” Houston said. “We can't give any of them away. I think in this ball game, it's going to be special teams, field position and turnovers. Those are going to be the key factors. We can't give any of our possessions away, so we need to do a good job of ball security and decision making. We've got to do a great job on third down.”
-Mike Houston Defensively, the Pirates should expect a heavy run attack by Navy. The Triple option offense Navy runs is very formalized. Despite switching starting quarterbacks a
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Greenville, N.C. election winners set priorities for new terms
Aida Khalifa TEC STAF F
The 2023 Pitt County Municipal Election was on Nov. 7 with the winning results for Greenville posted, including mayoral and city council candidates. P.J. Connelly, elected mayor for Greenville, said this is his 4th term as mayor. He said he has four primary focuses he has outlined throughout his campaign and hopes to continue implementing while in office. Connelly said his top focus, as always, is safety in the community, followed by working on infrastructure by investing heavily into the road systems, sidewalks and bike lanes. Bringing jobs to the community and bringing exciting opportunities and entertainment to Greenville, is also a priority of his, Connelly said. “I think the most important thing as an elected official, you’ve gotta be out throughout the community talking to people,” Connelly said. “You’ve got to understand that you can't be everywhere at the same time so utilizing social media has always been a very important aspect of my campaigns.” Any time there are new people on the City Council, Connelly said, there’s going to be changes and he is looking forward to meeting new people and hearing the new and fresh ideas of some of the candidates that were selected to serve as District Council representatives. Connelly said with his work as mayor, he controls the City Council meetings and the direction and discussions throughout each meeting. He said he typically does not vote and if he
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JAYLIN ROBERTS I THE EAST CAROLINIAN
A voting sign outside the Main Campus Student Center.
does it is in the case of a tie and he is the breaking vote. “Greenville was a very small community,” Connelly said. “It has kind of blossomed into more of a metropolitan area here in the eastern part of the state and we’ve got to make sure that it stays that way as we continue. I’m very blessed and thankful that the citizens have elected me for this term and I’m looking forward to the next two years.” Marion Blackburn, elected City Council representative for District 3, said her district includes the most students in
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Greenville. She said sometimes it is harder getting the younger generation to get involved in politics but ECU does a “fantastic” job with providing a sense of community to engage with. Blackburn said she ran her campaign by reaching out and talking to people face to face and by doing this she is able to have an updated idea of what's important in the district as she prepares for her new term as council representative. “I am absolutely delighted that I will continue to represent this part of our city on the Greenville City Council,” Blackburn said. “I had an amazing campaign team who gave everything and I just worked to reach out and talk to as many people as possible.” Blackburn said one of the focuses of FULL STORY her campaign is bringing more safety to campus, particularly with women students and it is something she wants to continue working on throughout her time on City Council. There are a lot of new initiatives Blackburn is looking forward to, she said. Blackburn said she wants to work to ensure there is a better job market for students at ECU once they graduate and that they will want to stay in Greenville post graduation. “I try to connect with students by letting them know that I am their advocate,” Blackburn said. “I can help if there are any city ordinances or rules that they need to know about. I’m here to share that information with them and serve as their advocate as I do for anyone in the district.” This writer can be contacted at news@theeastcarolinian.com.
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