Chapter Highlights

Cal Poly

Membership took a hit during the last year and we did not recruit anyone which hit morale hard. We were scared to see similar results due to the pandemic. In the end, we were able to recruit 2 members during Spring semester who were so excited to become part of our organization, they were already securing future new members for Fall! With this, though our chapter is small now, our morale is at a new high and that energy will serve us well for the next semester when our campus opens. Several months before we even heard of Covid, we established a Discord server for our chapter, which put us in a good position to make the transition to a virtual format. As a result of our preparedness, we conducted our weekly meetings, executive board meetings, and our annual bylaw revisions without a problem. The Discord server allowed us to easily host virtual events with our own members and other organizations. We have had at least 6 brotherhood events and 6 social events each semester.

Iowa State

This year we hosted our annual retreat in person again at an outdoor park; we spent the day evaluating how our chapter has done the past year, how we want to do a year from now, and what goals we needed to make it happen. The week before initiation in 2020, the university eliminated all in-person activities. Our ritual committee turned a week of in-person brotherhood activities into virtual activities for our 14-member pledge class. Group activities during I-Week like cookie baking turned into mug cakes over Discord. We grew our sense of brotherhood using an Iowa State Triangle Discord that promoted safe and fun time spent with each other. We even won the Innovation award from Iowa State’s Sorority and Fraternity Engagement Office for our use of Discord and ability to pivot to the uncertainties of Covid-19. We needed to reevaluate how our chapter was doing during this stressful time and enhance the membership experience. One way we did this was through a culture board, Crucible Talks, and a workshop led by our house director. Our culture board is an online form that members can fill out anonymously about how things were going. Crucible Talks were safe spaces where brothers could talk openly. It could be simple things like how stressed they were for exams, or heavier things they wanted to talk about with their brothers. Our chapter is seeing our brotherhood change for the better.

Michigan

After a year of chapter professional development, fundraising, and brotherhood, we are full of energy for the future. We concluded the 2020-2021 academic year with our best fundraising work. Between fundraising for Movember, the Muscular Dystrophy Association, and a bonus for our chapter chef of 13 years, we raised about $6400. We are excited to expand our service impact on campus next year. While Covid-19 dramatically altered how the brotherhood operated, interacted, and socialized, our men showed a renewed commitment to forming great relationships and building themselves as better men. We had the opportunity to host 15 professional development, DEI, and academic-related events, most delivered in a virtual format for all brothers to attend. This year, we aim to focus on improving our impact on the campus and community, expand our relationships with other student organizations, and recruit a pledge class of over twenty men. As the Michigan Lambda chapter nears its 100th anniversary, we are proud to look back on our strong traditions and roots in Ann Arbor and continue to build our brotherhood for another century of success.

Michigan State

The Michigan State chapter came together when the pandemic started as we made the switch to virtual to maintain the safety of our members and community. Though there were challenges, we overcame them by using our resources and our engineering problem solving skills. We incorporated new strategies for brothers to engage and be able to help each other. We utilized Discord, Zoom, and outside events to interact with each other. The transition to virtual events was difficult but it worked well for our brothers.

Mental health was a large concern for chapter leadership, particularly because of the stigma around men’s mental health. The chapter leadership decided to create a health and safety chair that would present on mental health every week and be a point of contact for brothers to find help that needed it. Chapter leadership met with a series of community stakeholders to develop educated internal Covid safety guidelines. We continued to edit and change our Covid-19 guidelines and spread them to all fraternity chapters. We had the unique opportunity to be better men and leaders through a pandemic. We persevered and our members will hold onto the work we did and learned very valuable lessons.

Minnesota

Over the course of the last year, we re-examined our selection process after losing members to differing personal interests. Now, I believe our brotherhood has never been stronger. We transitioned from large formal events to small informal events and developed personal relationships that we would not have been able to cultivate otherwise. Previously, our new members would often work amongst themselves before warming to the upper-classmen, but now our close relationships span across all member classes.

We were also incredibly successful working with other campus organizations. This is the first year Triangle members were elected to the Interfraternity Council, two members as President and Vice President of Recruitment and a third as the Chief of Staff. These three members have represented Greek Life, IFC, and Triangle to the campus community and upheld all Triangle values in doing so. Additionally, two members serve as representatives on a Triangle national fraternity board or committee.

Nebraska

The spring of 2021 brought many changes to the organization. With a clearer vision for the chapter, members became more inclined to attend chapter meetings and social and recruitment events. With additional help from the national organization, the focus of recruitment became sharper. This mindset led us to a more successful rush in the spring, with the chapter pledging six men. Summer recruitment will look different for us. We have implemented several action items including engaging events throughout the summer, tracking of PNM’s interests, and outside promotion of the chapter. With all these things in place, the Nebraska chapter is positioned for a successful summer recruitment. Although we struggled in the past, the lessons we learned have been impactful, which is apparent with our large spring pledge class. This is due to the continued efforts of the recruitment chair and initiated members to improve our recruitment program for the semesters to come.

Ohio State

Our brothers have worked tirelessly this year to strive for excellence in academics, professionalism, recruitment, and philanthropy. Our biggest achievement was being the winner of the IFC Chapter of the Year out of 26 fraternities. We also won the Outstanding Philanthropy Initiative award, the Outstanding Member Development Program award, and the Excellence in Health and Safety award. These massive wins were due to our amazing executive board and brothers. With our focus on academics, the chapter’s cumulative GPA was a 3.46 in Fall 2020 and was a 3.5 in Spring 2021. N ot a single brother had a GPA under a 3.0, including our new members.—Continued on next page 10

—Continues from page 10 All of this year’s graduates left college with either full time job offers at companies like JP Morgan Chase, BWX Technologies, and the Air Force, or will continue their education in medical school and graduate school. During recruitment were able to initiate 7 new members this year. We worked with Jim Phillips to develop a virtual recruitment program that brought one of our largest pledge classes in years.

Pittsburgh

This year, the chapter converted our academic programs to a virtual setting to support brothers and new members. We maintained our value of service by having the most philanthropy hours of the Intrafraternity Council. Additionally, we continue to grow at an accelerated rate, with a total of 19 new members this year. We also formed a Diversity, Involvement, and Inclusion committee with a focus on ensuring that minorities are properly represented and welcomed into the fraternity world. Our chapter continues to actively welcome brothers of all creeds and origins. Having previously faced issues of being perceived as an engineering-only organization, the chapter has expanded far beyond engineering. Nearly half the active chapter is studying something other than engineering in the STEM field with majors ranging from engineering disciplines to environmental science and biology. Our chapter continues to welcome diverse STEM majors and expand the brotherhood.

Purdue

Due to a drastic decrease in membership in Fall 2019 and Spring 2020, the chapter employed a recruitment consultant that, with the hard work and dedication of every member, recruited a 13-person (11 now initiated) member pledge class. Members engaged in a new online recruiting process where 1on-1 interactions were vital. Brothers would have lunch or dinner with PNMs to get to know them and see if they met the values and qualifications of joining Triangle. the spring, the chapter became one of few organizations to not have any cases of Covid and the only organization with a chapter facility with zero cases. This was a testament to the officers’ procedures that allowed for guest and family visits, while maintaining regular testing for the safety of the members. The chapter has a strong will and will continue to work hard, as shown by the near 200% new member increase in one year, even during the pandemic. The successes have been celebrated but members know the hard work has just begun.

Washington

The Washington chapter held elections at the end of Fall which brought fresh perspectives into the leadership. We elected 4 people to the Executive Board, a downsize from last year, so we split up roles and responsibilities. I’m proud to say that despite these odds, the four of us on the Executive Board gave our all to help lead this chapter. Winter quarter saw a dip in motivation in the members, but a new recruitment season renewed motivation. Our Winter quarter recruitment reignited many of our members’ passions for Triangle. Despite our previous hesitancy for recruiting online, our new Epsilon class is full of hard-working and committed men, many of whom stepped up into officer roles that helped our chapter immensely. Throughout this year we learned many ways to strengthen our bonds. Our 1-on-1 system where every brother is expected to meet with every other brother has gone a long way in facilitating the intimate brotherhood interactions that we want to see in our chapter. Despite this year driving many of us physically apart, our chapter has come out of this year closer than ever.

Wisconsin

This year has been a year of reorganization and reevaluation for the Wisconsin chapter. The recruitment chairs were always at national recruitment meetings, calls