Beta Theta Pi - University of Missouri

THE ZETA PHI 2 Challenges for Zeta Phi T he last 12 months have been interesting and challenging at 520 College above and beyond dealing with the pandemic. Following, in more detail than you may want, is a running story of the past year. In the name of transparency, we want you to hear both the good and the not so good. While the chapter continues to do very well academically, there is room for improvement in other areas such as campus involvement and adhering to Beta values. The fraternity scorecard compiled by the MU Office of Greek Life reflected a weak performance in certain areas – caused by lack of performance and/or lack of proper reporting to MU. Either way, it has not been up to Zeta Phi's capabilities or standards. There is also room for improvement in the attitude towards and development of fraternity spirt and goals. I want to recognize our advisory team consisting of Garrett Taylor '99, Steve Gardner '79, Brad Robertson '84, Jon McRoberts '05, Christian Neuner '91, and Jason Swindle '93. This group has put in a lot of time and effort in the last 12 months helping the undergraduates in a number of ways. As indicated in prior newsletters, the University instituted new rules giving itself more authority over Greek organizations. Among those efforts include increased restrictions and enforcement of alcohol consumption/possession among members. This coupled with the Beta Theta Pi General Fraternity's new Substance Free Housing policy presented a challenge for the chapter. For the last couple of years, chapter advisors have attempted to reduce alcohol consumption in the house, but such effort has not been readily accepted by the membership. For many years, the Columbia police department had jurisdiction over Greek housing. Last year, that was changed putting Greeks under the MU police department. That has brought increased enforcement of certain rules that for years may have gone unnoticed. The changes brought about by MU and the General Fraternity are putting a squeeze on the social life for the Greek world. It is often pitting the University and General Fraternity against the chapter members and putting the advisory team in the middle to run interference. Many of the new directives detract from the social aspects of being Greek members. Some members have a diminished interest in fraternity life because of these rules. Everyone should realize that these rules don't come solely from the advisory team but rather from MU and the General Fraternity. The 2020 spring semester started with members of the advisory team meeting with the chapter to discuss the importance of enforcing the house's no-alcohol rules, as outlined in the housing contract they all signed. It was explained that if the house violates those rules, then MU could prohibit freshmen from living in the chapter house in the future. This conversation, which was a repeat of a similar one two years ago, was not willingly agreed to by the chapter. In due course the advisory team hired a security guard company to help enforce the no-alcohol policy. The use of security guards was unpopular with members and many of their parents so that policy was discontinued a couple of months after implementation. As we were dealing with the no-alcohol policy issues, a group of sophomores presented a case for allowing up to 12 sophomores (juniors-to-be) to live out of the house in the 2020-2021 school year in conflict with our housing contract policy. Their thinking was that having fewer men in the house, and having a place to go party, would reduce the risk of a university alcohol violation. While most on the advisory team did not embrace the concept in entirety, on balance the proposal made sense if (1) we could make it work for the house financially and (2) extract some commitments from the chapter to make improvements in chapter operations in other areas in exchange. We wanted improvement in areas such as IM participation, campus leadership, and more to help improve our standing in the Office of Greek Life scorecard analysis. Our advisory team worked with the undergraduate executive committee to come up with measurable objectives. Unfortunately, due to COVID and other issues, we never got to where we wanted to be with the measurable objectives. Campus became very disrupted with the spread of COVID across the country beginning in March 2020, and most classes went to virtual learning. After much deliberation, the advisory team concluded it was best to close down the house for the remainder of the semester. In doing so, we created a financial liability to refund a portion of already-paid house bills to parents. On the positive side, due to prior good management of the finances and prepayments on the mortgage, the house corporation weathered the financial storm through the end of our fiscal year, June 30. The advisory team along with our business manager Christian, and housemother, Lana, began to prepare for an uncertain 2020 fall semester. Would students return? Would freshmen pledge? How would we do recruitment with social distancing? How would we serve food? Christian and Lana worked on serving meals under the health guidelines and, in the end, it required most servings to be individually wrapped, requiring more labor in the kitchen. Christian arranged to have the house professionally cleaned, and he placed many hand sanitizer units strategically around the house. We obtained the assistance of Matt Gibbs '04 with recruitment efforts. While these efforts were being made, a group of advisors were looking at finances. How would the mortgage and real estate taxes be paid if the house completely shut down due to COVID? What was the minimum number of members living in to break even? There were discussions with leaders of other fraternities about sharing alternative housing for those members who needed to quarantine. The pandemic presented many unique issues. We all owe a lot of gratitude to our advisor team for taking the bull by the horns on these issues. Despite the pandemic, the recruitment chairman found 36 good young men, and the house opened in mid-August with a total occupancy of 98 men. This is only slightly less than full capacity, and the shortfall came from the 12 juniors who were allowed to move out. We had some members test positive for COVID; some went home when that happened. Regarding the COVID impact, the period from July 1 through the end of August went better than expected.

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