The Hype

Acacia's "Human Service" spreads in Greek community

by Andrew Chew and Jacob Sloan

To continue the tradition of upholding Acacia's motto of “Human Service,” the brothers of the Texas Chapter have been working hard in developing relationships within the Greek community, being involved in university and Greek activities that help the Austin community and starting up our own philanthropies.

This year, Acacia made its name known throughout the Greek office by participating in all but one of the events catering to the student body and Greek community. The only event that we did miss was due to a conflict with our own initiation weekend.

Earlier this year, Brother Andrew Chew was appointed as one of the coordinators of the annual Greek Leadership Retreat in New Braunfels. Brothers Jacob Sloan, David Metter and Marcus Velasqueuz also participated in the event by acting as facilitators for the participants of the retreat. Acacia was the only Interfraternity Council member with any representatives as facilitators or coordinators and the Greek community took notice.

At the retreat, we were able to develop relationships with sororities and fraternities both inside and outside of our own council. We conversed with some of the other facilitators and participants and gained insight into how other organizations manage their functions and philanthropies as well as sharing tips about rush and risk management. Our knowledge and experience as a young and hard working fraternity was well-received by the attendees as well as the organizers.

With all the councils present, we gained a great deal of insight about all facets of the Greek community. Brother Metter himself has made a mark among Greeks and in the Interfraternity Council. Brother Metter currently serves as a member of the IFC Judicial Board, recently completed the Greek Leadership Issues Course and was elected Vice President for Finance of the Order of Omega for next year. As our Senior Dean, our chapter takes a lot of pride in Brother Metter and what he continues to do for Acacia and all Greeks.

Our Membership Development Program has also provided our chapter with opportunities to become better brothers by requiring us to become actively involved in the community and better educated citizens. We have already incorporated it this semester by having Brother Brian Mayo's father come by to teach CPR lessons and attending cultural events on the Texas campus and Austin community.

We have continued our tradition of giving each sorority their founders' day flowers on their respective founders' day. We are the only fraternity on campus that takes the time to make this gesture, and the sororities are taking notice that we are unique young men.

Our pledges also started a new tradition for us by serenading door to door at the sorority houses this semester. Most of the sororities thoroughly enjoyed hearing the old Acacia tunes and hearing them accompanied by piano in their own piano parlors thanks to one new initiate, Brother Charlie Weinberger. At each house we received a warm reception and more comments that they had never seen a fraternity do anything like that. We plan to make these gestures a Texas Acacia tradition and we hope that this will be carried on in the future.

On the philanthropy side, Philanthropy Chairman Drew Anderson has been compiling a list of event to help our fraternity live up to its motto. With his budget, he signed us up to volunteer at the Ronald McDonald House to cook a meal for the residents there. The Ronald McDonald House is a halfway house for family members of severely or terminally ill patients in the hospital.

We arrived to the kitchen of the house, and, as a chapter, we worked together to cook a spaghetti dinner and salad for the 30 or so people who were staying at the house. Once we were finished, the staff came by to thank us for cooking for the family members and asked us to come do it again. I am sure that this is an event that we will be repeating in the future.

Currently Brother Anderson is working with his committee to create our own philanthropic event for the fall semester, which will benefit the Scottish Rite Childrens' Theater helmed by our very own Brother Gordon Kelso.

In addition to our own events, we have been supporting some of the other spirit and Greek organization by attending and participating in their charity events such as the Theta 5K Run, Alpha Xi Delta 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament, dining events, and Iron Spikes' Softball Tournament. Our service is not limited to our own benefit and we will continue to hold our own events while supporting the efforts of all university organizations.