From the very beginning, the Founding Fathers were taught the book. We learned about Beta Theta Pi from the Son of the Stars manual just as our Alpha Class is doing now. We heard stories from the past, but we weren't there and could not truly relate. The Founding Fathers really had no idea what it meant to be a true Beta. The Son of the Stars cannot teach family. It can describe brotherhood, trust, and mutual assistance, but it cannot show you how to live by these. What can give you brotherhood, trust, and a need for mutual assistance is living with men who worthily wear the badge and bear the name of Beta Theta Pi.

This semester we doubled our numbers recruiting seven worthy men to be our Alpha Class. All of these men are still on board and looking forward to initiation on April 14th. Throughout their pledge process we have treated these men with the same respect we receive from them. To our benefit, these pledges have immersed themselves in the pledge manual and are itching for a position within the house.

With the Alumni coming before the Founding Fathers, and the Founding Fathers coming before the Alpha Class, each group has a respect for its mentor and is only looking to surpass what has come before. Because of the bridges that have been built before us and by us, I only see progress in our future. With twelve men working toward the same goal, I expect to have the house filled with the third recruitment class. I also expect to be the premier fraternity on campus in grades. As of now, we sit above only three other houses with a 2.77, meeting national standards but not where we want to be.

Above all, I expect progress from our group. We will lose one man to graduation and one man to personal issues, but as we all have learned before, "The great secret of Beta Theta Pi's success consists not in numbers, but union, not in great strength, but in well-directed and simultaneous exertions. What a few men united in object and efforts will to do, can be done; and more than that, such associations teach us in their records how far human friendship can carry us from the shrine of the idol self," -John Reily Knox, Miami 1839.

Justin R Elkins