This past year was a key one for the Gamma Tau at Georgia Tech. The Gamma Tau occupied its first Chapter House, physically just a rickety structure, but an important new base for Chapter activities. Mostly as the result of acquiring a House, the Gamma Tau vastly improved in morale as well as in activity.
But as the fall quarter approaches, the Gamma Tau faces another critical year in its short existence. Graduations at the end of the spring and summer quarters reduced the active Brotherhood to ten, six of whom were initiated during the year 1972-73.
Two more men pledged Psi Upsilon during the spring quarter, but both are working off academic probation and will not be eligible for initiation until next winter. Thus we will begin the 1973-74 year with a small nucleus of ten active Brothers.
Academically, for the three quarters of the past year we ranged from seventeenth to ninth out of Tech's thirty fraternities. Our spring standing has not been determined as of this writing, but the actual average was only slightly below the Chapter's winter average, which ranked ninth.
Financially, the Chapter operates in the black. We have used our surplus in the House Fund to refurbish our temporary home. Unfortunately, the Gamma Tau must look for new housing by September 1, 1974.
Until the Chapter builds its membership and firmly establishes its permanence on campus, the Georgia Tech administration will not be able to continue to provide Psi Upsilon with temporary housing. However, the school has clearly indicated its willingness to help Psi Upsilon if the Chapter proves itself stable. Thus, a strong rush is a must for this fall.
Greetings from the Gamma Tau. The Gamma Tau had another fine year in its young history with the addition of four new Brothers, bringing the total number of Brothers to fifteen. This is about the norm for the Gamma Tau; however, we expect to enlarge this number during the upcoming fall rush. By utilizing the freshman contacts formed by the five orientation leaders among the Brothers, along with a variety of rush functions, we hope to add to the three pledges we had at spring quarter. The communication with freshmen through the orientation leaders has been particularly valuable to the Gamma Tau, with about 75% of the present Brothers initially contacted in this manner.
Due to the large number of freshmen members, the Gamma Tau did not do as well academically as in the previous year. However, the overall average of all brothers was right around that of all the Tech fraternities. Despite the continuing high percentage of members in Tech's difficult freshman and sophomore courses, we are taking steps which should lead to an improvement on this year's performance.
Financially, the Gamma Tau continues to operate in the black. Surplus funds are being accumulated as a foundation for a new building fund. Although graciously endowed with a temporary house by the Tech administration, the Gamma Tau is looking for something more permanent and not so likely to become a parking lot. Of course, all housing plans are contingent on a good fall rush. Stable finances and strong membership seem to go hand in hand. Overall, we of the Gamma Tau foresee no immediate problems in either area, and are very optimistic with respect to the coming year.
One event of the past year stands above all others for us. We are referring to the Spring, 1974 Executive Council meeting, which took place in Atlanta, with the Gamma Tau as the host. We would like to take this opportunity to extend once again our thanks to the Executive Council for coming this distance and also to all other Psi U's who attended. It was both an honor and a privilege for us to serve as hosts, and we enjoyed it immensely. This fraternal gathering made us more appreciative of the value of the fraternal bond and very proud to be Psi U's.
In the Bonds,
Thomas W. Barnes, III
President, Gamma Tau '76
The fall rush of 1976 is going to be crucial to the Gamma Tau Chapter at Georgia Tech. Just before school starts in the fall we will be forced to move from the House we are now renting from the college. Despite this hurdle and our present small numbers, the brothers are looking forward to a good year. We will be moving to a private dormitory, where the facilities and location will be much better than we have at the present Gamma Tau House. We will have available to us a large Chapter room and an area for holding large parties. We feel that the move will be advantageous to the Chapter, even though we are not doing it by choice.
The past year was highlighted by our Fifteenth Anniversary Dinner, which was attended by many Gamma Tau and other Psi U alumni. We were also visited at various tomes by a number of brothers from the Omicron, Eta, and Chi Delta Chapters. Brother Henry B. Poor was among the guests at our initiation ceremonies during the winter.
Academically, the brothers of the Gamma Tau missed winning the IFC trophy for academic excellence by just .02 points. We are aiming for the number one spot next year.
In intramural athletics we showed strength previously unknown to us by making the playoffs in two sports , something we have never done before in our short history.
Financially, we are operating in the black as usual. Our move to a new location will not place much of a monetary burden on the brothers, but will eliminate for the present time the setting aside of more money in our House Fund until our numbers are increased.
With the threat of the Dean of Fraternities to close our Chapter because of our small size, our lack of a House, and our limited funds, the brothers and many alumni rallied together to revitalize an apathetic spirit at the Gamma Tau. We took a good look at ourselves and found that we need to establish a good, concrete rush and pledge programs for this fall and for the future, something which we really never have had. Any help along these lines from other Chapters would be greatly appreciated.
We are working hard over the summer with our Alumni to make the Gamma Tau Chapter of Psi U a solid organization.
So I get this call from Chester Kam one fine Tuesday night, telling me the we seem to be short a delegate. Seems that James couldn't get out of that working thing. But aha! I wasn't doing anything for the next few days, so 12 hours later, Lucas Grote and I are on a ROAD TRIP! After deriving, um, I mean driving all the way through Florida, and Georgia, we were passing through South Carolina when we saw it: Pedro's South of The Border Hotel and tourist trap extraordinaire. And let me tell you that at 11pm, the neon lights were just a little surreal. Lucas and I both purchased bullwhips, (though I was the one daring enough to sport a nifty sombrero) and drinking really spicy ginger ale, we were on our way again. We got to the convention hotel in Willliamsburg at the happy fun hour of 6:00 am. and collapsed.
The convention itself had nothing quite as shocking as Pedro's South of the Border did, with the possible exception of getting to go to Busch Gardens Williamsburg and most importantly getting someone else to pay for it. One of the fellow conventioneers managed to lose his dinner on one of the rides, but fortunately neither Lucas nor myself suffered anything more than recurring nightmares from all the piped in music fromthe French part of the park. Also, later that night Brian Hill, Arlo Aude, and alumnus Paul Chen arrived, and ready to party. On Saturday, we had the usual sort of convention business with the humorous recommendation by one of the friends of the guy who lost his dinner that in the future"special consideration be made in selecting foods of colorful and texturous nature" in the anticipation of roller coaster rides in the future. The convention dinner was enjoyable, with a colonial duet performing a variety of tunes ranging from early colonial to Pink Floyd. It was an altogether fun experience.