The brothers at the Beta Chapter of DKE at UNC have had a fantastic fall in what has been a more normal semester as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. This fall we were pleased to welcome 21 new brothers with over 50% coming from outside of the state of North Carolina as a result of a successful rush.
This past spring and fall we have adjusted as a chapter to continue our philanthropic efforts in the Chapel Hill community by coming up with creative opportunities for brothers to get involved. This past February our chapter connected with an organization called The Blood Connection to fight the shortage of blood for transplants in the Carolinas. We were able to have two of the Blood Connections busses in our house’s parking lot, allowing 44 donors to give blood. In exchange for donating blood the Blood Connection gave 20$ per donor to a charitable organization of our choice. We collected additional donations to give 920$ to TABLE, a non-profit organization that provides hunger relief and nutrition education services to children living in Orange County, NC. Additionally, with an increasing number of in-person build opportunities our chapter is excited to continue our partnership with Habitat for Humanity by scheduling build days for the current sophomore and freshman classes in the coming months.
Along with our philanthropic efforts, our chapter has continued to see positive academic trends among its brothers. Last year’s freshman class attained the highest pledge class grade point average in our history, and the chapter as a whole attained its highest grade point average. Due to recent alumni donations, we have been able to make some key additions to the house to maintain its status as one of the best on campus. We were able to repave our basketball court, replace the old basketball goal, and add a new sport performance court on top of the new pavement which has led to more use of the space.
Our brothers have been ecstatic to return to the classroom this fall and our excited to ride our momentum from the past year’s accomplishments to maintain our position as one of the most respectable houses on campus.