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A Bond Few Can Share

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By: Presidents Academy Dean Andy Fruth, Southern Illinois ’08

I know a lot of good people who would make excellent members of our Fraternity. Without knowing our values or cardinal principles, they already exemplify what it means to be a Phi Tau and if given the opportunity, would make great contributions to our organization.

The FruthsWe all know men who we could lump into the same category as the ones I mentioned above. These men could be your lifelong friends, your co-workers, neighbors or even family members. When I am back home gathering with friends I often think about how many of the people I associate with are like my Phi Tau brothers whom I’ve met throughout the country. Good, hard-working people who get the bigger picture and exemplify learning, leading and serving.

After my initiation into Phi Kappa Tau the first thing I wanted to do was share what I had just gone through with everyone so that they would know the deeper meaning of my appreciation for Phi, Kappa and Tau, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t share my knowledge with my best friends, my parents or even my own little brother who would be starting college soon and no doubt would want to experience something like this when he arrived on campus.

The bond I have with my Phi Tau brothers is one I can’t share with my closest friends or trusted advisors. It is truly a bond few can share.

It’s ironic looking back now that I even got involved in a fraternity in the first place.

My priorities for selecting a college were as followed:
Must be in state but as far away from my hometown of Freeport, located 90 miles west of Chicago, as possible. It needed to be located in an area that had Fox Sports Midwest so that I could watch every Cardinal game, a luxury I didn’t have growing up in Cubs country. I also preferred a climate suited to where I could lose golf balls on the course well into November/December without snow interrupting my bogeys.

While weighing the options the clear choice for me was Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Ill., some 400 Miles away from my hometown.

You’ll notice that nowhere in my criteria did I mention joining fraternity, greek life or anything like that. I spent my first year at SIU meeting people and adjusting to college life. I got involved in student government and a few other student organizations, but nothing affiliated with greek life.

I was on campus for well over a year before I did end up joining a group of guys who were restarting our Beta Chi chapter. It wasn’t easy but we were able to persevere through the process and chartered two years after I had joined, graduated and transitioned into the chapter advisor role. Those memories and bond created with those 32 individuals are ones that will last with me the rest of my life.

Over the next few years I transitioned into the role of Lincoln Domain Director. Then later became Presidents Academy dean around the same time my brother, Alex, was starting his freshman year at the University of Illinois-Springfield. Because I had been initiated I had always tried to think of ways that he could get initiated into Phi Tau even though there was no greek life on his campus.

That all ended one day when he called me and said that they were starting a few National Pan-Hellenic Council organizations and asked if it would be possible to start a Phi Kappa Tau colony. Let’s just say that conversation got both of our wheels spinning. Countless phone calls, meeting and emails to UIS and the Executive Offices later, we got the go ahead to start recruiting.

The group transitioned from interest group to colony to chapter in a very short amount of time and much of that work needs to get credited to my brother who was able to take a vision, share it with others and lead the group in setting the path and reaching the goal.

Working with him throughout the process actually has brought him and I closer together. We talk more than we used to and we now have a common bond of Phi Tau also linking us now as fraternity brothers. A bond few can share with their actual brothers.

When it came time to plan the chartering, I brought up to Alex the idea of also initiating our dad as an honorary member of the new Zeta Zeta chapter. I had wanted to get him as a volunteer so we could utilize his skill set as an insurance agent for last 30 years on the BOG, and thought that this would seal the deal. Alex jumped at the idea and got the rest of the guys of board.

My own chartering was special to me as it was one that opened the door to Phi Tau for me, but the Zeta Zeta chartering, Phi Tau’s 150th chapter, will always hold a special place for me because that was when the same door that was opened to me was now also open to my brother and my dad as they were both initiated just as I was years prior.

Being able to preside over my brother’s initiation and take part in my dad’s the same night will be another memory I owe to Phi Kappa Tau that will stay with me my entire life.

Phi Kappa Tau is a bond that few can share. I am honored and thankful to be able to share that gift with two people who mean a great deal to me: my father, Terry, and my brother, Alex.

 



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