Ken Termini, Z1038
As you all know, our chapter faced multiple challenges coming out of the last school year. Thanks to countless committed alumni, support from National, and an impressive group of sophomore undergrads, we have made tremendous progress.
Here’s just a few of the things our undergrads and alumni volunteers accomplished over the past four months:
·We reorganized our chapter leadership – undergraduate and alumni – to position Zeta for success this year and beyond.
·We restored a culture of individual and organization accountability, something that
·We put every new undergraduate officer through extensive training to learn the roles they had taken on. Staff from National and Penn State along with many alumni volunteers helped make this possible.
·We restored budgeting and fiscal discipline at the undergraduate level, implementing a budgeting process that will ensure financial stability moving forward.
·We held a successful rush with limited access to the House just three weeks into the new semester, all while ending the inappropriate and hidden practice of offering bids to first semester freshmen.
·We ended the de facto pledging program that had existed and replaced it with a true fraternity education program that met both Penn State and Lambda Chi Alpha standards.
·We completed four different philanthropic activities highlighted by a nearly $7000 donation to the State College Food Bank in November.
·We made the commitment to restore regular respectful renditions of the ritual. Then we worked hard and fulfilled that commitment by executing our ritual with pride and precision in November.
·We developed and executed a risk reduction program that was reviewed and approved by both the university and National, allowing our undergraduate brothers to resume in house social activities.
·We successfully balanced academics and fraternity, with 60% of our undergraduate brothers on the Fall Dean’s List.
·We had over 30 undergraduate brothers commit to living in the house next fall, ensuring 351 E Fairmount will be open and vibrant!
·In early December the Control Board held an end of semester progress report conference call with the staff from National We reviewed the steps we had taken and the outcomes we had achieved. At the conclusion of the call, we were issued a glowing progress report and were told seven Chapters across the Nation have Control Boards in place. According to National staff none have come close to mirroring the progress and accomplishments seen at Penn State. In just 15 weeks we moved from being a Chapter in trouble to being a Chapter on the rise with many “best practices” firmly in place.
As we enter 2026, we should pause and thank the young men who devoted incredible time, emotion, and effort to ensuring our chapter survived. The 29 UG men who started the fall are actually our second set of Founding Fathers because very few 19-year-old guys would endure and push through the issues these guys faced. We should also thank the alumni volunteers who stepped up to mentor our UG’s and to reorganize our alumni leadership. We owe them a debt of gratitude, and we need to support them via our time, treasure, and talent.
We’ve made great progress, but our work isn’t done yet. We look forward to seeing what amazing things we will accomplish next.
ZAX,
Ken Termini
Z1038