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One of the biggest issues on campus this year has been the idea of differential tuition. Many students, especially the student government, ASUW, are opposed to the idea and will travel to Olympia in early 2013 to fight the legislation.
“From its humble beginnings as a frontier university, the UW, now three campuses strong, has risen to take its place as one of the 20 best universities on the planet. Unquestionably, we are the global gateway envisioned by its founders…” Michael K. Young, new University of Washington president, 2011.
==Highlights of 2013==
'''Philanthropy'''
2013 was a very year exciting for Philanthropy at Beta Pi. The chapter hosted GIRLS academy for the second time in February 2012 and then reapplied to be eagerly hosting again for the third time in February of 2014. GIRLS academy stands for Girls Inspiring Respect Leadership and Service. The program is comprised of small and large group activities and discussions, which are geared toward inspiring and instilling leadership qualities and positive body image in young girls. It is a great chance for women in our chapter to be role models and leaders in our community. The event takes place at Washington Middle School, and every year the participants are so excited and receptive to the program, making it easy for Kappas to be appreciative and enthusiastic about the opportunity to volunteer with GIRLS academy.
To raise money for GIRLS academy, Beta Pi hosted their first annual Kappa Kappa Kickball tournament. The tournament was a 3‐day event made up of a double elimination kickball tournament, hot dog eating contest and serenade competition. To advertise the tournament a Facebook event was created and invitations were went to fraternity men in the UW Greek community along with physical letters. 12 fraternities participated in the event donating a $100 entry fee each. Overall, $1200 was donated to support GIRLS Academy programming. We also raised money through holiday bake sales, which was a great way to get Beta Pi involved in the Greek community and utilize our public relations/fundraising teams to get our philanthropy more publicized.
As always, we continue in our efforts to give to the National Fraternity philanthropy, Reading is Fundamental, and have a book drive to donate books to the organization. We also have a chapter competition between members in different rooms to see which room could donate the most books. It runs through the month of February and is a great way to get roommates involved in philanthropy. We additionally have bi-quarterly visits to the Ronald McDonald house. We have fun arts and crafts projects with the kids, which is a great way to get involved with our community and connect with local families.
'''Province'''
Beta Pi was lucky enough to send 8 active members to Province this year. At Province, Beta Pi was honored to win best active-adviser relations award and most improved chapter.
'''Greek Awards'''
We were honored by our Greek Community at the Greek Awards banquet for being finalists for the Excellence in Academic Programming Award.
'''Panhellenic Involvement'''
Two Kappa sisters have served on Panhellenic Council this past year. Kate Sibley, a sophomore, is Vice President of Service and Philanthropy, and junior Jillian Celich is Vice President of Risk Management. We also have a junior panhellenic representative who goes to weekly meetings. They are very involved with Panhellenic and keep up Beta Pi relations with Panhellenic throughout the year.
'''Alumnae Relations'''
Alumnae relations have been great this year. We had another successful Career Fair in which professional women from the Seattle Alumna Association came to help us edit our resumes, talk about career options, and offer mock interview sessions. It was helpful and exciting to see so many successful and professional women who started their careers in the same place we are today. In late October, we also held a ‘Trick or Treat’ afternoon for local alumnae with young children to go from room to room to collect candy from dressed-up actives. Our alumnae also helped throughout the year with recruitment and did a mock House Tours’ event with the chapter. We also won best active-adviser award at Province.
'''Recruitment'''
Recruitment was a huge success this year. Throughout the year, our chapter executed various workshops to enhance our Recruitment skills. These workshops began in winter quarter in order to prepare for Greek Preview and continued throughout the spring. The workshops were focused on values based recruiting and identifying values in Potential New Members. In the weeks preceding Recruitment, Beta Pi also practiced Open House Round and House Tours Round of Recruitment with other sororities in the Greek community. This gave our chapter valuable insight into how we could improve our Recruitment skills. The success of these events was made evident by our chapter not receiving a single violation or infraction during all of recruitment.
'''Academics'''
Beta Pi has improved greatly this past year in grades. In the Spring of 2013, Beta Pi was ranked 14th out of all the sororities in the Greek community, with a 3.30 GPA. Academics were a huge challenge for our chapter and major changes were made. A sophomore/freshman study buddy group was created, where each week they had an academic related assignment to complete. We increased academic morale with our scholarship dinners, pledge class GPA/test file competition, Geek of the Week jar, and Kappa Kompliments Facebook page. All of these activities are aimed at recognizing members of the chapter for their academic endeavors and accomplishments. The success of these programs was very apparent when Beta Pi tied for 1st in grades in fall of 2014 with a GPA of 3.48. The improvement is academic excellence was amazing and has created a lot of momentum for the rest of the year to do well in grades.
'''Current Events'''
In October of 2013, the government shutdown for over two weeks. During this time flu vaccinations were put on hold with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention unable to support its seasonal influenza program. Beta Pi however had already invited Walgreens to come to our chapter during the shutdown and give out flu shots. We opened up their services to the whole community and helped numerous people get vaccinated and stay healthy during the flu season.
One of the biggest issues on campus is the prospect of differential tuition which would change tuition rates for different majors. Although differential tuition could increase educational funding and overall program expansion, it would also place a huge burden on students who are already faced with inflated tuition bills and loans. In March of 2013, University of Washington students were joined by campus union representatives and members of the community in s statewide coordinated day of action in opposition to differential tuition. They marched in Olympia to promote House Bill 1043, which is legislation that limits public universities ability to set differential tuition. If differential tuition became a reality, it would not only affect every member of our chapter but also Potential New Members. The cost of college is a huge issue for most incoming freshman and increasing tuition rates could make the University of Washington less desirable and have a detrimental effect on the whole Greek Community.
Another big change that happened in the Greek Community was the changes made on Recruitment. There was a “no frills” policy created which stated that chapters had to focus more on engaging in conversations with Potential New Members rather than impressing them with their looks, decorations, or any other superficial aspect of Recruitment. The goal is to make the Recruitment process a more genuine experience that is based off of the morals and philanthropic endeavors of the chapter. This affected Philanthropy day for many chapters and also changed a lot of the rules on door chants.
The campus has also started a Husky Nightwalk to be hosted on February 12 in conjunction with UWPD and Seattle PD to clean up the Greek Community. Beta Pi will attend the event and help clean up the streets, identify deficiencies in lighting, and help better the safety of our community overall.
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