Baldwin Wallace University’s Phi Kappa Tau was recently awarded the Roland Maxwell award for 2013. They were recognized as the top chapter for their fraternity out of 81 other chapters nationwide. This was the first time in the chapter’s 71 years of existence that they received this award.
The Roland Maxwell trophy is presented to the top chapter of Phi Kappa Tau in the nation for that year.
For this award, four chapters from across the country are chosen as finalists to give a presentation at their national Conclave event, which takes place at Miami University. These four chapters are chosen based on a prompt they are given in the Borradaile Challenge.
In this challenge, in which all 81 active Phi Kappa Tau chapters participate, there are 13 categories on which that they are judged.
These categories include recruitment/retention performance, scholastic performance, philanthropic contributions, effective risk management and community service participation. The highest level that you can achieve in each of these 13 categories is the Maxwell level.
The five men that played a major role in helping BW’s Phi Kappa Tau become a finalist at Conclave were current seniors Logan Lucaks and Brandon Wojtasik, sophomore Dan Saadeh and now alumni- Mike Poggi and Phil Wallace.
“It was indescribable making it as a finalist,” Poggi said. “In 2012, I was the vice president of the fraternity, so to be chosen as a finalist for a year that I had a major hand in the events that happened for Phi Kappa Tau was just a dream come true.”
The four chapters that were selected to present at Phi Kappa Tau’s national Conclave event included Baldwin Wallace University, University of Louisville, Cal State-Fullerton, and The University of Mount Union.
To determine a winner, the final chapters had to respond to a prompt dealing with stereotypes in Greek Life and how these chapters stand against certain stereotypes.
Phi Kappa Tau’s current president, Ryan Stover, believed the unique way the chapter answered the prompt made them stand out to the judges.
“The other three chapters simply gave speeches where they rotated out each of their members that presented, whereas we kind of did a form of role playing,” Stover said.
Wojtasik, Poggi, Saadeh, and Wallace were all involved with putting a creative skit together which involved Wojtasik playing the role of various detractors of Greek life, including a skeptical parent, a campus Greek Life adviser, and a potential employer.
The other members participating in the presentation would then answer questions presented by the detractors. By the end of the presentation, Phi Kappa Tau had demonstrated how they could overcome common Fraternity stereotypes while continuing to keep fraternities relevant on Baldwin Wallace’s campus.
“I think that it gives Greek Life on BW’s campus a positive spin,” Stover said. “This looks good for Greek Life as a whole. A success for one chapter kind of reflects on all of the chapters.”