On Monday, Jan. 29, the annual rendition of Greek Awards took place at the Memorial Union Ballroom in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Both UND President, Andrew Armacost, and UND Vice President for Student Affairs, Art Malloy, were in attendance Monday night amongst the Greek Chapters for Greek Awards.
Greek Awards is a special event in which members within the Greek community are recognized and celebrated in front of their peers for their demonstrations of academic excellence, leadership, and involvement within the community.
More than 20 awards were given out Monday night, falling under 3 categories: Academic, Individual, and Chapter based awards. Each award encapsulating the core values that these Greek Organizations are founded on through sisterhood, brotherhood, and service to others.
The values that these organizations instill within you were highlighted during President Armacost’s brief speech at the start of the event. Armacost touched upon his own time as a fraternity man for Pi Kappa Alpha, and the key experiences that he remembers. He did so by reciting the Greek alphabet by memory, without fault. This surprised many in the audience. The key takeaway is that even though the Greek Alphabet may be trivial or silly, it is through unique shared experiences like learning the Greek Alphabet that you form bonds that can last a lifetime in both a professional and social setting through Greek life.
Academics is at the forefront of the minds of administrators and students alike, as it is a key indicator of success later in life. For those reasons, it is important to acknowledge and celebrate the following chapters for exerting themselves as leaders within the Greek community for setting a high academic standard. Delta Upsilon, Kappa Sigma, Lambda Chi Alpha, Sigma Chi, Sigma Phi Epsilon, Alpha Chi Omega, and Kappa Alpha Theta all earned All Men/Women’s GPA for both the Spring and Fall semesters during the 2023 academic year.
The Individual Award section of the presentation is a series of six incredibly prestigious individual awards that are often linked with a scholarship. To be eligible for these awards you must be nominated by your peers to be considered and the finalists undergo a series of interviews in front of a panel of judges who will decide whether they are worthy of the award.
I had the pleasure of interviewing the Future Greek Leader award winner, Mason Thingvold, from Lambda Chi Alpha and asked him how he plans to improve the Greek community in the future. Thingvold stated that “he wants to find ways to get fraternities and sororities involved in more all-Greek events by making the events more fun and enjoyable,” in which he believes would promote a sense of community and belonging on our campus.
The last segment of awards that were given out included the Chapter Awards in which differing Greek chapters were celebrated for their achievements in leadership, accountability, brotherhood/sisterhood, community involvement, and citizenship throughout 2023. The most prestigious of the bunch being the President’s Award for Greek Excellence, which is more commonly known as the PAGE award that encapsulates each of those values. Kappa Alpha Theta and Lambda Chi Alpha were the two recipients of the award.
It is important to note that this incredible event would have never been made possible had it not been for the arduous work of the individuals on the Inter-Fraternal and Panhellenic councils led by Fraternity and Sorority life coordinator, Addela Sampel.
At the conclusion of the event, I also had the opportunity to reach out to Declan Emery, the current IFC president. I got to ask him what his thoughts were regarding this year’s rendition of Greek Awards. Declan stated that he is “incredibly proud of all the chapters accomplishments this year and congratulations to those that won an award” acknowledging how much work and effort goes into doing so.
For a complete rundown of all the winners from Monday night be sure to visit the University’s Website where links to the winners over the past eight years can be found at https://und.edu/student-life/student-involvement/fraternity-and-sorority-life/awards.
Daniel Silva is a Dakota Student General Reporter. He can be reached at [email protected].
