MONROE, La. — Members of the University of Louisiana Monroe’s Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity set a new record for consecutive wins of the fraternity’s coveted Robert A. 'Smythe' award by winning their 18th consecutive at the Pi Kappa Alpha Convention held in New Orleans.
The award is given to the top 10 percent of Pi Kappa Alpha chapters each year. This win marks the 23rd Smythe award in the last 25 years for the ÃÛ½ÛÖ±²¥ chapter.
The award is based upon excelling in 16 areas of operation, including: academics, community service, campus involvement, athletics, management, health and safety, new member education, and alumni relations.
“The ÃÛ½ÛÖ±²¥ chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha definitely deserved their 18th consecutive Smythe award," said Laura Jennings, Director of Student Life and Leadership. "This sort of legacy is almost unheard of for any type of group. Every year I am consistently more impressed with our Pike chapter because they continue the raise the bar for themselves and continue to meet that goal. We could not be more proud to work with such excellent young men.â€
Nineteen ÃÛ½ÛÖ±²¥ students (the most from any Pike chapter in North America) joined Tommy Walpole—Executive Director of Auxiliary Enterprises and the fraternity’s university relations adviser—at the four-day event.
Those students included Ben Sylvestri, Morgan Wiggins, Will Frith, Wyatt Medlin, Spencer Perkins, Evan Sinclair, David DeGraw, Austin Green, Bryan Deloach, Michel Elliot, Jacob Hale, Josh Usie, JT Roberts, Cody Crnkovic, Alec Shell, Hank Pipes, Chase Campo, Jacob Lester and Zoe Poole. Over 50 Pike alumni made the trip to New Orleans to witness the chapter set the new consecutive win mark.
During the convention the group was recognized for earning—for the sixth consecutive year—an overall grade point average higher than a 3.0.
Other highlights of the trip included the ÃÛ½ÛÖ±²¥ chapter receiving the Raymond L. Orians Award for Chapter Excellence, which honors overall chapter performance from the previous year. This marked the chapter’s 31st consecutive Orians award.
The group was also recognized for 100 percent participation in the undergraduate donor club, which is sponsored by Pi Kappa Alpha’s Educational Foundation.
Also recognized was the fraternity’s commitment to attending Pike’s Leadership conferences known as Pike U and the groups recruitment, alumni and housing programs were recognized as some of Pike’s best.Â
The ÃÛ½ÛÖ±²¥ Pi Kappa Alpha Alumni Association was also named as a William R. Nester Outstanding Alumni Association. This was the group’s 17th time to be recognized as one of the organization’s best alumni associations in North America. In addition, two alumni of the fraternity were recognized as some of Pike’s best. Joseph Beard, who serves as the Chapter Advisor was one of nine selected as a part of Pike’s Inaugural Class of Young Alumni of the Year and Adams Rodgers, who serves the chapter as its Continuing Education Advisor was selected as the top volunteer from Pike’s Delta Region which consists of all volunteers in the states of Louisiana and Mississippi.
The fraternity is also known for its award-winning streak on campus.Â
They were named ÃÛ½ÛÖ±²¥â€™s 2015-2016 Organization of the Year. The chapter has won the award 14 times in the 17-year history of the award. The group was also crowned Greek Week Champions and they won their 8th consecutive All-University Athletic Championship.
Pi Kappa Alpha has 220 chapters in North America and is headquartered in Memphis, Tenn.
The Pi Kappa Alpha chapter at ÃÛ½ÛÖ±²¥ was founded in 1972.