24 chapters honored at ceremony

For the second year in a row, Alpha Phi Alpha will reign as the IU Panhellenic Council's Chapter of the Year, while Phi Gamma Delta gained control of the title for the Interfraternity Council and Alpha Gamma Delta for the Panhellenic Association.\nThursday night, over 500 members of the greek community filled Alumni Hall at the Indiana Memorial Union to recognize the great accomplishments of their peers at the 2002 Greek Awards Ceremony. \nThe ceremony, organized by IFC, PHA, IU-PHC and the Multi-Cultural Greek Council, recognized the recipients and chapters for their hard work, leadership and commitment to their chapters and to the community. New to this year's program was the addition of four emcees as well as several new awards. \nOpening the program was a brief dance number featuring the night's emcees to "Celebrate" by Kool and the Gang. The routine was followed by a video compiled of footage from various campus activities such as Dance Marathon, intramural sports teams, Little 500 and Delta Delta Delta's candlelight vigil. \nJunior Erin White from Kappa Delta, sophomore Brian Moak from Zeta Beta Tau, senior Jason Lee from Alpha Phi Alpha and sophomore Erika Chairez from Sigma Lambda Gamma claimed the Alumni Hall stage as emcees for the event.\nFollowing the dance number and video presentation was the evening's keynote speaker, Dr. Debbye Turner, the 1990 Miss America, journalist for CBS and member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Dr. Turner's speech urged attendees to "be all you can be" and to never lose focus. Turner's anecdotes, which included one about a school of fish and another about Turner and her grandmother, encouraged students to work for their best and "celebrate that they were born into excellence." \nThroughout the night, 24 different awards were handed out to members in all of the councils involved. Alpha Phi Alpha ruled the evening with seven awards, and Alpha Kappa Alpha followed with six.\nSenior Julie Lappas, the PHA vice president of Membership Development, said Thursday night's awards ceremony has been in the works since last spring, but the bulk of the work was accomplished this fall . \n"We added new awards to really recognize the additional values that are important to the greek community," Lappas said. \nThe "Challenging the Process" award, won this year by Alpha Phi, was created to recognize a chapter which challenged the status quo and worked to "think outside the box." The other new service award was the "Greek Collaboration" award, won by Kappa Delta and Alpha Kappa Alpha, was given to a chapter that collaborated with greek organizations outside their own council. \nThe extensive planning done by the committee and all of this year's new editions added to the quality of the program, Lappas said.\n"The emcees provided good transitions between the awards and made the night more spirited and fun," said Lappas. "I am so proud of all four of the emcees. They did a fabulous job entertaining everyone and engaging the audience." \nThe emcees prepared for the program for about a month, picking out all the songs and working to coordinate the event. \n"The emcees practiced twice a week for a little under a month, and we really developed quite a chemistry together," Moak said. "I thought that we as emcees helped make smooth transitions,and provided comic relief during some lulls in the ceremony. My favorite part of the event was the introduction. We did a dance, introduced ourselves and got the crowd going."\nLast night's awards were highly competitive among greek members, with the PHA Chapter of the Year award claiming closest finish between chapters. There was only a five point difference on application scoring among the top eight chapters. Alpha Chi Omega and Alpha Omicron Pi tied for second place with 130 points each, but AGD edged both chapters out with a score of 131.\nOther top awards for the evening were Greek Man of the Year, given to senior Eric Butterbaugh of Pi Kappa Phi and Greek Woman of the Year, given to senior Jennifer Watters of AGD.\n"I don't really think that there are one or two big accomplishments that helped me in receiving this award, rather it was a combination of smaller, everyday experiences and decisions -- more of a way of life, than a couple of life events," Watters said.\nButterbaugh credited other members of his house with helping him receive the award.\n"Not one accomplishment that set me up for this was result of individual effort," he said. "I simply couldn't have done any of it without the support of my chapter brothers"