Fiji earns recognition, honor

IU's chapter of Phi Gamma Delta recently received an honorable mention from its national headquarters for top scholarship, fraternity relations and activity involvement. The Cheney Cup is the highest award that can be given within the Fiji fraternities. \nAccording to Fiji national representative Melanie Musick, the Cheney Cup represents the best aspects of a fraternity.\n"We have several different awards in different areas, but the Cheney Cup is like the best all around," Musick said.\nIU's chapter received an honorable mention, but out of 109 chapters all across the country, that is quite an accomplishment.\n"The awards committee of alumni decide who wins what," Musick said. "They award places one, two and three but only give out three or four honorable mentions, so this is quite an honor."\nThough they don't begin each year trying to win this award, Fiji's president, Brendy Lange, said he believes the recognition is just a by-product of all the hard work they do.\n"Last year, we had the highest GPA among fraternities at IU and one of the highest internationally among Fiji chapters," Lange said. "We also had 90 percent of our members involved in extracurricular activities and 40 percent of our members had leadership positions in those extra-curricular activities. From a service stand point, we raised over $43,000 for Riley Hospital for Children through IU Dance Marathon. Every Chapter applies for the Cheney Cup Award, so to be among the top five chapters internationally is definitely an honor. " \nTreasurer Jason Sondhi said he believes this award reflects positively on both the Fiji chapter and the IU greek community as a whole.\n"While we were being recognized at our bi-annual meeting in Atlanta many other chapters noticed how important our greek system is to this campus, and how significant of an influence we are on campus," Sondhi said. "They were shocked at how much money we raised for philanthropies, and how involved we all were."\nThis is the third consecutive year Fiji has received an honorable mention for the award.\n-- Contact staff writer Cecelia Wolford at cwolford@indiana.edu.