News

Congratulations to the 25 New Initiates of the Epsilon Lambda Chapter of Beta Theta Pi.

(Click on Picture to See our New Members)

We held our initiation this January for our new members. We had a great pledge class and we feel that all of our new members will be great brothers in our fraternity for years to come. Here is a few words from one of our new initiates Turner Goodson about his experience with Initiation.

"Becoming an active member of the Epsilon Lambda Chapter of Beta Theta Pi was a monumental and exhilarating time in my life. I was so proud, along with my twenty-five brothers that were initiated with me as well. Every one of us was thrilled to be part of this highly esteemed fraternity, and the ceremony that was held the Sunday we were officially inducted complimented what we had all achieved. This was expected of course, as the ceremony was a very formal and serious event that represented the importance of the fraternity and our obligation to hold ourselves to the highest standards of society and Beta Theta Pi. It was a classy ceremony that revealed more information to us about the fraternity that brought all of us brothers even closer to each other, older actives and newly initiated pledges included. It was a moment of achievement for all twenty-five new actives as we had officially moved from being great people, to being great men and brothers that were all tied under one name to serve and help each other, as well as the community. It brought me happiness to finally be a part of this great fraternity, but it brought me greater joy to know I will have brothers bonded to each other with similar beliefs, that will always be there for me through good and bad."

Jay Devineni Wins Mr. UMKC (Courtwarming King)

On February 27th, current Chapter President Jay Devineni was crowned as Mr. UMKC (formerly known as Courtwarming King) at the 2010 Courtwarming Basketball Game. To win Mr. UMKC, Jay had to go through an arduous selection process which included a long application, a three page essay, four recommendation letters, an interview, campaigning, and a vote by the entire UMKC student body. Five candidates, including Jay, were selected to campaign to be Courtwarming King, but Jay came out on top in the end. The Courtwarming process also included several events including ballroom dancing lessons, trivia night, a formal dance, and the annual Yell Like Hell pep rally. For Yell Like Hell, all ten Courtwarming King and Queen candidates put together a dance with the student organization that sponsored them. Jay and seventeen other Betas choreographed and performed the winning dance at the pep rally. Congratulations to Jay and all of the Betas!

Member Andrew Iliff Wins a SGA Award

This year member Andrew Iliff won the Best Leader of a Student Organization Award, given annually by SGA. Andrew served as Chapter President during 2009. During his term, Iliff pushed for the chapter members to be more involved in the community. He also encouraged the younger members to work hard to become the next leaders in the fraternity and around campus. He demonstrated strong leadership and motivation during his Presidential term that continues to be expressed by the whole active chapter at UMKC.

171st Convention Update - FOURTH Knox Award!!!

The 171st General Convention in Washington D.C. proved to be a very exciting event for the Epsilon Lambda Chapter. Betas at UMKC were awarded their FOURTH consecutive John Reily Knox Chapter Excellence Award, the highest award given to a Beta Chapter. In addition, the chapter earned their 16th Sisson Award, given to outstanding chapters around the country annually. UMKC also recieved the Virginia Tech Award for maintaining an outstanding GPA during the previous academic school year of 2009-2010. Epsilon Lambda also recieved a Recruitment Award for having a recruitment program that best reflects the policies, goals, and ideals of Beta Theta Pi.