Century Club: Help the chapter successfully rebuild

In the late 90s, fraternity chapters at Oregon were closing their doors all over campus. The Greek system was in a downward trend and once-strong houses were struggling to recruit and retain enough men to survive. The trend caught up with Phi Psi in June 1999 when we reached a point where the numbers were too low to support the chapter house the following year. We locked the door, boarded up the house, and wondered how long this would last.

There were many challenges sitting on a boarded up piece of real estate in Eugene, one of which is the House Corporation didn’t have the cash to sit this one out for long. We turned to the alumni for help, and thankfully, the brothers responded. A small fundraiser sustained the empty chapter house for a couple years until we found a new fraternity to rent it.

Fast forward 20 years. The House Corporation and the chapter house at 729 E 11th are in a much better place, but we know a lot of expensive work lies ahead on the house to make it viable for the future. This is the challenge for the House Corporation as it focuses on financial sustainability and the management of the facility.

Meanwhile, the new Chapter Advisory Team needs money to bring back the undergraduate chapter. Successfully building a fraternity in 2022 requires hiring a full-time leadership consultant to live in town and work with the undergraduates for 1-2 years. It’s no longer good enough to rely on alumni volunteers who are busy with their own lives and, in our case, probably don’t live in Eugene.

Our national fraternity provides (and pays for) a consultant to get the recruiting process started for three to four months, but then the local chapter and alumni are on their own. We knew we would need help for at least a year, maybe more, to do this right so we have committed to pay for a consultant through the end of 2022.

Fortunately, we have a great person already working for us and living in the chapter house as the resident advisor! PJ Sarkar is an alumnus of Arizona Beta (ASU) and helped restart that chapter as an undergrad. He agreed to become our expansion consultant and work with the chapter until he knows more about his law school plans. Now, we just need the money to pay for it.

The House Corporation voted to front the money if the Chapter Advisory Team committed to fundraise to pay them back. We agreed because we know our alumni will step up to help. You proved that in the early 2000s and we are counting on you again.

Century Club

We are dusting off the idea that worked 20 years ago to give alumni the opportunity to help today. The “Century Club” is named in honor of our upcoming 100th anniversary at the University of Oregon. The fundraiser features three levels named after significant milestones in our early formation: Owl’s Club, Kappa Theta Chi, and Oregon Alpha. Donors at each level will be acknowledged on the website encouraging others to join in.

I know many alumni still feel connected to their experience as a Phi Psi and you probably count a handful of brothers as your best friends even today. Giving that experience to the next generation of brothers will require a financial commitment that can only be fulfilled by our 1000+ living alumni. We have a goal to raise $65,000 which will require 150-200 alumni to donate to the Century Club. It’s time to help the chapter rebuild so they can reoccupy the house in 2023!

Learn about the Century Club fundraiser and please donate today. The House Corporation is not a 501(c)(3) organization, so donations are not tax deductible, but don’t let that stop you. Brother Bob Reid (‘66, 785) is the first one in. Thank you, brother Reid!

Fraternally,

Grant Kimball (‘84, 1124)