Michigan Theta’s Balanced Man Scholarship program continues to progress each school year and the top award given at each year’s BMS is now named the “Randall Brooks Balanced Man Scholarship” in honor of the program’s largest-ever contributor, Randy Brooks ‘81. Over the last 3 years, Randy has donated a total of $10,000 and increased their annual donation to $4,000 this year. Randy, we cannot thank you enough for your continued support!
Another big step towards ensuring the longevity of the annual effort was the establishment of the “MI Theta BMS Endowment” Fund at HQ early in 2021. This dedicated fund was able to start at $25,000 and will currently generate nearly $1,000 each year for the scholarship. The goal is to grow this fund to $75,000 in the next 5 years by achieving 83 individual $10/month donations. At the moment, we are 25% of the way to our individual donor goal! Our VPs of Recruitments have seen the benefit of these efforts first hand and our current VPR recounts his experiences below.
Joe Mitrzyk ‘22 – The BMS campaign this year proved to be challenging, but also rewarding. Following last year’s BMS, we knew that we needed to focus more on it this time. This year, $2450 was given out in scholarships for the top 10 winners. Of those 10 winners, we had 3 join this semester. We received 58 applicants and interviewed 40 of them. Unlike last year, we were also able to host a banquet with Josh Andree as the keynote speaker. There was also a BBQ held for all of the applicants prior to the banquet.
Recruitment this year was a lot more intense than the few previous ones due to covid. For the spring of 2021, recruitment was solely done over zoom for the school rules restricted in-person events. We were not even allowed to have a booth which proved very challenging. Then by the time fall recruitment rolled around, the school had relaxed its rules which allowed for a more normal, and exciting, recruitment. The incoming fall class for 2021 was the largest that the school has seen in a long time so naturally, that provided high hopes for a large class. Having bid 8 potential new members by the end of the first week and 19 total by the end of the second, that was proving to be the case.
Despite coming slightly under our goal, the chapter still did an amazing job. To put it into perspective, we recruited more members than all of the other fraternities combined, as well as one-fourth of all Greek life this semester. The fall 2021 rush class consists of 11 new guys which include 5 athletes. This was possible because first-semester athletes are now able to join Greek Life. Some of the notable events that we held were WhirlyBall, batting cages, glow golf, and a volleyball tournament. There were events planned with all sororities as well as a mixer with the O’rohs. As mentioned before, recruitment had been harmed by covid and so had the recruitment spirit. This semester we were able to inspire the brothers and bring the passion back into recruitment, which was my ultimate goal as the Vice President of Recruitment.