A Semester In Review

This past spring semester Delta Tau welcomed 30 new brothers into our chapter. This group of young men exhibits strength in the values of Phi Gamma Delta, inspiring our chapter in our various efforts to improve ourselves as a fraternity.

Our scholarship continues to improve. Our grades have risen above the all men’s average GPA on campus, an achievement that encourages us and an upward trend we plan to maintain. This has become one of our main focuses. We aim to find new ways to reward and inspire achievement in our brothers. Particularly, we hosted our first annual Delta Tau Scholarship Dinner (pictured below) inviting the 20 highest achieving brothers, all with a GPA no lower than 3.75.

Delta Tau Scholarship Dinner. (Front l-r): Jack Ruh, Jake Dempsey, Ryan Andrew. (Middle l-r): Tyler Haab, Ryan Stephens, Collin Ramani, Bryce Benjamin, Luke Collins, Maxwell Lerner, Chase Crandall. (Back l-r): Peter Derby, Brendan Burke, Garrett Wolfe, Chris Bounds, Mac McDonald, Henry O’Shea

In March, Delta Tau proudly hosted our second annual “Top Gun” Volleyball Tournament. This event began last year as a tournament in which teams of sorority women compete on campus at SMU’s Dedman Center for fun and healthy competition. This year, Delta Tau enhanced this event by benefiting the Donate Life Texas donor registry. By creating a custom webpage (with the help of Donate Life) and by setting up a registration table on campus (pictured below), we collected nearly 60 new organ, eye, and tissue donors for the Texas registry. We are proud of this first attempt and have learned of new ways to improve this outreach for the following years.

(l-r): Peter Bowring, Mikial Onu, Owen Quinn, Luke Martin, and John Quinn proudly look upon a fellow SMU student joining the Donate Life Texas donor registry.

Delta Tau is also increasing member involvement on campus. Notably, Adam Byer (2019) has been elected onto the IFC Executive Board as the Assistant Vice President of Recruitment. This involvement has proven to be a powerful tool for our chapter, giving us a voice in the IFC. Paxton Clark (2020) has been elected as a Student Senator representing the Cox School of Business. Paxton’s achievement is especially noteworthy. He is only a freshman and has not yet taken any classes in Cox, an indication of his early leadership appeal in both the Cox and SMU communities. Maxwell Lerner (2018), our Vice President and Treasurer, has been elected as the President of the Real Estate Club. Max also represented SMU in the USC International Real Estate Case Competition, finishing as a finalist along with his team. These are only a few examples of the men that are representing Delta Tau on campus.

In April, Delta Tau proudly participated in the first annual Texas Fiji Summit, hosted by Tau Deuteron in Austin, Texas. We sent 5 executive members of our chapter—Brendan Burke, Cole Cunningham, Maxwell Lerner, Collin Ramani, Sloan Stearman—along with our new Purple Legionnaire, Turner Massey, and BCA Chairman, Jeff Samford, to join 3 other Texas Chapters (A&M, TCU, UT Austin) for a summit covering Rituals, Building Courageous Leaders, and general discussions sharing our goals to improve our chapters. This was a great experience. We hope to invite more chapters and possible host this summit in the future.

Brothers gathered outside of the Tau Deuteron Chapter House in Austin, Texas for the first annual Texas Fiji Summit

Delta Tau is driven to be the best that we can be. Our achievements continue to inspire us to grow as well-rounded leaders on campus. To our Graduate Brothers, parents, families, and friends, we welcome all to reach out with any inquiries, comments, or concerns for our chapter. We can be reached at smu.phigam@gmail.com.

Fraternally,

Collin Spenser Ramani, 2018
Chapter President, Phi Gamma Delta, Delta Tau