Contact: Allison Matthews
STARKVILLE, Miss.--An international fraternity has awarded its Mississippi State University chapter the organization's Harvard Trophy for achieving the status of most outstanding chapter at a large campus.
Phi Delta Theta announced the Mississippi Beta chapter made significant accomplishments this year, including involvement in more than 15 honor and professional societies and earning the top all member grade point average among fraternities on campus.
Criteria for the award include scholarship, leadership, community service, and campus involvement, among others.
"As the third largest fraternity on campus, we have achieved the highest grades of any fraternity for the past two semesters," said chapter president Gray McClatchy, of Germantown, Tenn.
McClatchy said the chapter currently has 79 active members and 35 pledges.
The biological engineering major explained that while the chapter strives to exemplify the three cardinal principles of Phi Delta Theta--friendship, moral rectitude, and sound learning--he believes it's the chapter's strong sense of brotherhood and accountability that drives members to achieve their best.
"Our chapter has maintained its consistent academic success on campus by establishing high expectations for its members. The benefits of a fraternity of our size are that members struggling in a certain class can always look to someone else who has taken the class for help," he said, explaining that studying together is always encouraged at the fraternity.
"Our mission as a fraternity is to annually improve academically, spiritually, and fraternally to create better men and to ensure that every member of our fraternity develops into the greatest version of themselves," McClatchy said.
He said the recent honor is a highlight in the tradition of excellence that the chapter plans to continue at MSU. Phi Delta Theta established the Mississippi Beta chapter at MSU in 1991.