Spring 2020

Brothers,

As you have probably guessed, this Spring term has brought with it a number of new challenges for the Kappa brotherhood. Despite these hard times, I am proud to say that our leadership and brotherhood has risen to meet these challenges. Our exec board has worked tirelessly to make sure our finances are and continue to be in good order. We have also been in contact with the Dartmouth administration, which has been flexible with the house in terms of our payments. The brothers on campus in student housing have done a good job of preparing the house for being empty by shutting off all unnecessary utilities double checking that every door and window is secure and locked. So far, the brotherhood and the house are both weathering the lockdown well.

Despite our isolation we have remained close. Wednesday meetings have been moved to online through zoom, as have our weekly exec meetings. Similarly, Tri-Kap recently had its annual meetings over zoom and we proud to have hosted almost 50 brothers from across 6 decades!

In spite of the quarantine, our rush chairs (Sam Lefkowitz, Aditya Choudhari and Dhaivat Mehta) have continued working diligently on assembling a rush list. Brothers have been reaching out to rising sophomores who have expressed interest in joining and we remain on track to taking another successful rush class in the fall.

Although the administration has made the decision to cancel sophomore summer and have classes online, the undergraduate exec board decided to elect a sophomore summer exec board regardless. After some deliberation it was decided that even though they won’t have the full on-campus experience, the early experience of running an exec board and the house is still invaluable. Current execs will remain on-call to help out and advise the new board to ensure a seamless transition of responsibilities and institutional knowledge. I am confident that this board of execs is made up of devoted and hardworking brothers who will carry the house onwards through these tough times.  

When possible, brothers have met up (while always maintaining a strict 6-foot separation from each other and wearing masks!) Despite, being spread across many states and countries the brotherhood is still managing to stick together and support each other.

I would like to take this opportunity, to thank, on behalf of the entire brotherhood, all of the brothers who working on the front lines in the medical profession and other essential services. While I may know only a fraction of the brotherhood, I have seen how Kappa men rise to the occasion and do their part.

Lastly, I would like to leave you with some pictures of the house and the brotherhood that we have found in the Dartmouth library reserves.  These pictures illustrate how long Tri-Kap has been around and how it has always prevailed. Pretty soon we will look back at this term as just another one of the many periods in our shared history. Tough times make strong men!

Until next time!