We have been recognized by national media for excellence. With 275,000-plus lifetime members, TKE makes a difference in the lives of thousands of men, from all across the world, each and every day. We were founded in 1834 as a manual labor college and there is much work for all of us to do. As we look forward to the future of Tau Kappa Epsilon and fraternities as a whole, the expectations of todays society are much higher than ever before. A pillar of this history is our belief in the character of every man in our membership. UMBC at 50: Reflections and Aspirations. We do this not to sully the good but to empower ourselves to continually strive forward. Second, snobbiness was a thing which we, the Founders, disdained. They are working. As an alumnus, we have similar opportunities to grow. I challenge you to live the Fraternity for Life by contributing your time and financial resources to ensure that we not only survive these challenging times, but thrive and continue the success that we have all enjoyed. With what resources? Fraters, in celebration of 120 years of Tau Kappa Epsilon, I ask that you all join me in a cohesive effort to embrace our values, expand our engagement, and fulfill our desire to be Better Men for a Better World. Common ambitions and ideals were necessary. This remains true today, but innovation and accountability will determine how successful we can be moving forward. This is a proud moment for the campus she called home for over 30 years. The headlines in the news when fraternity life goes wrong have a negative, adverse effect on all of us. We want to ensure that our work has direct impacton the scientific and engineering fields, on our students, and on the many communities that we touch. Hence the importance that each chapter take the greatest care in selecting men who are entirely in sympathy with the original high moral, social, and scholastic standing in which Tau Kappa Epsilon had its beginning. Topics under review include new member education, substance-free housing, and alumni engagement opportunities. o Can we imagine student apartments, along with a coffeehouse, a convenience store, a dry cleaners, or other desirable commercial services, to serve the campus of the future well? For our first twenty years, UMBC played its original allotted role as an institution whose students were primarily commuters. If we look back to our Centennial Celebration, now twenty years ago, a multitude of corollaries and visions continue to ring true. Yet as the campus matured, it was clear that we could become an even more valuable asset to the State of Maryland and the nation. I am mindful of the solemn responsibility entrusted to methe current occupantto safeguard the legacy and the future of TKE. Many on campus simply wanted to get on with their work and studies. But the expectations of ourselves remain constant. 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250. While our new donor count is growing, we embrace that there are scores of members who can ensure we reach our potential through investing in the greatest Fraternity on the planet. We continue to work with children to find ways of closing the achievement gap among students of different racial and ethnic groups. Today is a celebration but also a convocation a calling together. Frater LaBranche further stated that We cannot shelter our responsibility for the future of our Fraternity. Now, following in his footsteps as your Grand Prytanis, I cannot echo that sentiment strongly enough today. There are other examples of more inclusive foundings that form all the parts of the Wake Forest story. In the age of digital media, nothing is forgotten and no fraternity is immune from these societal pressures. September 19, 2016. January 18, 2018. State governments, university administrators, and our insurance carriers are all moving to impose significant changes upon us, or even seek to eliminate us, as these issues continue to persist. This is part of how we recognize that traditions like people need to grow, evolve, and expand to welcome more people into our unfolding story. We have indeed built a better world through building better men. We have 2,000 alumni working for the Navy and another 1,000 at NSA. Failure is not part of the fabric of Tau Kappa Epsilon. o How can we continue to build our partnerships with other research universities, within the system and beyond? We will be increasing enrollment as we attract more resources to hire needed faculty and staff. One of the high honors Ive had as Grand Prytanis is appointing my good friend and fellow Xi-Iota Teke, Alexander Rudloff, to the Grand Council for us to tap his vast experience that started in our home chapter. At the same time, the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case of Brown v Board of Education of Topeka and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964again under Johnsonhelped ensure that the expansion of access could be inclusive, extending beyond just whites to African Americans and other minorities. What will the next great chapter in our history entail? With Gods grace, with faith in our heritage and a strong commitment to the magnificent obsession, with confidence in our future, with inspiration from the enduring wisdom of our Founders, and with the beacon of mission to light the way, the best days of Tau Kappa Epsilon are unquestionably ahead. Start by And, most importantly as an educational institution with knowledge creation at our core we must learn from them. In the challenges that lie ahead, there undoubtedly will be opportunities for all of us to renew our commitment, improve our ways, and exemplify the ideals of Tau Kappa Epsilon that we pledged to uphold when we assumed the Bond. Today I have been endowed with the responsibility of speaking The U.S. Military Academy held its annual Founders Day dinner March 16 in the Cadet Mess Hall. Where will the road ahead take us? Since 1899, Tau Kappa Epsilon has been on an enduring journey that has appealed to the nearly 290,000 men who have joined our ranks. They called themselves the Knights of Classic Lore. WebFounders Day is a time to reflect on your PTAs achievements, examine its current concerns and set goals for the future. And it was the year that the Rev. Despite our growth, accolades, and achievements, we do face important challenges as a campus, including our funding per student given our mission, the expensive nature of some of our programs, other campuses recruiting away our faculty; the need to deepen the diversity of our faculty, and the unevenness of progress across all disciplines in improving teaching and learning a key component of our ongoing effort to improve student success. And Baltimore needed another public research university that would play a role in the regions economic growth and civic life. Partnerships o US News has ranked as #5 on its list of most innovative national universities and among the top 20 in undergraduate teaching. We celebrate Founders Day and gather for Convocation, by direction of the Board of Trustees, on the birthday of Robert E. Lee, who served as our university's president from 1865 to 1870. It's a challenge I proudly accept without hesitation as I know all of you do as well. From just $1 million in the early 1990s, our endowment has grown in value to more than $77 million today, with almost $14 million raised this past year. As we celebrate, we can look back at significant achievements and tremendous growth in our capacity to conduct meaningful research across our entire campus community. Thanking all our customers on the Foundation Day of our company. They didnt want the necessity of distraction and controversy that often accompanies the march of justice. As we celebrate this milestone, we have an opportunity to reflect on the illustrious history of our Fraternity and to dream about our collective futures together this year. o With College Park, we are collaborating (with MITRE) on the states Cybersecurity FFRDC, (with funding from NASA) on the Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science and Technology, and (with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities) on Baltimore Stories: Narratives and the Life of an American City, which seeks to use humanities scholarship to produce print and digital materials that help frame and contextualize narratives of race in American cities. She went on to explain how worried she was about his decision to join a fraternity and after not hearing from him for a period of time, she had thought he might be dead. o Princeton Review named us a College that Pays You Back and Kiplingers named us a Best Value College for 2016. TKEs mission is to aid men in their mental, moral and social development for life. But Im a person of the moment., Two years later in 2013, not long before she died, she said, Heritage is so complex we have to be simple, consider ourselves global. Joseph Settles took their advice and ran with it. Celebrate with your fellow Fraters by sharing on social media the memories of your fraternal experience using #IAMTKE. The experiences that we share become the moments that unite us together as one TKE Nation. In TKE, the term fraternity man took on a new and positive meaning, something that has endured to this day 116 years later. In 1902, our medical school. WebAs we celebrate the Foundation Day of our company, we thank all our customers for always believing in us and our company. Our Founders would be proud. We will work to become one of the best research universities of our size in the world, and we are determined that our dream will not be deferred.. A gift to the Wake Forest Fund supports student needsimmediately. As we saw in the video, we have grown significantly over the years, from 750 students on this day on 1966, to almost 14,000 students 11,000 undergraduates and approaching 3,000 graduatestoday. The increase for African Americans over this period was from 3.8 to 22.5 percent. This is a moment that allows us to consider what our aspirations have been over the years; reflect on 50 years of growth, grit and greatness; celebrate all that we have achieved together; and aspire yet again as success is never final. These milestones are points of pride, but also events that we should think about deeply as we consider our own contributions to Wake Forest today. And so, since the mid-1980s, we have become something else an inclusive, student-focused, residential, research university. o This spring, Michael Summers, Robert E. Meyerhoff Chair for Excellence in Research and Mentoring, University Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Howard Hughes Investigator, was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences. View Full Video. o During the 2015-2106 academic year, we awarded the most degrees ever in our history, with 3,429 total degrees awarded, an increase of almost 10 percent over the past two years, and 2,521 bachelors degrees awarded, an increase of 12 percent over the past two years. o Our alumni now lead such institutions as the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory and Clemson University, and chair the Department of Neurosurgery at Vanderbilt University. 67 percent graduated from UMBC or another four-year institution in Maryland; Upon hearing this, I extended my hand, introduced myself, and commented that as the TKE International Board Chairman, I was equally concerned about her son as I am about all of our 11,000 collegiate members. As a number of men might not know our mission, I can testify to its enduring strength as we "aid men in their mental, moral and social development". Third, we desire especially to emphasize the fact that, as a fraternity, we cannot afford to depart from the original plan of electing men of small means to membership whenever otherwise they have Teke qualifications. Whether in the chapter room or the boardroom, my time in TKE has highlighted that our Fraternity's true strength lies within our members' diversity. A Private Liberal Arts University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina / Founded1834 / ProHumanitate. In FY 2016, UMBC secured $82.3 million in extramural awards, an increase of 12% above the prior year. For the life of our campus: Within one year of World War II ending, several TKE chapters had restarted their operation, increasing our active chapters to nineteen. We opened on the day we were supposed to, right on schedule. Which is why we must also be globally minded people of the moment. I often quote Aristotle: Excellence is never an accident. If TKE is truly the Fraternity for Life, then the undergraduate years are merely a launching pad for life. o We have students from more than 100 countriesalthough the majority of our students are from Maryland. So today, I want to call us to all be founders for the future and to engage in the hard work needed to accomplish great things. In our fraternity, we get real life learning opportunities not found in the classroom. I love the Fraternity. Today, there may be no other time in our history where fraternities may be more relevant. The ways to observe Founders Day are limited only by your imagination; there is no one right way to celebrate. Where the most loyal Wake Forest supportersbelong. Our fraternity has been made by the early initiates and this in itself was sufficient vindication of the policy we made use of in securing our first new members. o What should our long-term thinking be with regard to the neighboring Spring Grove campus? Our dear Founder, we are honored to call AUN our home, and we celebrate with you today. The current pandemic presents a challenge to the future of Tau Kappa Epsilon, conceivably in ways we have not seen since World War II. We have been changing attitudes about who can succeed as we continue focusing on improving undergraduate teaching. They wanted to establish a fraternity of men whose primary requirement for membership would be based on personal worth and character, not the wealth he possessed, or the connections he had, or the lineage from which he came. It worked, he said. Just 56% of students who start a bachelors degree in this country complete within six years. The Grand Council and I are engaged with numerous stakeholders in strategic conversations about changes we can champion together to safeguard our future. Fraters, grit and determination have been the cornerstones of TKE successes throughout our history. These traits are critical if we are to be great founders. If you are unable to make a gift, share your time and your talent. How will we influence the next chapter in TKEs history? To achieve that, Tau Kappa Epsilon needs your help. o How can we become the anchor institution for the region? As they sat at 504 East Locust Street on a cold Tuesday night, Settles, Truitt, McNutt, Atkinson and Mayer set out to create a fraternity that was different than others in their time. Our Declaration of Principles outlines that our purpose is to aid our men in their mental, moral, and social development. Success is never final. Looking to the Future: Imagine whats next. o We have partnerships with generous philanthropists and such foundations as Gates, HHMI, Sloan, and Mellon that have made a critical contribution to our efforts to improve student success. Not having an exclusionary clause for membership was groundbreaking and forward thinking. We can better understand UMBCs growth over the past half-century if we consider the national context in which our campus was founded and subsequently grew. This hard work formed deep bonds and I still consider my fellow Xi-Iota Fraters my closest personal friends. We were the first university in Maryland that welcomed students of all races and backgrounds when we opened our doors. To know where we are going, we need to remember where we have been. We are addressing health disparities in work ranging from biomedical research on diseases that affect underserved populations, to statistical modeling in public policy to understand the causes of persistent differences in health status among disadvantaged populations such as African Americans, Hispanics and American Indians, and to identify interventions to close the gaps. Michael Hooker began to expand UMBCs aspirations at his installation as fourth chancellor in 1986 when he said, My [vision] is for UMBC to be a model university for the twenty-first century, and to be the best public university of its size in the country. Hooker argued that to capitalize on the universitys potential and make this vision a reality, the campus should: With utmost respect to our founders, we owe it to ourselves to be critical and thorough with our plans for improvements. Such an organization is none other than a fraternity in its truest sense. This commitment to personal worth and character continues to be showcased as we further our efforts for diversity and inclusion through our 2025 Strategic Plan. Mission will always illuminate the pathway of excellence. We are providing academic initiatives, student affiliation opportunities, transfer student support, assistance for near-completers, and opportunities for the kind of real-world connections afforded through the Shriver Center, BreakingGround, and the Alex Brown Center for Entrepreneurship. In 1991, we had four separate offices that reported to three different leaders providing support for technology. When you do so, you embody excellence, live our bond and showcase the value our Founders fought for in the early days of our formation. Advancing our role and reputation as a vital stakeholder in Marylands innovation economy? We believe in high expectations and have a passion for learning. Let me talk here about the meaning of this growth. (Until the 1980s, the diplomas of our graduates did not yet say University of Maryland, Baltimore County, but just University of Maryland, reflecting a particular mindset about who we were.). They were mostly men raised on farms in country towns in Central Illinois. We have a growing partnership with Bowie State in cybersecurity and with UMES in the alliance for minority participation in science. You can see the progress we are making in our numbers. Frater Settles wanted a fraternity that developed men to cope with the world when their school days were over and as he put it, be forced against the stern realities of life.. We have a strong national reputation for integrating undergraduates in mentored research. Our founding fathers had a vision that was progressive and revolutionary back in 1899, creating an organization that would consider personal worth and character to be principle qualifications for membership. WebEach day children participate in circle time, small and large group activities, independent playtime, story time and movement activities. The mission of Tau Kappa Epsilon is not another thing on the plate. We are forward-looking and responsive. I attended University of South Carolina and walked onto campus with fresh eyes and a passionate energy for a new environment far from where I grew up. We were not in harmony with many of the popular ideals of that time. Our service and outreach efforts have benefitted numerous communities in desperate need of help. We share equipment, our faculty are developing joint proposals to NIH, we administer a joint MD-PhD program, and we send large numbers of students to professional schools social work, law, medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy. On behalf of all Tekes everywhere, I thank you for your part in that magnificent effort. On this anniversary of TKEs founding, I ask you to join me in bringing to life more fully the mission of Tau Kappa Epsilon, to renew your commitment to the Fraternity for Life, and to honor our Founders by exemplifying sterling character and staunch uprightness.. Over the past fifty years, as our nation has grown its higher education enterprise, many more Americans went to college and earned bachelors degrees, access to our postsecondary institutions was widened to people of all groups, and the federal government expanded its investments in university research. Like many of our newest students, Im still learning about Wake Forest learning what makes this place so special and how we can contribute in our own way to the Universitys distinctive story. The 50th anniversaryalong with our parallel process of strategic planning and Middle States Accreditationhave given us a chance to reflect on our growth, where we are today, and our aspirations for the future. Budget and Endowment The good news is that more people of every race, ethnic group, and gender are educated today than ever before. Tekes never just sit back and rest on their laurels. Each Fraters journey to Tau Kappa Epsilon is individualized but often rooted in finding a community. Our social science research productivity, though, was much greater than would be reflected in the dollar amount when taking into account the number of publications per faculty member. The aerial photos in the video showed how our campus has grown physically over time. o With UMB, our strongest partnership, we continue to develop research collaborations through the seed grant program. There is a commitment to make our Fraternity great. Being a TKE for Life means acting on our values to make a better life for you and those around you. 75 percent earned a postsecondary degree; and 15 percent are still enrolled. Joining a chapter of less than ten Fraters forced me and my new found family to roll up our sleeves and get to work. I love the Fraternity. If you dont know where youve come from, you dont know where youre going. I love the Fraternity! America still faces major social challenges from economic inequality and the issues that divide usrace, ethnicity, religion, and sexualityto criminal justice reform and heath disparities. Organizations are founded only once, and the best ones renew themselves continually. For us to achieve what our Founders set out to accomplish, the Fraternity For Life needs you. We have just completed our self-study for the upcoming Middle State Accreditation and we are implementing our new strategic plan (greater detail about my comments can be found in those two documents). Web1] Welcome address A very good evening to all the wonderful people present today Its a pleasure to start this auspicious occasion by heartily welcoming every body to We were in the top the top 20 nationally in research in these fields. We can and we must do better. What have been our top achievements? Building off of improved transportation in the Baltimore-Washington corridor? o Going forward, we have broken ground on the new Events Center, and we are in the planning stages for the new Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Center, which will be important for teaching and research in the life sciences and for innovation supporting Marylands biotech industry. After all, without it, we would not be where we are today. A team approach is used while working We continue to build an entrepreneurial climate for economic development. and strives to be great in all we do. Clark Kerr once summarized this development when he wrote, At the end of World War II, perhaps six American universities could be called research universities, in the sense the research was the dominant faculty activity By the early 1960s, there were about 20, and they received half of all federal research and development funds going to higher education. Our infrastructure now includes, in addition to our buildings, an investment in information technology (IT). We also need to recognize that not everything about Wake Forest was founded in the antebellum period. So, six years after matriculating, 90 percent of students in the 2009 cohort had earned a postsecondary degree or were still enrolled in college. Here at Wake Forest, we know our heritage is complex, and we have great respect for the complexity of our past. Following Sputnik, the National Defense Education Act of 1958which provided the federal funding for students in the sciences, area studies, and foreign languageswas enacted under Eisenhower. Over the next few months, collegiates, alumni, volunteers, and our university partners will have the chance for continued input. America is failing these lower-income students; we must continue to elevate not just college readiness but the work we do on campuses to ensure these students succeed when they get here. BreakingGround achieved the following milestones in its fourth year: 34 courses to-date created or redesigned to foster civic agency; 24 projects producing social contributions beyond episodic service; 270+ stories and reflections shared on the BreakingGround blog, attracting more than 110,000 views. Though much has changed in Tau Kappa Epsilon since 1899, their legacy has not. And while we clearly would not be here today if not for our opening in 1834, we cannot deny that our history like that of our state and indeed our nation is tied up with slavery, segregation, and Americas other injustices. It's up to each of us, as their progeny, to not only continue to live that vision and that experience in the real world but to pass it on to those who follow us, to ensure it lives and guides, not only our own lives, but the lives of the Fraters whom we touch and all men, women and children we come in contact with throughout our own lives. Social injustice continues. In our world, we live by high standards and exceptional values. We also have a community based on shared values. UMBC at 50: Reflections and Aspirations. It has withstood the test of time since 1899. I wanted to take a moment to share my journey. Lets keep it real, Paulette C. Walker told her sorority sisters and others at their Founders Day luncheon held in Downtown Jackson. And the case for putting that campus in the Baltimore region was growing as well. Through these experiences and our educational programming, we are creating and fostering next generation leadership. A consequential factor in that growth was the Teke Loyalty Funda predecessor of todays LLT Fundto which TKE alumni were asked to contribute $3. Be metropolitanbe a partner for the region, a force for addressing its social problems and economic development needs. After WWII, all of this changed, quite dramatically. While social norms and social mores continue to evolve at a rapid pace, our timeless values have been a steadfast mooring for those nearly 290,000 Fraters who have joined our Bond. We are truly blessed. History has shown that Tekes are undeterred and undaunted by threats to the Fraternity. o How can we provide experiential learning and greater cultural and global competence for all students? In 1923, the Demon Deacons burst onto the scene. Staff had literally been sweeping floors and assembling desks the night before students arrived. The mission of Tau Kappa Epsilon must be paramount in all we do. While the Teke spirit was massive, our group was not.