By Sarah V. Dailey

Lambda Chi Alpha has come a long way in the past four years. Its improvement shows as it recieved the Phoenix Award, the highest award given in their chapter. There are 270 Lambda Chi Alpha Chapters in the nation and in Canada. Out of the 270, only three were awarded the Phoenix Award from the National Fraternity for most improved effort over three years.

“Lambda Chi Alpha has shown that with hard work and leadership we can take on a role at U of L that is beyond the call of duty and I myself am proud to be a part of that,” said Andy Matheis, junior civil engineer major and President of Lambda Chi Alpha for the Ô01-’02 term.

According to the Paedadogus Fraternal Education Manual, the Phoenix Award is “awarded for outstanding improvement in chapter operations over a period of time up to three years.” Lamda Chi Alpha went from being forced out of its house on Greek row to reobtaining full use as well as building its credientials. It collected canned goods for the North American Food Drives, and held their first watermelon bust in over three years, which helped them interact with others and aided Kentucky Harvest. Its academic standing went up and, in fact, they were awarded two Outstanding Acedemic Achievment awards for the Fall and Spring Ô00 semesters. Aside from community service, membership is up from eight members in Ô98 to nearly 30 members currently active.

According to members, a group effort has prompted the turnaround. “It’s been a team effort for the last 3-4 years,” said Jacob Schardein, senior communcations and elementary education major.”We want to thank Dr. Pregliasco and Joni Burke for their backing and their continued commitment with us,” said Brian Russel, President for the Ô00-’01 term.

For past presidents, recieving an award like this makes it worth the hard work.Getting back on its feet wasn’t easy for the freaternity. It took patience, strength and commitment to get to where Lambda Chi Alpha is today.

“We won two great awards from Nationals and three from U of L and then the Phoenix Award,” Russel said. “I am truly proud because of the perserverance the guys had. We only had eight members in the chapter and to triple those numbers is an outstanding achievement and shows the dedication of our brothers.”