TKE still going without campus recognition

By Jonathan McFadden
mcfaddenj@mytjnow.com

Members of Tau Kappa Epsilon cheese for the camera while cleaning a highway. Though not recognized on campus, TKE is still a nationally recognized Greek organization and can still participate in community service activities. Photo courtesy of Frans Alkemade, TKE’s president. Surely you’ve seen them: Gray letters emblazoned on a cherry framed background; the acronym “TKE” written on the front of T-shirts; their fingers forming a triangle.

On campus, they’re visible. Nationally, they’re recognized. At Winthrop, they’re nonexistent.

They’re Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE), a longstanding fraternity aspiring “to become the leading 21st century college fraternity with a focused mission on building better men, who in turn, will build a better world,” according to the organization’s website.

Ask TKE Chapter Advisor Matt Milligan and he’d say that’s exactly what they’re doing, in spite of recent trials and tribulations. 

Those trials include violating the university’s alcoholic beverage policy in September 2010, said Sean Blackburn, assistant dean of students.

The alcohol policy states that Winthrop prohibits “the consumption or possession of alcoholic beverages by students.” 

The suspension is temporary but bars the fraternity from being recognized as an official Winthrop student organization, Blackburn said.

Per their suspension, members are unable to reserve space for events, receive money via student allocations, rent student organization lockers, access technological resources and “much more,” he said.

On TKE’s national website, the Rho Alpha Chapter—the TKE chapter in Rock Hill—is still recognized, with Frans Alkemade listed as its president. 

Two TKE chapters, one at Furman University and the other at the University of South Carolina, are no longer active, according to the website. 

Members of TKE were not allowed to speak with The Johnsonian. 

Though unable to elicit donations on campus for their philanthropy, St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, members of TKE still raise money and have remained active in the community, said Milligan, who himself graduated from Winthrop in 2009.

Milligan addressed the stereotypes most Greek organizations face.

“When people see Greek Life, they see partying,” Milligan said.

But, that’s not always the case nor is that the purpose of a Greek organization. While at Winthrop, Milligan said he was more than a TKE.

To prove his point, he called on his time as a resident advisor.

Greek Life isn’t only about the social activities either, he said.

Fraternity and sorority activity that most people don’t see include their work with philanthropies, which “tend to be overlooked,” Milligan said.

When trouble comes knocking, “philanthropies can be taken away” just like parties and other social functions.

Milligan admitted that being suspended from a campus is definitely “not a good thing,” especially when the word “suspended” already carries a negative connotation, he said.

But, the organization is making strides in trying to prove that it’s not a group of party animals. 

With the bruises beginning to heal, Milligan said the organization is focusing on restructuring itself and ensuring that it resurrects a positive image.

The ultimate goal: Get back on campus, Milligan said. 

“We don’t want to be viewed as the organization that got kicked off campus because of a party,” Milligan said. “We’re more than that.”

In the meantime, TKE has been involved in a lot of community service, such as work with the YMCA and churches, Milligan said.

They will be eligible for “re-colonization” on campus no sooner than summer 2013, Blackburn said. 

Graphic by Courtney Niskala • niskalac@mytjnow.comMy, how times have changed  

Former campus advisor of TKE Lane Lovegrove had an instrumental role in attempting to restore TKE as a campus organization during his days as an undergraduate.

In 1997, Lovegrove, current director for Winthrop’s Social Behavior Research Lab, transferred to Eagle’s territory from Spartanburg Methodist College.

Once he arrived in Eagle’s territory, he reunited with his resident advisor from SMC, who had also transferred to Winthrop, and his best friend.

At the time, Lovegrove’s resident advisor and friend planned on re-founding TKE, which had been barred from campus back in 1992. 

When Lovegrove arrived, his friends asked him to join and, soon enough, he and about nine other undergraduates aided in re-chartering TKE.

From the beginning, TKE wasn’t like any other fraternity.

“None of us were really frat guys,” said Lovegrove, referring to the traditional fraternity boy stereotype. “We had a variety of different people…we were all different already, and none of us would have joined a fraternity had we not been friends initially.”

Their sales pitch was simple: “I don’t think we’re like other organizations, why don’t we play on that and really make an effort to be different,” Lovegrove said he and his friends used to say.

More than that, they never liked being called “frat” boys, Lovegrove said.

“We wanted to be different; we wanted to be unique and expand the perceptions of what that could be,” he said. 

Asked whether he thought the fraternity was successful in its dare to be different endeavors, Lovegrove said “success is something that you measure in different capacities.”

In terms of experience, networking and making lifelong connections, then yes, it was a success, Lovegrove said.

When gauging “traditional levels of success” like large recruitment numbers, consistently high GPA’s and exceptional community service, then “not in the capacities that other organizations would,” he said. “But we did do our part to make a difference, and I think that is a success.”

TKE’s current situation may not speak to success, Lovegrove said, but during his experience as an alumni volunteer and campus advisor, it was a “good experience for its members.”

While obtaining his bachelor’s degree, Lovegrove became a full time staff member at Winthrop in 2007. During that time, he voluntarily stepped into the role as TKE’s campus advisor.

“I already knew the system and the group well,” Lovegrove said.

Photo courtesy of Tau Kappa Epsilon’s Facebook pageWhen he took the role, TKE was basking in the afterglow of some semesters of strong recruitment, he said.

Then, the membership fluctuations started and lasted until 2010, when Winthrop suspended the organization and Lovegrove resigned as campus advisor.

At the point of suspension, Lovegrove said it would have been “moot” to have a campus advisor for an inactive organization.

More than that, Lovegrove said much of his life was consumed by TKE activity. 

“I was spending a lot of my time doing TKE stuff,” he said. “I was incredibly busy.”

Eventually, he burned out, he said.

Now, Lovegrove’s perspective is different, he said, and he wants to see all members successful. 

One of the most pivotal accomplishments Lovegrove is proud of includes implementing an academic mentoring program, which he spearheaded. 

Students on academic probation or failing classes would sit down with Lovegrove and construct a plan to put the “brothers” back on track academically.

Helping some guys was harder than he expected. 

Lovegrove recalled incidents where he asked students where their syllabi were only for them to reach down into the bottom of their book bags and present Lovegrove with wads of paper.

“...Not that that’s indicative of all the brothers,” he said. “A lot of students turned their GPA’s around.”