��������

CANTON, Mo. – The Tau Kappa Epsilon Zeta-Pi chapter at �������� learned earlier this month it is ranked as the No. 1 chapter out of 237 chapters across the nation.

“This is an extremely significant achievement,” said John Freitag of Galena, Ill., a chairman on the Board of Advisors for the TKEs.

“We are going up against colleges that are huge with lots of alumni with lots of dollars. Some schools are recruiting students with as many as 5,000 males on campus. We have limited male opportunities. Something like this takes a whole collaboration of college administrators, alumni and leadership in the fraternity. For a school the size of Culver-Stockton, it’s a pretty rare accomplishment.”

Tau Kappa Epsilon is a social college fraternity that was founded in 1899 and has chapters throughout the United States and Canada. The Zeta-Pi chapter at C-SC was founded in April 1959. It has 53 active members and 19 new members. The Prytanis (chapter president) is Steven Walker from Palmyra, Mo., and the chapter advisor is Nathan Sparks from Canton, Mo.

The TKE chapters are divided into four regions and ranked in several categories, such as chapter size, recruitment and dollars raised for St. Jude Children’s Hospital and other philanthropic efforts.

“It’s difficult to raise a lot of money in a small community, but these guys do pumpkin sales, car washes, house painting, yard sales … anything to raise money,” Freitag said.

The TKEs also performed 1,784 hours of service in the community in the past year.

“They have picked up trash on the highway, helped the elderly with something they might need or do work on someone’s house,” Freitag said.

The chapter also is ranked on the number of new members initiated, creation of newsletters, academic success, activity in student government and other organizations on campus, and attendance at regional conferences and forums.

The Zeta-Pi chapter finished 31^st in the TKE rankings last year and 15^th in 2017. Walker gave credit to past presidents Alfred Guidicy and Alec Oren for putting Zeta-Pi in a position to ascend to the No. 1 ranking.

“There were a lot of stepping stones to this achievement,” Walker said. It feels like of surreal, but it also feels nice that we’re competing against some of these larger chapters. This was a group effort.”

###