David W. Raymond, President of ATO Chapter House Corporation

The year 2007 was a year of major significance for the Chapter. In June 2007, the Alpha Upsilon Chapter of Alpha Tau Omega reached its 125th Anniversary as part of the Gettysburg College community. This important milestone was celebrated over Homecoming Weekend on October 13, 2007 with a special meeting of actives and alumni, a dinner and a Homecoming party featuring a New Jersey band that includes a Chapter alumnus. An article and photos of this event are included on this website.

The past year also marked the first full year of the Chapter’s new relationship with the College. The College now owns the Chapter House and is responsible for all maintenance, utilities, routine housekeeping and repairs needed in the operation of the facility. As noted in last year’s letter, the College completely renovated the Chapter House and installed all required Life Safety equipment in the house in 2006. During the past year, the actives have had to engage the Facilities Department of the College for any unusual repairs and other major services required to maintain the house in good condition. The actives are still responsible for keeping the house clean and preventing damage to the facility and its furnishings. Any active member responsible for damage to the house or its furnishings must pay the College for the costs of repair and, in some cases, a fine.

The ATO Alumni Board had the unusual opportunity of determining how to use, in the best long-term interests of the Chapter, the sizable equity payment we received from the College for the transfer of ownership responsibilities. The Board made the decision to endow scholarships for active Chapter members through the College and the ATO Foundation with $100,000 of the funds received from the College. We also determined and instituted a long-term investment strategy for the remainder of the funds. More detailed information about the new scholarships is provided on this website. We encourage ATO alumni to make charitable contributions to the College and/or the ATO Foundation specifically designating the contributions to be added to the endowment funds for those scholarships.

In the academic arena, the Chapter members improved their grades in the Spring semester of 2006-07. ATO ranked 4th out of 10 fraternities with an average GPA of 2.99. The GPA for all Greek men was 2.96. However, in the Fall semester of 2007-08, the Chapter fell to 6th out of 11 fraternities with an average GPA of 2.84. The Greek men’s average GPA was 2.89. The Chapter members are committed to work together to help those members who are most in need of academic improvement in order to help them succeed and to help achieve better average grades for the Chapter. The Board also hopes that the new scholarships and academic achievement awards that it has established will provide additional incentives for the students’ academic success.

In addition to the academics and the bricks and mortar, the undergraduate members continue to be active in community service and to be committed to continue to support the efforts of the College’s Greek community to help maintain a positive Greek image on campus.

Our all-volunteer alumni Board of Directors of the ATO Chapter House Corporation is comprised of 20 members including graduates from every decade starting in the 1960s and extending up to the year 2005. We also have Directors Emeritus from classes of the 40’s and 50’s.  It is a very competent and diverse Board consisting of a Vice President of the College, past Gettysburg College professors, computer specialists with companies large and small and professionals in the areas of law, banking, accounting, optometry and dentistry.  We have numerous businessmen and a Pennsylvania County commission member. Of course, several of us are retired. Regardless of age, profession or employment status, all of the Board members share a commitment to seeing the Alpha Upsilon Chapter continue to thrive and to assuring that the Chapter House is and continues to be a place of which we can all be proud.

The alumni Board is always interested in having other ATO alumni become new Board members or help with specific projects. If any alumni are interested in helping out or becoming  Board members, or know someone who is, please contact any current Board member.

We encourage all ATO alumni to come visit the renovated Chapter House whenever you visit the College. Even though sprinklers and other life safety features have been added, the original look and character of the house have been maintained. The current actives are very pleased with their newly renovated house, and we are all proud of our actives.