Alpha Tau Omega Receives Award of Distinction
Pictured are Burke Miller, ATO member from Maryland; Wynn Smiley, CEO of Alpha Tau Omega National Fraternity; Alex Knight, president of Baylor's Theta Nu chapter of ATO
by Jodi Cunningham, student newswriter, (254) 710-1961
Baylor University's Theta Nu chapter of Alpha Tau Omega received the North-American Interfraternity Council's Award of Distinction for an individual fraternity on April 16 at a national awards ceremony.
The award ceremony took place at the Crystal City Hilton in Washington, D.C. Many prominent Congress members attended the ceremony, along with keynote speaker Wolf Blitzer.
The NIC Award of Distinction is given annually for an outstanding undergraduate fraternity member, fraternity chapter, interfraternity council, fraternity community, and alumnus who make a difference for fraternities and advance the ideals of fraternity in their daily lives.
National fraternities that are a part of the NIC nominate their top chapters for the award.
The NIC describes the ideal recipient of the fraternity award as a group that "cares about the greater good, is motivated by the success of others, identifies the needs of the community and works to meet those needs, lives the ritual of the fraternity at all times, holds others accountable to the standards of the group, has excellence in scholarship, provides ethical leadership for the community, values service to and for others, represents the diversity of their campus, stands firm in the face of adversity; provides assistance to others before being asked, is cutting edge and different from the rest and carries the flag of interfraternal spirit."
"The NIC Award of Distinction is arguably the most prominent award given to a local chapter of a national fraternity," said Preston Edwards, member of ATO and president of the Baylor Interfraternity Council. "To be nominated by your national fraternity for the award is an honor in itself, and to actually receive the award after such heavy scrutinizing and deliberation during the selection process is truly telling about the caliber of Baylor ATO and greek life in general here at Baylor University."
The NIC is comprised of 68 member organizations with 5,500 chapters across 800 campuses in the United States and Canada. According to the NIC web site, the NIC "serves to advocate the needs of its fraternity members through enrichment of the fraternity experience, advancement and growth of the fraternity community and enhancement of the educational mission of the host institutions."