Pi-Eta At Texas A&M Earns Their Charter

After a nearly two-year process, the Pi-Eta chapter at Texas A&M University earned their charter last Sunday. With 73 active members and support from countless amounts of Alumni, becoming an official chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon was hard work for this group.

“I was overwhelmed with a sense of accomplishment. Everything that I had been through, all the frustration, all the drama, all the sacrifices, and all the time I had put in finally paid off. Everything I had worked towards finally came to fruition. That moment made everything worth it,” Joey Bowen, Prytanis of the Pi-Eta chapter said.

Growing up, Joey was neighbors with Tom Zais, former Prytanis of the Pi-Eta chapter. Tom always mentioned to him the possibility of restarting the TKE chapter at Texas A&M someday.

“I believe I was 14 years old the first time he mentioned it to me. Over time I learned more about the fraternity and got to meet several alumni and decided to take him up on his offer right before the spring semester of my freshman year,” Bowen said.

And so, Joey got started with the process of bringing TKE back to Texas A&M. But, the process was not a smooth one.

In October 2015, the group petitioned to become an IFC member on campus and were denied. But, that only fueled their fire to achieve greater success.

“Admittedly, the process was very frustrating and testing at times. However, all the setbacks and struggles taught us a lot about ourselves and made us stronger as a group. There was a lot of waiting at times, but we used that time wisely and continued to grow in number so we would be prepared when our time finally did come,” Bowen said.

The chapter did grow substantially in the last two years. With a current size of 73 men, Pi-Eta has huge goals for the future. Goals that include a chapter size of more than 100 high quality men, earning the top GPA on campus like they did last semester, and earning elite awards amongst the rest of TKE Nation.

Cory Martin, Director of Fraternal Services, helped the chapter with their first candidate class and logistics of their chartering. He envisions these goals as being within reach for Pi-Eta.

“This chapter can be a consistent top TKE chapter in the future. They have consistently recruited and added new men every few weeks, rather than only having one big recruitment week. it’s been tremendous to watch them grow into a group of outstanding men. It is honestly rare to find a chapter where every single person is a quality individual who could lead the group,” Martin said.

At the chapter's chartering ceremony, Tom, the man responsible for encouraging Joey to become a Teke, was present to witness this historic event for the Pi-Eta chapter.

“It was a very special moment. I owe a lot to that man and I’ll never forget that moment I shared with him,” Bowen said.