Last week, the Office of Student Activities announced Kappa Sigma Fraternity was the winner of the Student Organization of the Month Dragon Pride Award.  In the post online, there was a description that seems to come from someone within Kappa Sigma and it seems to come from their nomination form:

“We work so hard for this school, community, and for our own benefit as well. We always strive to be the best and put out best foot forward. [sic] Being recognized would definitely raise the morale of the members, my brothers, and would make us strive to do more and bring more to campus, and the community as a whole. We are here to stay, and having the campus’s support and being organization of the month is a small step into ensuring that happens.”

This is absolutely ridiculous.  First of all, this comes off as though they are asking to be granted an award to raise morale among their members.  They don’t even make any claim that they did anything worthwhile to deserve it.  They sound like they’re asking to be given an award to encourage them to do something worthwhile.  I don’t think that’s the kind of pride this award was meant to represent.

Secondly, one of the Four Pillars of Kappa Sigma is Service.  The organization is founded on the idea that helping others should be standard behavior, so even if Kappa Sigma did some kind of service to merit this award, should they really be awarded for simply meeting the standards they set for themselves?

On Kappa Sigma’s Facebook page, the only posts that show proof of campus or community involvement in February are two Kappa Sigma members getting nominated to Snow Court, and there are two pictures of four members sweeping at a Habitat for Humanity ReStore.  Both of those things are great, but neither seems exceptional enough to warrant a special award.

Thirdly, I don’t want to sound like an internet troll, but to say “we strive to…put OUT best foot forward,” makes it seem like their version of being “the best” doesn’t include proofreading.  Maybe that was a mistake made by whoever did the press release.

What concerns me the most is not the arrogance and entitlement that says “Recognize our organization so we can feel good about ourselves.”  What concerns me is the fact that someone paid by this university thought it was a good idea to publicly reward that behavior.

Someone thought it was a good idea to publish Kappa Sigma’s plea for an award without even attempting to make it look like their award was justified.

The Comstock Memorial Union commented on Kappa Sigma’s award on Facebook, calling them “A fine group of gentlemen who are most deserving!”

I don’t understand why anyone would think that this represents our university in a positive way.

(This person chose to be anonymous)