President’s Letter
Texas Pikes Start the New School Year Strong
Texas Pikes are well underway in the fall 2024 semester and look forward to another outstanding year of brotherhood and service on the UT Austin campus in this, Beta Mu’s 104th year in Austin.
The chapter is continuing to enjoy the new fraternity house, now in its fourth year of occupancy and they look forward to welcoming alumni back for the annual Beta Mu Legends Alumni Awards and tailgate at the Pike House on November 23, 2024 during the Texas vs. Kentucky game.
Beta Mu enthusiastically welcomes 26 fall new members who join 85 active members. The fall social calendar includes tailgates during football season, Parents Weekend, our Red River Rivalry trip to Dallas for Texas vs OU, SWAMP Party, formals, and several philanthropic projects.
In August 2024, Beta Mu’s accomplishments as a chapter were recognized at Pike’s International Convention in Oklahoma City. The chapter received the Scholarship Cup, Phi Phi KA Award (for 100 percent of membership supporting the Pike Foundation), and the 100 Man Chapter Award. The Beta Mu Alumni Association was recognized with the William Nester Award, conferred on the highest performing alumni associations.
Academics are strong, too. The most recent UT Austin grade reports from the spring 2024 semester show Pike actives averaged a 3.42 GPA, with our fall 2023 new member class carding an impressive 3.55 GPA average. More than one-third of the men hold a GPA of 3.75 or higher.
Pikes volunteered many hours tutoring at elementary schools, serving animal shelters, and participating in Texas’ Greek Day of Service last year, and the Philanthropy Committee plans for another strong year. Last year Pike philanthropy initiatives raised over $10,000 for Dell Children’s Hospital through the Texas Thon Pancake Night partnership, and more than $5,000 raised for a men’s mental health charity at our Texas Throwdown PIKE/Texas Darlins basketball tournament.
2024 – 2025 Officers
Jacob Sedlacek (PC '22)
President
Business Analytics
Round Rock, TX
Brody Pribyl (PC '22)
Finance
Chicago, IL
Tad Latawiec (PC '21)
CBHP + Finance
Houston, TX
Connor Crowe (PC '22)
Finance
Chicago, IL
Mingrui Qian (PC '22)
Treasurers
Finance
Houston, TX
Hudson Lembcke (PC '22)
Chemical Engineering
Houston, TX
Zach Schaefer (PC '22)
Civil Engineering
Laredo, TX
Conner Escobar (PC '22)
Radio-Television-Film
Coppell, TX
Dylan Hauglid (PC '23)
Economics
Frisco, TX
Ryan Hopper (PC '22)
Risk Manager
Journalism
Alexandria, VA
GP Cortez (PC '23)
House Manager
Corporate Communications
San Antonio, TX
Bryan Jung (PC '24)
Biology
Fort Worth, TX
Beta Mu Heritage – 100+ Years of Excellence at U.T.
We have experienced years of tradition as a social fraternity engaging in leadership activities and athletics while stressing academic achievement. As with other clubs and membership organizations in a large university setting, being a part of Pike enhances the undergraduate experience while building lifelong friendships.
- Beta Mu Chapter, University of Texas was founded in 1920: we marked our Centennial presence at Texas by opening a new Chapter House in August 2020 on the site of the previous longtime House.
- The Pike International Fraternity has 240 Chapters with more than 280,000 Members initiated.
- Beta Mu Chapter has initiated almost 3,000 Members since its founding, making it the 6th largest Chapter in all Pi Kappa Alpha in terms of total initiates.
- Beta Mu Chapter has 125 Active Members.
- Beta Mu is also the 8th largest active undergraduate Pike Chapter today based on 2020 membership.
Beta Mu Chapter supports a number of philanthropies including Dell Children’s Hospital, the Boy Scouts and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, amongst others.
The 1920 U.T. Cactus, Year of Beta Mu’s Founding
Beta Mu Members in 1934 at the Chapter House, 2504 Rio Grande.
In December of 1919, eight University of Texas students, all members of Pi Kappa Alpha from other colleges, formed the Pi K A Club in order to work in unison towards procuring a charter for a chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha at the University of Texas at Austin.
Petition was formally made to the Grand Council and the charter was quickly granted. George B. Marsh, the Regional Pike Vice President, presided over the installation ceremony, and Beta Mu was formally ushered in on March 20, 1920, the following men comprising the charter membership: Howard Corbett Buckly, Ruben Washington Gray, Bertram Hedick, Caradine Ray Hooton, Frank H. Lancaster, John L. McCollough, D.H. Meek, H. Bascom Thomas, Jr.
At the time of the chartering of Beta Mu in 1920, two University of Texas faculty members, who were alums of Pi Kappa Alpha, served as early Chapter Advisors: Dr. Leonidas Warren Payne, Jr. (Upsilon, Auburn), Professor of English, and L. Theo Bellmont (Zeta, Tennessee), Director of Athletics.
Dr. Payne was an English professor at the University of Texas from 1906-1943. He was a prolific writer and a personal friend of the poets Robert Frost and Carl Sandburg. As a professor, he mentored the esteemed Texas writer J. Frank Dobie. Brother Payne’s son, Bledsoe Payne, would become Beta Mu’s first pledge and, along with two other pledges, was initiated in May 1920.
- Theo Bellmont was a professor of Health and Education and became UT’s first Director of Athletics in 1913. He started the Cotton Bowl game with Oklahoma University, organized the Southwest Conference in 1915, was the visionary for the Texas Relays and he organized the funding for Memorial Stadium in 1923. He served as Director of Athletics from 1913-1929 and continued to serve on the UT Faculty in the College of Arts & Sciences until 1952. Bellmont Hall was named in his honor in 1973.
Founded just after the conclusion of World War I, Beta Mu Chapter has continuously endured through the Great Depression of the 1930s and through World War II and the 1940s. The fraternity grew in the 1950s. The 1960s and 70s were a tumultuous time in the nation’s history but the culture of Beta Mu persevered and thrived. Beta Mu is celebrating its 102nd year at UT in 2022. With new, committed members and loyal alumni she will remain forever strong.
Texas Pikes Philanthropy
Volunteerism, philanthropy and community service are important values to Pi Kappa Alpha. Each pledge class has volunteer hour goals, and the entire chapter endeavors to raise money throughout the year for meaningful charities and causes.
Volunteer Man Hours: 2,000
Raised: $20,000.00
The pandemic in 2021 made philanthropy events more challenging but Pikes did support the Central Texas Food Bank with a canned food drive and we were pleased to partner with Texas Interfraternity Council in hosting two blood drive collections for central Texas blood bank We Are Blood. The Pike House was also an official UT Healthy Horns COVID-19 Proactive Community Testing site for neighboring students and faculty throughout most of spring 2021.
In 2020 we held a canned food drive benefitting the UT’s Outpost student food pantry; supported the Texas Exes’ neighborhood empowerment service day “The Project,” restoring a Baptist Church in a blighted Austin neighborhood; and, we delivered lunch as a gesture of thanks to the UT Austin Police Department during the spring Covid-19 incident.
In recent years our community service has also supported these organizations: A E Phi/ZBT’s childhood cancer research basketball tourney; Austin Firefighters Foundation; Autism Speaks; The B+Positive Foundation; Boy Scouts of America Charity Skeet Shoot staffing roles; Dell Children’s Cancer Center – Texas Thon Pancake Suppers and Dance Contest; Movember men’s cancer research initiative; SafePlace; Sharing America’s Marrow leukemia/bone marrow match; Sigma Chi Fight Night; assisting in set up and break down of the state’s largest charity garage sale for The Settlement Home of Austin; an evening profit dedicated to Pike’s Trudeau Cycle for Life Cancer Research by Chipotle; and, Zeta Tau Alpha Sorority’s Pink Ribbon Campaign for Breast Cancer Awareness.