Zeta Tau Alpha

This month, DTF will be reviewing the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority. More specifically, DTF will use the Eta Phi chapter as the basis of this review. Before anything else, Down To Frat reminds the readers that this review is based on a subjective perspective. This perspective comes from observation and direct experience in dealing with this sorority. Since this review is only an opinion, please know that DTF will only cover certain characteristics of the sorority. If there are any questions, don't hesitate to send it to downtofrat@gmail.com.

Zeta Tau Alpha, whose headquarters is located in Indianapolis, Indiana, was founded on October 15, 1898. Compared to most student organizations, Zeta Tau Alpha, or otherwise known as the "Zetas," has a rich history full of traditions. With that being said, DTF will focus this review on relative information pertaining to the present structure and culture of the Zetas. If you would like more information regarding this history of this sorority, please visit Sorority Life Info.

In Illinois State University, Zeta Tau Alpha, Eta Phi chapter, is considered to be one of the "top" sororities on campus. Depending on who you ask, the Zetas are one group of girls that demand the attention and respect of the Greek community. The Zetas use the logo of a crown that symbolizes their status in the Greek community's hierarchy, social structure. In Illinois State University, the Zetas use the slogan, "Only the best wear the crown," to promote their influence on campus.

From a male perspective, the Zeta Tau Alpha is one of the best looking group of girls on campus. The majority of the girls in the sorority is in shape and possesses a great personality. In fact, usually in the afternoon, you can find a lot of the Zetas in gyms like the school's recreation center, YMCA, and Gold's Gym. If you would like more information on how to build a perfect body, DTF recommends Easy Workout. In addition, it is rare to see any of the Zetas in fast food chain restaurants such as McDonald's or Wendy's. They usually cook their own food so that they can facilitate their calorie and fat intake in their meals. If you would like more information on how to prepare delicious, healthy meals, please visit College Cookin. In regards to Zeta Tau Alpha - Eta Phi's overall personality, these girls posses a light-hearted attitude and high self-confidence. Compared to most sororities, the Zetas are considerate and hold a great sense of humor. However, these girls can be considered "high maintenance." The majority of the Zetas demand a lot of attention. A minor flaw to an overall great sorority.

In Illinois State University, Zeta Tau Alpha's primary philanthropy is called "Foxy Lady." Foxy Lady is a beauty pageant among college women. Each contestant represents a sorority or student organization for which they are a member in. This event is usually held inside the Bone Student Center. Foxy Lady is one of the biggest philanthropies in the Greek community. It is an event that most of the members in the Greek community participate in. In fact, the philanthropy’s location is usually filled by the time the event starts.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is this site?

Down To Frat, or otherwise known as DTF, is a site dedicated to improve the quality of social events within the Greek community one party at a time. Its unique selling position is that DTF is "For Greeks, By Greeks." In other words, DTF is ran by people who have experience in being a member of the Greek community. With this expertise, DTF is able to educate and provide useful and relevant information to fraternities and sororities that will enable these student organizations to experience creative and fun social functions that will only enrich their social lives. In addition to giving insight into planning and implementing a successful party, DTF also offers the latest news in connection to the Greek community, history background on fraternities and sororities, and other information regarding topics concerning the Greek community's social life.

Who is this site for?

Down To Frat targets potential, current and past members of the Greek community. DTF is beneficial to basically everyone but most especially to the people in charge of their fraternity or sorority's social calendar. These people usually hold the title of social chairman. Since DTF offers ideas on unique exchange themes and the necessary information to plan big social functions such as barndance, a social chairman saves time and resources in gathering information for their purpose. Instead, through DTF, a social chairman is able to focus his or her time in organizing his or her fraternity or sorority to be ready for a social function. However, DTF isn't only for current members of the Greek community.

DTF realizes that there are college students that are undecided on whether to join the Greek community. Due to this, DTF also offers valuable insight into the life of a fraternity brother or sister in the Greek community. Down To Frat provides information on what to expect during rush period and pledgeship into fraternities and sororities. DTF does this because it is important that people need to know all of the facts before committing to a fraternity or sorority. Since each fraternity and sorority are different, it is important to figure out which Greek organization fits an undecided person the best.

Is joining a fraternity or sorority in my best interest?

The answer to this question varies from one individual to another. If you don't prioritize your social life then joining a fraternity or sorority is probably not the best idea for you. If you hate being surrounded by alcohol and cigarettes then it is not in your best interest to join the Greek community. If you don't like people then definitely don't join a fraternity or sorority. However, if you have time management skills and you are interested in meeting new people then you should look into joining a fraternity or sorority. More importantly, if you would like to add another dimension to your college career, then the Greek community is an option for you. Being in a fraternity or sorority adds another aspect to your stay in college. Through challenges and temptations, you will learn what type of person you are. At the same time, you will more than likely meet the best friends you will ever have in a fraternity or sorority. This is because you will be spending a lot of time with your fraternity brothers and sorority sisters.

BAR REVIEWS: Normal, IL

One of the most interesting and fun aspects of college life is the bars. Since most students don't turn 21, the minimum legal age allowed to consume alcoholic beverages, until they reach college, they tend to go on a binge to make up for the lost time not being able to socialize in a bar setting. The bars are more evident and important especially to those belonging in a fraternity or sorority. In order to help our fellow fraternity brothers and sorority sisters, DTF will be reviewing different bars every week. For this week, we will be reviewing a couple of the bars in uptown Normal. The bars in uptown Normal include the Pub II, NV Ultra Lounge, Brew-Ha's, and Maggie Miley's Irish Pub.

Out of all of the bars in uptown Normal, the Pub II is arguably the most popular and known to host the best deals. If you are a beer drinker, the Pub II offers $3.50 pitchers on Mondays and $4.00 pitchers on Wednesdays. In these two days, the Pub II is usually packed. If you would like to have a table, it is suggested that you plan to go to the Pub II as early as 7 p.m. Besides the great drink specials, the Pub II has the best atmosphere out of all of the uptown Normal bars. If you are interested in any sports game, this is the place to go. They have several flat screen televisions and a couple of projectors to highlight Chicago sports teams. They also have the best beer garden out of any of the bars in uptown Normal. It is huge and at times, they have bands playing music for their customers' entertainment. However, the main downside to the Pub II is that their beer is usually flat or old. For example, if you order a pitcher of Bud Light, it will taste old, flat, and worst of all, it will taste like Keystone Light. Actually, the Bud Light or Miller Lite they offer that is not in a bottle or can taste like Keystone Light or worse.

If you are looking for a more subtle kind of atmosphere, Maggie Miley's Irish Pub is the way to go. Unlike the Pub II, Maggie Miley's Irish Pub cannot be classified as a sports bar. Instead, it is the bar you would go to if you are either interested in hard liquor or mix drinks. In fact, this bar is probably the best bar you can go to if you are in a date, which is hard to say about most of the bars in uptown Normal. Similar to the Pub II, they have amazing drink specials. One of the best days to go there is during "Whiskey Wednesdays." During Wednesdays, they offer all call-it whiskey for only $3.00 per drink. This means that you purchase any kind of mix whiskey special for only $3.00 per drink. And unlike the Pub II, Maggie Miley's Irish Pub does not offer old or flat beer.

The Pub II and Maggie Miley's Irish Pub are the main highlights in the uptown Normal area. Other bars such as NV Ultra Lounge or Brewe-Ha's are okay. NV Ultra Lounge also offers great drink specials but more than half of their customers are people over the age of 30. If you don't mind hanging out with some old folks then this place isn't too bad. In regards to Brewe-Ha's, they are very similar to the Pub II without the great beer garden and atmosphere. This place is only a substitute if the Pub II is too crowded since this bar hosts the worst music selection of all the bars in uptown Normal. If you like heavy metal, screaming music then this bar is for you. But if you plan on talking to your friends at all then you can forget about it because unless you have a painfully loud voice, the obnoxious music selection will deafen you to death. In regards to bars that anyone needs to avoid at all cost, the list includes Lunker's and Foul Shots. Even though Foul Shots isn't in the uptown Normal area, it is important to educate everybody that this bar is horrible. Foul Shots is the bar you go to if you are not over 21 years old. If you are over 21 years old, then you have better places to go to. Foul Shots is basically two trailer homes glued together. Its beer garden is terrible and it doesn't offer any form of customer service. It will take you about an hour to get a drink. Foul Shots make Lunker's look like it was in the same level as the Pub II or Maggie Miley's Irish Pub. This doesn't mean Lunker's is a great bar though. Lunker's is the least popular place to go to in the uptown Normal area. Similar to NV Ultra Lounge, it has a great amount of customers over the age of 30 in its customer base. They are more known for the fish sandwiches. Its atmosphere doesn't support what most college students look for. Since Lunker's markets a type of fishing background, its setting is decorated with random fishing-related items.

Security

One of the main problems in running an event is security. In an event, there are several things that can go wrong. They range from a fight to vandalism of the event location. It can also include having one of your fraternity brother or sorority sister harmed by physical assault. For example, in Illinois State University, there have been several occurrences a member of a fraternity is physically assaulted. In the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity house, a fraternity brother was assaulted by 5 men carrying socks full of rocks. In the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity house, a number of fraternity brothers were injured, one of which was hit with a handle of rum. These events have several negative consequences that affect the victim, fraternity, sorority, the Greek community, and the university. For the victim, he or she would more than likely miss some time to recover physically, mentally, and emotionally. With the missed time, the victim will be behind in his or her classes. For the fraternity or sorority, it will loss its brother or sister for duration of time. In addition, it is probable that the fraternity will be penalized by the university due to the incident. The penalty ranges from a nominal fine, social probation or expulsion from the university. A fraternity or sorority usually has the finances to cover the cost of the fine. However, a social probation or expulsion holds severe consequences to the future of the student organization. If a fraternity is in social probation then it is not allowed to hold any social functions. For the university, the town and community it resides in will lose its trust on the credibility of the school. In addition, the university's image will be tainted which will negatively affect future potential students' decision on whether joining the school or not. These are only some of the consequences in failing to implement proper security measures in a social function.

In order to successfully implement security for a social event, the social chairman needs to cover all of his or her bases. First, it is important to know how to handle the "traffic" of people coming in to attend the party. The social chairman needs to know what entrances and exits to use in the location. It is advisable to avoid using entrances and exits that can be seen from a street. It is best to use a back door to funnel the guests in the location. This is to avoid attracting attention from the police. If the location's front yard has 40 people standing on it, the police will start being suspicious of the event. This is important because there is no better way to stop a party than cops showing up to it asking questions. Second, the social chairman needs to know whether it is a good decision to hire security guards. Hiring security guards will guarantee that there will be people in the social function that are sober. In addition, party guests are less likely to do something destructive if they see that the fraternity or sorority is serious about security especially when they hire guards. However, security guards are not cheap. They usually range from $100 to $300 per hour per guard. The cost is definitely something a fraternity or sorority should decide whether the social event is worth the investment. Third, it is preferable that the social event has uses the "list" method. The list method is when the fraternity or sorority creates a list of people that are allowed to attend the social function. From a fraternity's perspective, the list method allows all of its brothers and women into the event. It usually only holds the name of men who are nonmembers of the fraternity. Through this method, there is less probability that a fight will occur since all of the men are acquainted with each other.

Event Planning

In order to have a successful social event, the social chairman must have a plan that fulfills all of the necessary requirements in running an effective party. The biggest mistake a social chairman can make is to underestimate how much time and effort it takes to run a social event. Most college students have the perception that it is cool to organize and run a party. In addition, the perception also includes the myth that there is barely any work in planning an event. This perception cost many fraternities and sororities to waste their money on poorly-ran parties. For example, a social chairman is responsible for setting up an exchange with a sorority every Thursday. Each exchange cost a fraternity between $100 to $400. The cost consist of designing the location to the theme of the exchange and food and beverage expenses. If the social chairman forgets to purchase cups for the kegs then it is probable that the kegs will only go to waste. At first, this may seem insignificant but I have personally experienced what it was like to forget cups in a keg event. Everyone was miserable because we couldn't comfortably drink from the keg. If there were cups, the event would have been more fun.

In order to have a successful social year, the social chairman must plan out his or her social calendar before that start of his or her term. For example, if person A is going to be the social chairman for the fall semester then he or she needs to organize all of the fall events before the start of the semester. If a fraternity usually have an exchange once a week then the social chairman needs to set up all of the events prior to the start of the semester. Each exchange must be finalized by getting an agreement from the social chairman of each sorority the fraternity wishes to have the event with. In the case of more prestigous events such as barndance, the social chairman needs to begin planning for it months ahead of time. Big events such as barndances require several weeks to finalize because the social chairman is likely directly dealing with the owners of the barn. In this relationship, it is normal for the barn owner to take several days before responding to an inquiry of availability of his or her barn. The social chairman must recognize and plan for this probability. In addition to dealing with the barn owners, the social chairman will need to make arrangements with bus companies to transport the fraternity and its dates to the barn location. Usually, the bus companies are more difficult to deal with because they don't trust the Greek community. Most bus companies have had a negative experience in dealing with fraternities and sororities. With this in mind, the social chairman must make amends and promises that his or her fraternity or sorority will not take advantage of the hospitality of the bus companies. It is important to gain the trust of bus companies because they are necessary to have in order to run a successful barndance. Plus, it is likely that the social chairman will only find one bus company that agrees to take on the relationship. Due to this reason, it is in the best interest of the social chairman to maintain and give importance to his or her relationship with the bus companies.

About Us

Down To Frat, or otherwise known as DTF, was created by person who has great amounts of experience in the social aspect of a university's Greek community. Through several mistakes, the creator learned which method works and which ones doesn't. In order to help the Greek community, he has set up DTF to aid those looking for a helping hand to create and implement a fraternity's or sorority's social calendar.

DTF is an online resource that holds important information in improving the quality of social events within a university's Greek community. Primarily, all of the ideas and content found in DTF focus on the several aspects in the planning and implementation of these events. Furthermore, DTF primarily targets the active members of a university's Greek community. More specifically, DTF targets the people in fraternities and sororities that are responsible in planning and implementation of social events such as parties, afterhours, exchanges, barndances, informal and formal dances. These people usually hold the title of social chairman.

In the site, Down To Frat offers to give out suggestions on how to properly and effectively plan and implement an event. In addition, DTF will highlight specific problems that may come up in a social event. For example, in a fraternity's house party, there is the high probability that the cops will arrive for various reasons. In the event that the cops come, DTF will offer methods to help deal with the police.

In addition to giving out suggestions on how to effectively run a social event, DTF provides key information that relate to planning huge events such as barndance, informal and formal dances. Since these events require more time and effort to plan, DTF will provide information on the best locations to rent for these events. For example, in barndance, a social chairman faces his or her greatest difficult in finding a barn that perfectly fits the needs of his or her fraternity or sorority. DTF provides contact information for barnds so that social chairmans do not waste several days in researching available barns in his or her area.

Down To Frat also creates and publishes Greek designs for the use of a fraternity and sorority to place on the clothing of their choice. For example, during a fraternity's rush period, rush clothing is necessary to promote the fraternity in campus. DTF offers several clever and smart designs that will surely attract the attention of potential, new members in a university's campus.

In addition to the available designs, DTF also gives hindsight into a fraternity or sorority's background history. Down To Frat believes that it is important to educate the members of the Greek community of the deep and rich history of each fraternity and sorority. It is also an invaluable and nonbias resource for those people trying to decide which fraternity or sorority to join.

In the end, Down To Frat's primary purpose is to improve the quality of social events within the Greek community one party at a time. DTF believes that the social aspect plays an important role in a fraternity and sorority because that is the main reason why people join the Greek community in the first place. When it all comes down to it, Down To Frat is "For Greeks, By Greeks."