Good outweighs bad in Greek system, says new head of Sigma Phi EpsilonWhen Archer L. Yeatts III wears his Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity pin, he's on fraternity business and not presiding as a judge of Henrico County General District Court.
"I do not wear it under the robe," Yeatts said, smiling.
The pin -- it's not the modern one Sig Ep brothers wear -- is the badge Yeatts wears as the recently elected grand president of Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity. It is modeled after the original pin commissioned when the fraternity was founded at the University of Richmond in 1901.
[...]
Yeatts, 63, pledged Sig Ep during his undergraduate days at UR in the early 1960s. He was elected grand president Aug. 13 at the national fraternity's biennial convention in Nashville, Tenn.
He has been active in his fraternity since college, including as a volunteer member of the alumni board that owns title to the Sig Ep fraternity house at UR.
And for more than half his career practicing law, he was the national fraternity's lawyer. "I was legal counsel for 15 years," Yeatts said. "The fraternity was my client."
Yeatts said his job as grand president is best described as chairman of the board that sets policy. "I am not the chief executive officer of the fraternity. That is Craig Templeton's position," he said.
Craig D. Templeton is executive director of Sigma Phi Epsilon. He said the 11 members of the board, including the grand president, are nominated and elected by undergraduate members every two years at the annual convention.
Three of the 11 are undergraduates. "The others are brothers who are corporate leaders," Templeton said.
Yeatts wants each campus chapter to look "for the kind of man that we want" when it comes to new members. He said that means looking for good academics, a sound mind in a sound body, and a man "who has some moral fiber to him."
[...]
Yeatts said another thing he will focus on as grand president will be to "help to get alumni reinvolved and reconnected with the fraternity" as volunteers, on alumni boards or in other ways.
On many campuses, he said, alumni boards are taking a greater part in managing the affairs of the chapters than just owning the real estate. "The better chapters are the ones that seem to have alumni [who] give direction to the local," he said.
Thanks to "a source high in the HQ administration" for the notice.
