'Beta Phi Breaking Up Is Hard To Do Whoever said "breaking up is hard to do" must have had Beta Phi in mind. The club members gathered in January to decide the fate of the three-decade-old social club. Club president Denny Hickerson, a senior accounting major from Ravenna, Ohio, said the club had been having great difficulty recruiting pledges for three years straight. He explained, "The decline in pledges and the inevitable graduation of existing members have both been factors in the demise of small clubs at Harding." Bruce Richardson, a senior management major from Lascasses, Tenn., felt that the formation of new clubs was one of the main reasons Beta Phi was unable to gamer new men:ibers. 'Tm not against forming new clubs," he said. "There are some great guys in the new clubs. It just hurts to see people choose a new club when they can join ours and help make it what they want it to be." ~eta Phi was able to capture five new pledges last fall, boosting membership to a meager 14. The club, however, lost several members as the year progressed. "We were constantly worried about fielding athletic teams, " Richardson said. " We were lucky to participate at all." Despite the low recruiting numbers and the four to five members who graduated in May and August, the other four or five returning members decided to give Beta Phi one more year. Only time will tell.+ - Kevin L. Kee RIDE'EM COWBOY. Beta Phi member Chris Barker enjoys a ride at McDonald 's playground. Each member always seemed to appreciate the little things of life. BETA PHI. 1st row (I to r): Tim Shauver, John Spivey, ~ Denny Hickerson, Mark Thiesen. 2nd row: Bruce Richard- ~ son, Chad Vansteenberg, Beth Darnell, Mark Vaughn, ~ Joel Rummage, Stacy Beck, and Jeff Smith. ~ Q (JI ?' 98 SOCIAL CLUBS DfPAITlfeNI' Of IBIAVIOIAL safNCfS
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