King's Men est. 1973: Row 1: D. Henkel, S. Emerson, J. Fields, A. Ortiz, B. Liddle. Row 2: C. Suppes, L. Bradley, K. Kremer. Row 3: D. Cancienne, Z. Stephenson. Row 4: J. Griffith, C. McDonald, D. Kimmel, J. Martinez, J. Metheny, C. Whittington. Knights est.1969: Row 1: H. Bohnet!, J. Davis, E. Owens, M. Wilkerson, S. lvey, S. Lawson, K. Robison. Row 2: B. Ormsby, W. Means, Z. Hailey, J. Crider, C. LaFerney, D. Wilson, W. Nessler, G. Ragin, B. Waites. Row 3: C. Burkhead, K. Goings, J. Klotz, B. Taylor, M. Canterbury, C. Romero, P. Tribbie, K. Johnson, J. Fay, T. Webb. Row 4: J. Stewart, S. Elander, J. Wells, D. Pencarinha, S. Wolters, C. Warren. Row 5: T. Miles, Z. Hanna, S. Chang, N. Dickerson, J. Reed, R. Zhang, D. Jackson. Row 6: T. Nguyen, K. Phillips, A. Dell, K. Graham, J. Dority, C. Stumne. Row 7: W. Reno, C. Tomberlin, T. Smith, B. Hemphill, P. Hurst, C. McDonald, P. Weeks, A. Mauldin, Z. Gill, K. Pugh, A. Metts, J. Pratt, D. Mala, P. Felix. Row 8: B. Ashford, T. Sharp, D. Monaghan, T. Tipton, E. Adkisson, B. Cain, L. Hoffman, Z. Jones, R. Jane, B. Clark, T. Fonville, J. Knight, S. Beck, T. Crowe, H. Waldron, D. Crouch, B. Smith, M. Michael, J. Owens, M. Erwin, J. Baker, J. Dryden. Row 9: D. West, N. Green, A. Sharp, B. Grant, K. Betts, K. Bolivar, P. Parsons, J. Gentry, R Belew, E. Hildebrand, D. Pieper, C Craig, C. Williams, P. Houston. HELP ASISTER OUT "Iota Chi Pledge Class of 2012" Facebook page unites "sisters" across the world What began as a Facebook page for the Iota Chi pledge class became an epidemic that grew to more than 50,000 members in less than a week. Students who were not members of the club gained access to the page and invited all of their friends. The number of group members exploded overnight. "[Feelings] were kind of mixed," Iota Chi member sophomoreAntasia Lewis said. "Initially, I was mad anyways because I thought that everyone was just making fun of us. We did not really know what to do in the situation because this has never really happened before." Junior Jared Dryden, a member of Knights, was one of the first people to be added to the group. He said after the club reached more than 5,000 members that first night, he and a few of his friends in Knights decided to make a rap music video called IX (Til I Die). The video mentioned the creation and expansion of the group, as well as the importance of unity. Sophomore Nick Ray said the video "totally represents the pink and black sisterhood." According to Dryden, who was an administrator of the page, Iota Chi club members decided to use the page for a good cause. They realized that what began as a prank could be used for a good cause because so many people could be reached. Iota Chi member senior Autumn Dixon texted Dryden and told him about senior Meagan Burkhead, a club member who had recently won a battle with breast cancer. She told him about buttons the club would be selling to raise money for Burkhead at the upcoming tailgate and 64 I Social Clubs wanted him to get the word out on the page. "When that post happened, I think everyone just kind of sat there for a second; we can actually do something with this," Dryden said. "After that one post, people not from Harding started messaging or commenting 'How can we get one? Even if we don't get a button, can we send money?"' After the word was out about Burkhead, fundraising ideas sprung up all over the page. Dryden and his friends made another video and posted it on a website where people could make donations. Another man who did not attend Harding, Jay Brownlow, had the idea to create Iota Chi T-shirts to sell for the cause. More than 500 people purchased the T-shirts, raising more than $1,500 for Burkhead. Freshman Danny Jackson said he requested to be in the group after he watched the rap video. He had heard about the page, but knowing that the page was about more than a club caused him to request to join the group. Dryden believed that the Iota Chi Facebook page would be a catalyst for the growth of the club. Because more people knew about it, more would want to join the actual "sisterhood." The Facebook page of the 2012 Iota Chi pledge class represented Iota Chi, but it came to represent more than that. It represented the power of unity and the power of communication. Though it was initially a joke, the page unified 50,000 people, causing many of them to join a cause beyond the Facebook page. Jordan Honeycutt
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