Res Gestae continued

Delta Chi (St. Olaf College): This year Delta Chi has co-sponsored two guest lectures, the first on October 24 by Professor Christopher Faraone (from the University of Chicago) on "Female Stereotypes in Aristophanes’ Lysistrata"; the second on February 27 by Professor Daniel M. Hooley (from the University of Missouri-Columbia) on "Dryden’s Original Sin: Misreading Classical Satire." 

In December Delta Chi members participated in St. Olaf’s traditional Latin, Greek, and German Christmas caroling. Sixteen Delta Chi chapter members were among the nineteen Classics students who celebrated the Ides of March by performing Plautus’ Rudens at St. Olaf and five other nearby schools and colleges (March 13-15). The annual end-of-the-year Bacchanalia (picnic supper) for members of Delta Chi will take place in May. 

The chapter has held several dinner meetings, including one around the time of Halloween, at which participants sampled

 an ancient barley concoction supposed to guarantee immortality. A new Classics T-shirt is in the works. Recently a Friday-morning breakfast with conversation all in Latin (ientaculum Latinum) was instituted. 

On March 6 seventeen students and one honorary member (Prof. Christopher Brunelle) were initiated, boosting the student membership of Delta Chi to forty- five. One of the new initiates, Esther Lee ’03, represented the chapter at the national convention in Norman, Oklahoma. 

Epsilon Omicron (University of Massachusetts): The Epsilon Omicron chapter of Eta Sigma Phi has had an extremely productive year. We have increased our membership drastically and  over-all participation has been very enthusiastic. 

Headed by a dedicated faculty advisor, Dr. Teresa Ramsby, and a passionate group of officers, we have been able to accomplish a great deal. 

We have held three members’ meeting per semester, and we have conducted numerous officers’ meetings in which we discussed the direction of our chapter. Along with the help of our members, we were able to hold a record-breaking book sale and two bake sales, allowing us to raise the funds to sponsor club activities. These activities include a trip to the Hartford Stage to see a performance of Sophocles’ Electra, a Christmas banquet at the family home of our vice president, and numerous Eta Sigma Phi pizza dinners. We also held a Movie Night, in which we projected two movies onto a large screen during mid-terms to alleviate the pressure of the exams. The entire campus was invited. We are also currently planning a trip to the Higgins Armory Museum. We hope this is not the end of the list for the year! 

Along with our social events we have also been able to implement educational programs that have made a significant impact on Classics instruction at the UMass campus. Our magnum opus for the year has been our Latin/Greek Tutoring Program. This program has allowed advanced undergraduate students to hold office hours in which they volunteer to help fellow undergrads in elementary and intermediate Latin and Greek

language courses. The program has eased time-pressures for the graduate students teaching the language courses while building the résumés of the tutors. Most importantly, it has helped more undergrads become confident in their Classical language, while getting to know fellow  students. So far the program has been a complete success and received much praise from the faculty. 

Other helpful items we have done include maintaining a bulletin board advertising the society and its events. Upon the bulletin board we have a "Classics Study Group Message Board" which enables students to list our meeting times to study for Classics courses. We also were given the responsibility of advertising the Classics major at the recent chancellor’s inauguration. We were able to inform people about our major and make it more noticeable. This is something we plan on doing more frequently in the future. Moreover, we are currently planning a lecture with a popular classics professor that we hope will educate and entertain anyone who attends. 

We also have created T-shirts, which we hope will allow students to show pride in the society while enticing others to join. Lastly, we plan on throwing an enjoyable initiation and banquet to celebrate our successes this past year. We hope to continue our success in the years to come! 

Epsilon  Upsilon (University of New Hampshire): This year the Epsilon Upsilon chapter at the University of New Hampshire had to contend with a new location for the classics department. Our once and future home, Murkland Hall, was getting a much-needed facelift. However, the displacement did not hinder our efforts for a successful year. 

The chapter continued to offer tutoring to beginning Latin and Greek students, in addition to a general help session offered during the common exam time. As a chapter we also continued to bond with each other by having several movie nights over the course of the semester.