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The Psi Upsilon Outstanding Junior is a long standing tradition in the fraternity recognizing rising seniors who best exemplify the values of Psi Upsilon Fraternity: Lifelong Friendship, Moral Leadership, Intellectual Engagement, Responsible Social Conduct, and Service to Society.

Each chapter votes on who should receive this award and reports it to the International Office.

Many chapters began recognizing members in the Junior Class dating back to the early 1900s with this form of recognition, and would award them with “Alumni Keys”, a special version of the Psi Upsilon Badge that had a key to wind a pocket watch. In the 1980s the award was formalized by the Psi Upsilon Executive Council and Foundation and now Outstanding Juniors are recognized by the International Fraternity and receive the Alumni Key in the Fall or at the Awards Banquet as a part of the Psi Upsilon Convention.

We would like to congratulate and thank the following brothers for their dedication to our beloved fraternity:

This year, Psi Upsilon is excited to partner with Publishing Concepts Inc (PCI) for The Oral History Project. We want to take time to hear your stories from your Psi U experience.

The goal of the Oral History Project is to unite alums across generations, professions, geography and life experiences. We have partnered with PCI to help collect stories from as many alumni as possible and produce Psi Upsilon’s Oral History Project. This kind of ambitious project has not been undertaking by the fraternity since the publication of The Annals in 1941, and we feel collecting our stories will be a powerful and meaningful collection.

By sharing your memory, you’ll ensure that the rich history of Psi Upsilon will be preserved for generations to come. PCI will be contacting you via mail, phone, and email asking you to participate, share your story, and update your contact information. More information about the project can be found here: https://psiu.org/2023-psiu-oral-history-project/ .

To make this project a success we need you to share your stories with us, please call PCI at 855-376-5979. There is no obligation to buy, and sharing your memories is free.

We know every Psi U has a story, and we want to hear yours!

The 2023 March Challenge is one for the history books! 223 donors from 32 chapters helped us raise over $45,000!  THANK YOU to everyone who helped make the campaign so successful, especially those who made generous matching gifts:

• Alex Senchak, Eta ’06 (Lehigh)
• Garrett Gleim, Tau ’01 (Pennsylvania)
• Larry Rakers, Omicron ’86 (Illinois)
• Jeremy Mckeon, Eta ’08 (Lehigh)
• Thomas Fox, Omicron ’00 (Illinois)
• Jim Platner, Phi Delta (Mary Washington)
• Earl Henry, Omicron ’69 (Illinois)
• Patrick Gilrane, Psi ’83 (Hamilton)

In the end, something was achieved that was not expected: The Eta (Lehigh) and Omicron (Illinois) Chapters tied for first place, each having 38 donors when the campaign ended at Midnight Pacific Time! Rounding out the top 5 chapters were the Gamma Tau (Georgia Tech) with 37 donors, Omega (Chicago) with 20 donors, and Chi Delta (Duke) with 12 donors. But we wanted to point out that both the number of donors and the number of chapters participating are new records for the March Challenge!

And your gifts to this campaign truly make a difference – This campaign specifically raises money towards the Annual Fund that helps support the growth and expansion of Psi Upsilon Fraternity and, since we began it in 2020, it has allowed us to do a number of important things to better support our chapters. As a result of past March Challenges, we’ve been able to:

• Hire a Director of Growth, Travis Smith in 2021
• Provide Recruitment Certification Programs to all our chapters
• Redevelop our New Member Education Guide “A Mighty Friendship”

So thank you again to everyone who participated, helped spread the word and encouraged their brothers to give: we hope you all had some fun with the challenge. Your generosity will help Psi U grow! Again this achievement of raising over $45,000 is an amazing start to 2023!

While the challenge closed at Midnight Pacific on Monday, March 27th, you can still see the page here, the chapter leaderboard, who has contributed from your chapter (and people are still contributing, which we appreciate!)

Below are some of the images we shared throughout the 2023 March Challenge, and we just wanted to thank you all again for making this campaign so much fun and such a success!

We’re excited to announce our newest hire at Psi Upsilon, Justin Sines will be joining our team as the Chapter Services Coordinator!

Justin joins the professional staff after seven years of working in the English and Theater Arts Department at Duquesne University as the Technical Director. He graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts from Duquesne in 2011 and is currently finishing up a Master of Fine Arts in Digital Media.  While an undergraduate at Duquesne Justin was a member of Phi Kappa Theta Fraternity.  He has also served as the chapter advisor, local alumni association founding secretary, and event photographer for the national fraternity.

As the Chapter Services coordinator, Justin will work closely with other fraternity Directors to help support our individual chapters with both online and in-person programming. He can be reached at Justin@psiu.org or 317-571-1833 x 114.

Justin lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with his partner Tony and their three dogs, Rosco, Harry, and Cyrus. Outside of work, Justin is a board member of the Gemini Children’s Theater, the Pittsburgh New Works Festival, and volunteers his time with countless theater groups across the Pittsburgh region.  

The Archons’ Academy is an annual event, first held in the 1990s, that allows our chapter presidents to network with one another and share best practices while learning valuable skills to assist them during their time as president. Unlike many leadership opportunities afforded to our members, this one is highly tailored to a select audience and is built around conversation and discussion as much as possible. This year we moved the Archons’ Academy to Atlanta, GA to help make traveling easier for the majority of our attendees and we had 20 chapters represented.

The academy has evolved and adapted over the years, utilizing the feedback from prior participants we’ve always been able assess what works well and also retire certain parts of the academy that aren’t as relevant. In recent years we’ve introduced The Birkman Method, a personality assessment tool, to a cornerstone of the academy. The Birkman Method reveals four key perspectives of every person: Motivation, Self-Perception, Social Perception, and Mindset. In understanding these perceptions and how they influence each other, individuals can better understand the emotions and actions that drive their life. Every Archon completed the assessment prior to arriving in Atlanta and much of the programming Saturday included facilitated discussions from Doug Opicka, founder and managing partner of Plaid, LLC on the assessment and specific ways attendees should approach conflict resolution given their personality type.

Additional sessions in the academy reviewed Psi Upsilon’s history, values, chapter operations, crisis response, motivating and incentivizing members, reviewed Psi U resources, and gave Archons a chance to share their challenges.

This event is always a highlight of our programming year and, most importantly, helps show the chapter presidents that they are not alone in the challenges they face and that they have resources to assist them. We hope to complement these relationships by continuing our monthly Town Halls and campus visits by staff.

You can view photos of the weekend on our Flickr site and Facebook Page.

Awarded at the 178th Convention in Washington DC

For a full list of criteria, past recipients, and award histories, visit our full awards page.

Garnet and Gold Award for Academic Excellence

The Garnet and Gold Award for Academic Excellence is given out to those chapters who achieve
above the campus average across multiple semesters.

Upsilon, University of Rochester
Eta, Lehigh University
Chi Delta, Duke University

Owl Award for Exceptional Academic Performance

The Owl Award for Exceptional Academic Achievement recognizes chapters that demonstrate
truly significant academic achievement

Delta, New York University
Xi, Wesleyan University
Eta, Lehigh University

Clasped Hand Award for Outstanding Philanthropy & Service

The Clasped Hand Award for Outstanding Philanthropy and Service recognizes those chapters
that go above and beyond. During the 2021-22 Academic Year, while much of the world was sheltering in place Psi Upsilon chapters found safe ways to contribute over 3,525 hours of service in their community and raised more than $138,000 for charities.

Upsilon, University of Rochester
Phi, University of Michigan
Pi, Syracuse University
Theta Theta, University of Washington
Epsilon Iota, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Lambda Sigma, Pepperdine University
Alpha Omicron, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Delta Omicron Provisional, Purdue University