Racer Report: August 29-September 2

MURRAY, Ky. – The latest Murray State University Racer Report includes student, faculty, staff and alumni accomplishments, announcements, upcoming campus events and more for the week of August 29-September 2.

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The Delta Tau Chapter of Alpha Sigma Phi at Murray State University won its ninth Grand Senior President’s Cup at the 56th Grand Chapter in New Orleans, Louisiana. The chapter’s nine Grand Senior President’s Cup are the most of any chapter of Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity.

The Grand Senior President’s Cup, established in 1960, recognizes the chapter that best exemplifies the ideals and purpose of the fraternity. The winner of this award is determined through Alpha Sigma Phi’s Annual Report for Accreditation and is the highest honor a chapter can receive from the fraternity.

Delta Tau had 35 members on the Dean’s List, with 10 of those members achieving a 4.0 Grade Point Average in 2021-22. The Chapter placed first in All Campus Sing, hosted their annual Sig Bust event for alumni and family, and were some of the first to respond after the devastating tornadoes in December 2021.

Hayden Jaco, a 2018 initiate of the Delta Tau Chapter, was inducted into the Undergraduate Hall of Fame and received the Frank F. Hargear Memorial Award. He served as Chapter President, VP of Membership Enrichment and on the Chapter’s Standards Board. Jaco led Delta Tau to perform more than 2,500 hours of community service, raise more than $5,000 for the Fraternity’s philanthropic beneficiaries and retain all new members recruited in 2021-22.

The Hall of Fame inducts no more than 10 undergraduate seniors annually who are most accomplished and who have made the most significant contributions to better their chapter and the fraternity as a whole. From those inductees, one individual is selected to receive the Hargear Memorial Award, established in 1977, which is the highest honor an undergraduate brother can receive. 

Finally, the Delta Tau Chapter publicly announced the Michael E. Young Endowment to honor its long-time chapter advisor and mentor, Young, a 1994 initiate and founding father of the chapter. Young has remained involved with the chapter since graduating from Murray State University in 1998. He has contributed mightily to the international fraternity as well, earning him awards such as the Delta Beta Xi Award and Key (1998), the Otto L. Sonder Chapter Advisor of the Year (2011) and Evin C. Varner Distinguished Service Award (2015). 

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Crystal Adams, Murray State University masters grad, ‘07, and current student in the TLE program, is one of 14 teachers worldwide who participated in the Rosenthal Prize Summer Institute on July 21 – 23 in New York City, New York. She is an eighth-grade algebra and pre-algebra teacher at Owensboro Innovation Middle School.

The Rosenthal Prize is an annual award for creative and engaging lessons in mathematics. This was the first year the Institute participated in hopes to expose participants to the lessons and ideology behind what they are looking for in lessons and to spread the word about those lessons.

“The lessons are free to the public and are available on the National Museum of Mathematics website, and they’re all math-based lessons, usually for the middle school level,” said Adams. “Participants were there from Canada and all around the United States. Some were curriculum coaches, college professors and middle and elementary school teachers.”

During the institute, the participants went over mathematical practices, how to engage students, how to empower students to see themselves as mathematicians and how to not build a barrier between math and themselves.

“One of the main focuses was about building relationships with students in a mathematics classroom,” added Adams. “We looked at productive struggle and problem-solving strategies.”

Adams has since implemented one of the strategies learned at the institute in her classroom.

This prestigious honor of participating in the Rosenthal Prize Summer Institute is a great accomplishment for the Murray State University TLE program student, Crystal Adams.

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The Murray State University Police Department was recently re-accredited by the Kentucky Association of Chiefs of Police. 

Murray State Police Chief Jeff Gentry said the Kentucky Association of Chiefs of Police Accreditation program is intended to provide law enforcement agencies of the Commonwealth of Kentucky with an avenue for professional standards. 

“Being accredited is a very intense program and takes the entire staff to accomplish this,” said Gentry. 

Law enforcement executives who choose to have their agencies accredited under this program have examined all aspects of their operations. Gentry shared that he has made a conscious decision about policies and procedures that fit the law enforcement requirements of their jurisdiction, and have implemented those policies and trained all officers in their use.

Said Gentry, “Accreditation reflects that my agency was carefully measured against an established set of standards and has met or exceeded professionally accepted practices in law enforcement.”

Learn more about the Murray State Police Department at murraystate.edu/police.