Page 18 - MGA_Today_Spring_2016

By Sheron Smith

Abit of serendipity gave Tanner Lords the Kappa Sigma is the largest college social fraternity
chance to continue a tradition the men in in the world with more than 200,000 living
his family prize. members, including more 20,000 undergraduates
His grandfather, father and uncle all pledged and 320 chapters and colonies located throughout
Kappa Sigma Fraternity while students at the the U.S. and Canada. Founded in 1869 at the
University of Utah in their hometown of Salt Lake University of Virginia, Kappa Sigma International
City. Lords might have followed exactly in their Headquarters is based in Charlottesville, Va.
footsteps, but his father’s job as a dentist for the
Veterans Administration Medical Center relocatedt
the family to Dublin, Ga.

After graduating from Dublin High School,
where he was a standout athlete, Lords looked at
college options close to home. He enrolled at one
area institution, never warming to it. Eventually,
he transferred to Middle Georgia State and
learned Kappa Sigma was the first social fraternity
establishing a presence at the University.

“I’m a legacy,” said Lords, 23, referring to a
pledge whose parents or siblings belonged to the
same Greek organization. “Of course I wanted to
get involved.”

Lords, a junior majoring in Business, is the
general manager/president of Middle Georgia
State's new Kappa Sigma colony. The other
officers are Chris Hunt, vice president; Mitch
Weintraub, treasurer; Kaleb Zhang, grand scribe;
and K.J. Jang, grand master of ceremonies.

As a probationary group, a colony must build
toward certain membership and service goals
before the national organization charters it as an
official chapter. About 30 men are part of Middle
Georgia State’s Kappa Sigma colony, and they will
make up the “Founding Fathers” of the eventual
chapter.

Henry Whitfield, director of the Cochran and
Eastman campuses and a Kappa Sigma alumni, is
staff advisor to the colony. Chan Jones, a Cochran
businessman and associate’s degree graduate of
the former Middle Georgia College, is alumni
advisor. He joined Kappa Sigma while attending
Georgia College.

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18 MIDDLE GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY