A native of Chicago, Bill Kolpak, Alabama ’16, joined Phi Tau shortly after arriving in Tuscaloosa. He became active in the chapter immediately.

After seeing an opportunity for improved scholarship programming, he ran for Scholarship Chair. He was elected and implemented an aggressive study hours program to encourage members to plan academic development time into their days, while simultaneously developing a recognition program that encouraged all members who went above and beyond in their academic achievement.

Spring of his freshman year, the chapter’s treasurer resigned. Bill was elected and promptly inherited $20,000 in debt to the chapter’s leasing agency, the University of Alabama, and the Executive Offices. “Through rigorous work, planning and budgeting, I navigated the Fraternity’s financial situation to pay off these debts while still operating successfully and recruiting new members,” Kolpak said. This was a huge time commitment and took hours of meetings and phone calls with advisors, the Executive Council, and staff members of the university and Phi Tau. As a freshman, Bill had difficult conversations with the chapter about where they were spending their money and how they were going to budget going forward. “By the time I had served in the role for a year we had achieved a stable financial situation,” he said.

Following a full term as treasurer, Bill decided to run for president in an effort to improve the fraternity in more ways than financial stability. He won and during his time prioritized developing a strong relationship between the chapter, the university, and the Executive Offices. He invited guest speakers to the chapter house and attended as many National Programs as he could.

Bill also focused on structural long-term success by establishing a standards board, developing a more permanent alumni relations job, and creating a new annual charity that fostered the relationship between chapter brothers and their families during parents weekend. “As Treasurer, I was focused on rectifying problems of the past to ensure survival in the future,” he said, “As President, I worked to establish a structure and relationships so we could grow and achieve new levels of success in the future.”

Bill was active on campus outside of Phi Tau as well. As a member of the Honors College, he served in an organization called Alabama Action for four years. Alabama Action introduces freshman to the Tuscaloosa community through week-long service projects at local schools. Their work includes painting walls, cleaning up gyms, and developing new learning spaces. His senior year he served as Program Director and coordinated 20 different projects across two schools. Bill also served the Alabama International Relations Club in an administrative role for their Model UN conference, where he helped coordinate a massive conference for high school students. A former Model UN participant himself, it was sentimental to give back to a program he enjoyed so much. Additionally, he served on the Alabama Student Government Association as an Associate Justice his senior year, where he helped the university develop and teach the student code of conduct to all students by attending meetings with administrators and teaching classes on conduct code to freshmen. He was also on a judicial panel for students who violated conduct.

Bill graduated this spring, completing his Bachelors of Science in Accounting with a focus in Accounting with a 3.4 GPA and just began a new job in Atlanta.

In Bill’s essay, he made sure to thank his chapter brothers for their support. “I have worked with so many outstanding Phi Tau men in my chapter who have pushed me to lead, challenged my ideas and supported me in what I have done,” he said. Congratulations to Bill on this huge accomplishment. Go Far!

Read a transcript of his speech here:

Good evening. Four years ago, I moved from a southwest suburb of Chicago, Illinois, to Tuscaloosa Alabama, to begin my college journey. It was late August, fraternity recruitment was coming to an end on campus, and I had no intention of making Greek life a part of my collegiate experience. In English 102, a classmate of mine told me about a recruitment event happening for a fraternity that night. I decided to check it out. It was there that I excitedly accepted my bid and began the amazing experience of brotherhood that the Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity has to offer.

The Zeta Eta Chapter at the University of Alabama was young and full of potential. Chartered in 2014, myself joining in Fall of 2016, it was still struggling to grow on a campus of 100+ member fraternities. While those in charge had taken crucial steps in establishing the chapter at Alabama, it was up to those who were a part of the newer associate member classes to implement the changes that would allow it to grow and find long term success on campus. Over the course of the next four years, myself, along with many of my brothers, would go on to lead the chapter to new heights, while also addressing serious challenges. After half a term as scholarship chairman, I took over as Treasurer for a year and a half to navigate the chapter out of nearly $20,000 in debt to nationals and our leasing agency. Following my time as Treasurer, I served as Chapter President where I, along with my Executive Council, implemented a new standards board, improved our service hours through mandatory chapter events, introduced a guest lecture series to our chapter meetings, created a new room in our chapter house for brotherhood and ritual events, continued a new philanthropy event that brought alumni and new members families together to renew old ties and welcome new associates, and continued the strong budgeting I established as treasurer with two consecutive chapters of meeting all obligations while running a near surplus.

When reflecting on my journey I must begin by thanking those who helped me along the way. First off, thank you to those who were with me from the beginning serving on exec with me from my freshmen year. Alex Roberts, Matthew Shumate, Conner Lind and Jackson Reese, were freshmen with me in 2016-2017, and through our united vision we were able to work together through our various exec positions to implement changes from the beginning that were the essential groundwork to get our chapter to where it is today. Additionally, I would like to thank those who served on my cabinet as president and were essential in continuing that work and providing important consul in decision making. This includes Santiago Diaz, Alex East, Brett McCracken and Jay Johnson. All of them played essential roles and still do serve the chapter in its advancement today. Lastly, I would like to thank those outside our chapter who helped out including my two success managers, Jacob Breese and Alex Haller, our chapter advisor James Mixson, the member services coordinator Cecilie McGhehy, and all of the staff of the Office for Fraternity and Sorority Life at the University of Alabama.

Looking back and comparing where our chapter was to where our chapter is now, the biggest thing that contributed to change was our openness to it. If there was advice I had for my brothers, it would be to use outside resources. People in life have a tendency to be insular. This isn’t just a trait of fraternities or Greek life, we see it in the institutions that govern our universities, our cities, our states and our country. People tend to get comfortable with the way things are, and don’t want to hear outside opinions on how to make improvements. And while things may seem good staying the same, if you’re not seeking continuous improvement, then chances are, you’re headed towards a path of regression. As a freshman, I thought my chapter's weaknesses were its financial position and weak membership numbers. But what I quickly learned was that our weakness was our reluctance to ask for help. It was through being open to advice that we learned new recruiting tactics and developed a stronger budgeting method to address those two problems. By building relationships with those who guided us through these challenges, we were able to not only address them, but strategically plan how to strengthen other areas of our chapter going forward. This outward thinking wasn’t just advice coming from those who offered it, but also those in similar positions. Reaching out to other Phi Tau Presidents, as well as Chapter Presidents at Alabama, helped me get guidance on how to address a variety of issues that I faced during my term. Most importantly, finding ways to pass on those relationships to those who follow allows them to continue to benefit the chapter as whole. So, to sum it up – welcome new ideas, build new relationships, and always have an open mind.

Thank you to those on the National Council and the Phi Kappa Tau Awards Committee for this distinguished honor. Congratulations to all my brothers in class of 2020. Thank you, and Roll Tide.