Three years ago, Tevin Preston stepped foot into Lambda Chi Alpha for the first time, feeling immediately welcomed and wanted — and with reason. He proved his natural leadership skills after serving as treasurer his sophomore year and social chairman his junior year before becoming elected president. Today, Preston is wrapping up his final weeks in office and reflects on his year spent as president of Lambda Chi Alpha at the University.@@http://uoregon.edu/findpeople/person/tevin*preston@@
What is the greatest part of being president?
Right now, I love being able to reflect on what I’ve done and the changes I’ve made for the better. I’ve also re-noticed some of the things I wanted to improve on that I plan on passing on to the next president.
What are some of the changes you have made?
One of my goals was to become more involved in the Greek community and I feel we’ve done that during my time as president. I also wanted to redefine what brotherhood is. When I first joined the fraternity, there were many different cliques in the fraternity, which was something that I wanted to get rid of. Now we are much more of a concrete brotherhood.
What is the most challenging part of being president?
Nobody wants to be that person to get your brothers in trouble, but at the end of the day it has to be done. However, I’ve noticed that the guys don’t see it in a negative way. They realize their wrong actions in order to make better of it for the future. This is because they’ve gained the necessary respect for me, which I definitely think comes from leading by example. The guys see how hard I work for the fraternity.
What is the biggest misconception about being the president of a fraternity?
Definitely the “rules don’t apply to you because you’re the boss,” which applies to being president of anything. If I was in a free-for-all mode doing whatever I wanted and not following the rules, people would lose respect for me.
What’s your biggest piece of advice for anyone interested in becoming president?
Don’t take on too much on your own. That’s the one thing I did. You have to remember that you have officers around you, willing to take on tasks. When a person becomes president, they think they have to do everything, but they don’t. Delegation is huge.