Blackburn’s chapter of Phi Gamma Nu has disbanded. Phi Gamma Nu is a national business fraternity although started as a business sorority in 1924 at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois. Phi Gamma Nu’s three pillars are professional, social and philanthropy. On their official website, the organization says, “We excel at encouraging entrepreneurship, by empowering people to harness their passions and our strength comes from our commitment to diversity, which is not just a feel-good notion, but critical to success in the world of business.”
At Blackburn, Phi Gamma Nu started when professor of marketing and business management Dr. Christina McCurley approached accounting and interdisciplinary studies (religion and economics) major John Aden and his coworker Kyle Kessinger, and “told us she thought it would be a really good idea to start a professional fraternity on campus,” said Aden, who later became president of the organization.
Aden said he and Kessinger “asked around and…got a makeshift board together to approach the national council and officially get our chapter started.” After spending a semester communicating with the national council on how to begin, the group spent three semesters as an active and official chapter.
When Phi Gamma Nu officially began at Blackburn Jan. 31 2016, twenty-one members joined, but in its last semester, that number dropped to just 12. Aden said that while he does not know exactly why membership dropped so drastically, “we had a lot of members who…had to quit because of other commitments.”
While active, the co-ed business fraternity focused mainly on the pillar of professionalism by hosting events like “professional skills workshops [and] guest speakers either from professors or from businesses around here.” However, they also hosted social events and philanthropic events including Volley for the Cure.