Alumni reflect on good times, career impact of honors fraternity GET

When Ron Goldberg thinks about Gamma Epsilon Tau (GET), one word above all comes to mind.

Family.

His experience with GET — a national co-ed honors fraternity for the graphic arts — has yet to stop giving.

Goldberg joined GET’s Zeta Chapter, the academic fraternity’s Rochester Institute of Technology branch and national headquarters, in the mid-1990s. Not only did GET shape his college years, its practical lessons and thoughtful alumni network helped boost Goldberg to career success.

No wonder he still bleeds GET red, as a colleague put it.

“I always say GET is like a family,” said Goldberg, a 1999 School of Media Sciences(SMS) alumnus who got his MBA at RIT a year later. “It’s this family of brothers and sisters who would try to help you out if they could.”

Many share Goldberg’s affinity for GET.

Just ask Becky (Hamilton) Brubaker, a 1993 graduate of SMS, where much of GET’s members are drawn from. She spent two years in the organization, developing an ever-lasting I-have-your-back mentality in the process.

“I know if I reached out to them, or they reached out to me, I’d do anything to help them, and vice versa,” Brubaker said of a group from her 1991 pledge class. “It’s a connection that is so deep-rooted from so long ago, but it’s done on such a shared level of respect that you just bend over backward for them.”

GET’s rich history dates back to 1953; it was chartered at RIT two years later.

The organization prepares members for post-college life by fostering leadership skills and accountability while forging enduring memories. Its brothers and sisters’ continual propensity to lend a hand demonstrates the unwavering unity GET was built on.

Recent conversations with alumni activated pleasant recollections and friendly smiles — a telltale signal of what GET has meant to past members, and what it could mean for future ones.

A robust network

When Goldberg went on co-op in Philadelphia while an RIT student, a GET graduate put him up for a week until he found his own place. Goldberg said GET alumni connections were also ultra-helpful in landing his first job out of college.

It all speaks to the strength of the fraternity’s network.

“It is about working and getting to know your brothers and sisters,” said Goldberg, the current GET advisor. 

The organization is as much a treasure to Goldberg now as it was when he was an RIT student.

Connecting with GET alumni is an exercise Goldberg, RIT’s director of reunions and affinity programs for Development and Alumni Relations, takes seriously. When in a city with other brothers and sisters, he tries to see them.

Those efforts keep GET steeped in pride.

“You build these lifelong relationships where you can go years without seeing somebody and just kind of pick up where you left off,” Goldberg said.

Liz Kowaluk, a 2000 SMS graduate and four-year GET member, learned the fraternity’s family dynamic early on.

Kowaluk said former GET president Erika (Gast) West was a key reference as she pursued, and ultimately was accepted for, a highly coveted co-op aboard the Queen Elizabeth 2 cruise ship. Kowaluk proceeded to spend an unforgettable 3 1/2 months exploring the world on the large vessel. 

To Kowaluk, those types of kindhearted gestures are embedded in GET’s fabric.

“We had that inside connection,” Kowaluk said. “… You get to know (fellow members) well enough that you are going to help them. Erika instilled that in me — by not telling me, but by her actions.”

Preparing for career success

Camaraderie, community engagement and the application of acquired proficiencies are at the heart of GET’s purpose.

Creating the GETzette, the organization’s magazine originally printed in 1968, is one of the prominent projects members have undertaken. Responsible for the publication’s production, students’ tasks have included generating content and designing pages prior to distribution to the wide alumni web.

Overall, the educational and social elements of GET’s, and RIT as a whole, have served Brubaker extremely well post-graduation.

“RIT has been instrumental in making me who I am today,” she said. “… I would have never gotten to where I went without RIT.”

“All of us who were at RIT, we were learning an incredible amount of technical skills,” Brubaker added. “To me, the GET experience was a way to take not just the technical stuff that you might be learning in classes, but how to apply that in an environment where we’re all of similar mindsets. I think that was the biggest one where it links professionally.”

Brubaker spent 20 years in newspaper production management, most notably working for the Chicago Tribune. She now lives in Buffalo, where she is the general manager of book publisher Harlequin. 

As a former GET vice president, Brubaker said being so involved with a campus group equipped her with a “sharper edge” in her job searches.

“When you’re in a leadership role, you learn how to motivate and inspire other people,” Brubaker said. “You learn how to look at what’s best for the whole group. Those things are so important to leadership.”

That’s not to mention the immediate comfort joining the fraternity provided Brubaker, who enrolled at RIT following three years of being in the work force with her associate’s degree.

“GET gave me instant friendship and a sense of belonging,” Brubaker said. “You had people you could go to (for help or advice). It was a fun opportunity to kind of break the pace of the intensity of the work from a school perspective. You did a whole bunch of things together.”

Goldberg certainly has ample social memories of his GET years.

Thursday night outings at Bowl-A-Roll Lanes, an Olympic-style competition that pitted current members against potential ones and the organization’s staple event, the annual pig roast, are some of the notable ones.

Dedication to each other and community

GET has established a number of customs across its 63 years.

In 2005, a group of GET members and School of Print Media (later SMS) students took on a mammoth project for a course to commemorate them.

The assignment? Producing a book documenting the first 50 years of the Zeta Chapter. With the help of professors, students conducted research and obtained photos and artifacts that told the chapter’s detailed story to that point.

One section of the history book divulges the group’s traditions, stating that the strongest one is a dedication to each other. At the time, the Zeta Chapter had an alumni base of over 600.

“While the members have adapted and evolved, they have never turned their backs on what has been the bedrock of Gamma Epsilon Tau: the traditions and bonds among members,” the book reads.

GET is also known for its generosity.

For years, the fraternity hosted educational events and industry speakers, all the while positively impacting the community.

Since 1993, GET has maintained the cleanliness of a Scottsville Road stretch near the RIT campus that belongs to the organization via the Adopt-a-Highway program. According to the book, various classes have contributed to other charitable causes, such as running fundraisers, organizing food and clothing drives and using their expertise to print holiday-themed coloring books for a children’s center.

“It’s almost like an academic service fraternity,” Goldberg said.

Tasty tradition

The yearly pig roast is GET’s most cherished event.

Held every spring since 1990, according to the 50th anniversary publication, it welcomes current GET members and the entire School of Media Sciences.

Thirteen years ago, John Eldridge, SMS’ digital printing technologist and a 1980 graduate of the school, spiced up the barbecues and sprinkled additional substance on it.

When Eldridge was GET advisor in the early and mid-2000s, he emphasized keeping a sturdy bridge to the past. So he implemented the GET alumni pig roast — the standard gathering, only with Zeta Chapter graduates on the invitation list — to aid in sustaining connections.

The first alumni picnic was in 2005, and, with great success, it’s continued every three years since. The latest alumni pig roast, last April at Mendon Ponds Park, was the fifth. The get-togethers have made networking and opportunities to reminisce face-to-face more abundantly available.

“I had a lot of fun with this organization for many years, but I’m glad I did that,” Eldridge said. “It was a legacy thing for me with the organization.”

The initial alumni pig roast was a true ode to the past as Armin Wimmer, the organization’s first student president (1955-56), attended.

“I realize it’s easier to stay connected with social media now, but it’s not the same as walking up to somebody and giving them a big hug and saying, ‘How have you been?’” Eldridge said. “There is nothing better than that.”

Remembering the past

GET’s story is filled with depth, purpose and tradition … and much of it is captured in the 50th anniversary book, which walks readers through the GET saga up until 2005.

The 120-page, elegant hardcover edition recounts the fraternity’s tale in formally written words, excerpts from the GETzette archives, first-person narratives from former members and other forms. Photos from social gatherings, printing of the fraternity’s constitution and songs, 1950’s meeting announcements — “Hear ye! Hear ye!” — and a complete membership list from 1955-2005 are mixed in from cover to cover, giving a comprehensive look into the proud organization.

“I feel like I have a closer connection to RIT,” Kowaluk said of the lasting impact GET has had on her. “… I wouldn’t trade it for anything because it helped me and it’s still helping me. It’s opened up more doors, I feel, than if I hadn’t been a part of GET.” 

SAVE THE DATE: The next alumni pig roast is scheduled to take place in 2020.