Hugh Shields Award for Chapter Excellence

The Hugh Shields Award for Chapter Excellence was established in 1965. It is named for the late Hugh Shields (Indiana University, 1926), the first executive vice president of the Fraternity. The award recognizes overall excellence in a chapter and is presented to the top 10 chapters in the Fraternity.* Chapters are honored with a gavel and a Hugh Shields flag.

The 2025 Hugh Shields recipients (Total number of years the chapter received the Hugh Shields Award, including this year in parentheses, followed by the number of years the chapter has been named to the Court of Honor):

  • Theta Kappa – University of Nebraska–Kearney (7, 14)
  • Zeta – Case Western Reserve University (11, 15)
  • Theta Tau – Moravian University (2, 3)
  • Beta Zeta – Butler University (18, 27)
  • Epsilon Phi – Southeastern Louisiana University (25, 29)
  • Zeta Chi – University of Southern Mississippi (11, 25)
  • Gamma Beta – Illinois Institute of Technology (20, 29)
  • Iota Tau – Sacred Heart University (1, 3)
  • Zeta Zeta – Morehead State University (8, 12)
  • Epsilon Iota B – Kettering University (15, 26)

In addition to the Hugh Shields Awards, these chapters also received a Court of Honor Award for 2025.

Court of Honor Award

Also established in 1965, the Court of Honor Award is presented to the top 20 chapters in the Fraternity. For the 2025 reporting year, all chapters were asked to submit the Fraternity Awards/Accreditation Report (FAAR). Chapters were asked to provide documents that measure compliance with the Fraternity’s minimum operating standards, exceptional facets of their operations and Delta Tau Delta programming. Chapters were graded on excellence in chapter finance, recruitment, membership education, academics, alumni relations and community service. Chapters are honored with a gavel.

The 2025 Court of Honor (total number of years awarded, including this year in parentheses)

The Court of Honor includes all the Hugh Shields recipients and the chapters listed below:

  • Delta Xi – University of North Dakota (17)
  • Iota Epsilon – Chapman University (18)
  • Gamma Kappa – University of Missouri (19)
  • Gamma Psi – Georgia Institute of Technology (16)
  • Gamma Xi – University of Cincinnati (18)
  • Epsilon Upsilon – Marietta College (18)
  • Zeta Alpha – Marquette University (1)
  • Epsilon Psi – University of Louisiana at Lafayette (2)
  • Iota Xi – Florida Institute of Technology (7)
  • Delta – University of Michigan (2)
  • Beta Delta – University of Georgia (9)