Stephen Katsinas '78

As a professor of higher education and political science, Dr. Stephen G. Katsinas ’78 has written numerous articles on the state of capital funding for public universities. He sees a clear need for change at the Illinois DU Chapter House and eagerly lends his pledge to Honoring the Past, Building for the Next Century.

“You just can’t operate a first-class fraternity in third-class facilities,” he explained. “You can get away with it for a while, but old 312 Armory has been up for 100 years and seen 250 years of usage. I remember parts of the old ceiling in the dining room falling just before an initiation ceremony.”

SERVING OUR BROTHERHOOD

Steve grew up in Champaign, where most of the high school graduates he knew who attended Illinois joined a fraternity in which hazing was common. As a freshman, he narrowed his formal recruitment choices to three anti-hazing fraternities, and longtime family friend Seely Johnston ’24 was pleased to learn that Steve had chosen Delta Upsilon.

The memories Steve and his brothers made together (backgammon breaks, intramural sports, and retreats) are too numerous to list. He embraced the advice of Brother (and frequent guest speaker) Mike Clark ’69: “The more you give to DU, the more you will take away.” 

That advice motivated Steve to run for Chapter president, filling the Chapter House in its subsequent fall recruitment—and even recruiting new Alumni Board members to serve! Before his term, Steve also helped repeal DU’s GPA requirement, which allowed all 27 members of his 

pledge class to enter the fraternity together.

LIVING OUR VALUES

“I believe Illinois DUs know how to listen better to those with whom they disagree—and are able to disagree agreeably, a trait that seems ever rarer these days.” This trait has served Steve well in his lengthy career as a professor and the director of the Education Policy Center at the University of Alabama, where he has contributed to bipartisan projects at the federal level.

Steve is particularly proud of his work to support Pell Grants. In 2017, he worked with a joint team from Mississippi and Alabama (as well as Senators Thad Cochran and Richard Shelby) to restore year-round Pell Grants in federal law. His work has been presented at the White House five times and six times each at the U.S. Departments of Education and Agriculture. “It was easy to imagine the vital difference that additional aid could make to open doors of opportunity for first-generation students like those I met at DU.”

TOMORROW’S STUDENTS NEED US

So far as a professor, Steve has chaired 44 doctoral dissertations; 11 of those former candidates now run colleges and universities. He enjoys his spare time with physical fitness and “good wine with good friends,” and he is grateful to Kim Cox ’76 for helping keep their era connected through Illini sports. Groups of West Coast- and Arizona-based alumni have enjoyed road game trips for years and were thrilled to see the Illini make the Elite Eight this year.

Career and family responsibilities haven’t allowed Steve to serve on the Alumni Board, but he is more than pleased to do his part in the campaign—and he urges all alumni to give whatever they can. He also hopes first-generation students from southern Illinois and Chicago will always find a home at Delta Upsilon.

“My hope is that my pledge class of 1978 will see 100% participation,” he said. “It is up to us to secure the future of our fraternity for the next hundred years, to help brothers we will never meet. In the tradition of the words etched onto the Laredo Taft Alma Mater statue: ‘To thy happy children of the future, those of the past send greetings.’”

Steve lives in Vestavia Hills, Alabama.