The President’s Cup has been renamed the Witt Cup in recognition of the support the University of Alabama’s President Robert E. Witt has shown the greek community, according to a UA news release.

“The President’s Cup [is] awarded to the top chapter in each of the four greek governing councils at the Greek Excellence Awards Banquet each year at The University of Alabama,” the release states.

Director of Greek Affairs Gentry McCreary said the President’s Cup became a part of the Greek Excellence Awards program in 2008. The award is given to the chapter in each governing council with the highest percentage of points on the Greek Excellence evaluation.

The four greek governing councils passed a joint resolution to rename the award to honor Witt’s continued support of the greek community, McCreary added.

“This year we wanted to change the name in order to shed light on all that Dr. Witt has done for the greek community at UA,” Interfraternity Council President Dakota Peterson said.

“Without this support, it would be impossible for our community to make the leaps it has in the last few years,” he said. “For this, we wanted to recognize him to show both our appreciation of him and to communicate to the rest of the greek community how much he and his administration do for us.”

The resolution states, “Dr. Robert E. Witt’s visionary leadership of the University has led to a period of unprecedented growth within the greek community, increased goodwill between the University and greek alumni and fostered a culture of academic excellence.”

During Witt’s tenure, the UA community doubled in size, and the fall 2010 Panhellenic sorority recruitment class was the largest in the nation.

Also during Witt’s tenure, the projects that have been approved will benefit the greek community, such as granting organizations access to University funds. Doing so has allowed the renovation and construction of new fraternity and sorority houses. The funds also allow sorority row expansion, adding four new sorority houses and the addition of new Panhellenic sororities on campus.

“Dr. Witt has been such a proponent of the greek community,” said Ashley Getwan, Panhellenic Association president. “He’s been a great mentor to several of us and given us such good advice. We really appreciate him.”

The Greek Excellence Awards program is based on a chapter self-assessment that measures performance in leadership development, scholarship, chapter operations, philanthropy and service and risk management and values.

Witt is an honorary member of Phi Delta Theta.