From the Sigma Kappa Chapter of DKE

October 19, 2007

Sigma Kappa of DKE News

RUSH
The Sigma Kappa chapter of DKE at Michigan State had another successful Rush this fall. We currently have eight quality pledges, which is comparable to previous years. All of our active brothers pulled together to advertise and promote our chapter through various entertaining events. This year we started a program to give rewards to members who performed exceptionally during Rush, which helped motivate members who need extra incentive. Our pledge process lasts until the end of November, when we hope to initiate all eight pledges.

CHAPTER GOALS
This will be a big year for Sigma Kappa. We continue to increase our visibility on campus from our humble start in 1998, and have been working to keep in touch with our founding principles. We are currently working on moving to a new location where we will be even more visible and actively involved with other fraternities. Our goal is to retain a spirit of independence while at the same time collaborating with other organizations. We are making widespread reforms within our house as well, creating new positions and revamping old ones.

CAMPUS ORGANIZATIONS
Our members are actively involved in external pursuits at Michigan State and the surrounding community. We have members in the ROTC, on the MSU Cheerleading Team, the MSU Waterski Team, the world-renowned Spartan Marching Band, the Ski Club, and Mensa International. We also have a member currently working as a Residence Hall Mentor. Our outside involvement has increased every year, and recently we have had members serving on the Associated Students of MSU (ASMSU) board, leaders in Student Government, and leaders in both the College Republicans and College Democrats.

CHAPTER SIZE
We currently have 33 active brothers with 8 pledges to be initiated in November. This is roughly the same size we have been for the past few years (last year we had 32 actives at this time). We feel this size is nearly ideal for our purposes, as it allows us to form stronger bonds than if we had larger membership. I recently heard a story about a fight at the bar a few years ago. The two offenders got into it over a spilled drink and violence quickly broke out. Weeks later, they saw each other at chapter meeting; the two brawlers were both brothers of Beta Theta Pi and had never met each other because of their extremely large size. While I can’t attest to the veracity of this story, it demonstrates perfectly what our chapter tries to prevent.

CHAPTER GPA
This year we have started a more organized program to monitor and increase the quality of scholarship from our members and pledges. Our newly appointed Academic Chair, Nick Allen, has instituted two weekly three-hour study sessions, one at the MSU main library and one at our in-house library room. Pledges are required to attend at least one of these sessions per week, and attendance is recorded and reported at meeting. So far, we have had great attendance among pledges, and many brothers have also come along to study. This began as an attempt to prevent a repeat of last year’s dilemma, when a few pledges received poor grades, preventing them from living in the chapter house. Currently our house GPA is between a 2.7 and 2.8, but is rising.

INDIVIDUAL SPOTLIGHT
I would like to bring special attention to one of my pledge brothers and lifelong friends, Ben Moritz. Ben is currently serving our chapter as our Vice President of Risk Management. Ben served last year as our Athletic Director; that year we participated in more intramural sports than ever before. Ben’s involvement in the house, however, is easily matched by his external involvement: he is currently on the MSU Cheerleading Team, and can regularly be seen on national television supporting our 53 football team, as well as our world class basketball team. Ben is also an astrophysics major, and as such is a regular at the library and physics building. He is also employed at the MSU Cyclotron, one of the world’s best known particle accelerators, and a location for leading edge physics research. Ben Moritz exemplifies all the ideals we stand for at Sigma Kappa: strong leadership, an independent spirit, and personal achievement.

ALUMNI
Our chapter is less than ten years old, so until recently alumni involvement has naturally been at a minimum. As more of our alumni graduate from undergraduate and graduate school, however, we have seen an increase in participation. Currently, some of our most prominent local alumni, Caleb Marker and Ben Cwayna, have helped our chapter immensely. Ben, with Caleb’s help, has been representing us in court in a variety of matters, from landlord/tenant disputes to a recent case fighting the legality of the local noise ordinance. In recent years, nearly half of our chapter’s graduates have gone on to attend law school or graduate school, so we have been able to rely on them for advice much as we have relied on Ben Cwayna and Caleb Marker for more direct involvement. Last year was also the first year of our DKE Alumni Scholarship, which was started by a handful of recent grads. Dustin Lange has taken the lead on the scholarship, collecting donations from alumni and reviewing applications. To apply, members must submit an essay on one of a wide variety of topics. The recipients so far: Tom Randall (2006) and Amarpreet Gill (2007). Our alumni are doing very well and have spread out all over the country and beyond. Our founding President, Nick Pence, recently returned from serving his country in Iraq, and will soon be married. As mentioned previously, we have alumni in law schools all over, from Villanova to Ohio State to Wisconsin to Seton Hall. If you are an alum of Sigma Kappa and have not received our newsletter, you may not be on our contact list! Please contact our new Alumni Relations Chair, Lawrence Chi, at chilawre@msu.edu .

OTHER NEWS
We will be hosting the Omicron chapter at our house for the annual Michigan vs. Michigan State football game. Omicron brothers are invited to attend a special private cocktail party on Friday, November 2nd. Saturday morning we will be hosting a tailgate for the football game at noon. After the game is our annual Halloween party, which always turns out to be one of the biggest events of the year. Please bring a costume and be ready for a great night. November 9th 11th will be our annual Fall Formal, where we will once again be visiting Windsor, Ontario. Last year’s trip to Windsor was a huge success, and all those in attendance came back with a stronger feeling of brotherhood. As always, we will be having a formal dinner at a four star restaurant before sampling the nightlife (and, of course, the Casino Windsor).