Sigma Phi Epsilon - Oregon State University

S IG MA PHI EPS IL O N t O R EG O N AL PHA CHAPT ER t O R EG O N S T AT E U NIV ER S IT Y Sigma Phi Epsilon, Oregon State University P.O. Box 442100 Lawrence, KS 66044-2100 Address Service Requested https://oregonstate.sigep.org/ f @sigeposu l @SigEp_OA bit.ly/SPEORSU Editor's Note: After several years with Comcoa, our Corvallis newsletter producer, we have moved to Pennington & Company in an effort to ensure multiple access points for alumni communication. Alan D. Toelle '58 was a U.S. Marine Corps officer 1958-61, an engineer at Bechtel Corp. 1961-63, a marine engineer for Lockhead Ship building 1963-65, a consulting engineer 1965- 69, and he formed Harbinger Corporation, a new engineering firm, in 1969 in Bellevue, Wash., with SigEp brother Norm Allworth '57 (dec.). Harbinger Corporation merged with Wood & Association in 1970 and became Wood/Harbinger Inc., which eventually had 100 employees. Alan retired at the end of 1999. He has two daughters, Elizabeth and Mary, with his late wife, Pamela, and he lives in Bellevue, Wash. Donald J. Stastny '65 closed his architectural office in 2010 after 35 years, but kept his practice (without staff and overhead) and continues consulting nationally and internationally in design and design selection processes. He and his wife, Jan (Tri Delta 1966), have been married for 54 years and split their time between Cannon Beach and their condo in Oregon. They have three children who live in Bend, Ore., Boise, Idaho, and NYC; they also have six grandsons, who are all in college. "Life is good." Email: djstastny@me.com Jay Widmer '70 retired from his ceramics program in 2015 after 34 years. He's growing a forest in the coast range and has a studio and woodfired anagama kiln. Jay shares that life in good and that he's still making pots. He lives in Corvallis, Ore. Email: widmeranagama@comcast.net Randy L. Everett '91 has been fortunate to parlay his life experience of going through a bone marrow transplant for leukemia to a 25-plus-year career in biopharmaceuticals. His department plays a role in delivering new oncology treatments to oncologists to help those with a cancer diagnosis. Randy and his wife, Michele, live in Lake Oswego, Ore. Email: rleverette1@icloud.com Michael Kiever '19 moved to San Francisco, Calif., in February and joined the sales team at DocuSign HQ. He works in the same office as several SigEps from the SDSU chapter. Email: kiever89@gmail.com Alumni News O regon Alpha Chapter prides itself on balancing fraternal activities and academics. Over the Fall and Winter, we held the top GPA out of all OSU fraternities. We remain involved on campus and participate in many community service events, such as the blood drive, as well as enthusiastically play in intramural sports. is past Winter term we had three members win intramural championships: Zachary Brentano '23, Kellar McCarthy '23, and Jakob McCreery '23. In terms of our philanthropy, we put on a great Sweethearts Ball without our usual fundraiser. Alternative means of fundraising included making plates of chocolate-covered strawberries for those near campus to purchase. In addition to the accomplishments of Oregon Alpha, individual brothers have been recognized as outstanding men on campus. Robert Naemura '20 and Rujul Kumar '22 won the award of upperclassmen of the year and underclassmen of the year respectively. As you can imagine, the pandemic has had a significant impact on Oregon Alpha. The chapter house closed early last spring, and in the following two semesters our occupancy has been less than 50%. Given all that, brothers have worked hard developing ways to interact with each other while remaining safe. With the help of weekly COVID testing from the school, we've ensured that the brothers living in the house are happy and healthy. We strive for events that allow us to bond with each other without posing any risk, such as watching Oregon State sporting events in the common areas, eating meals together in the dining area, or playing basketball in the back lot. Some may argue that it is difficult to establish meaningful bonds during these trying times, but we have managed it well, knowing that there are plenty of brothers around that have our back at all times. Another result of the pandemic is that the chapter has gone without an in-house meal program for the time being. It's been an adventure seeing how the brothers have adapted to cook for themselves. One of our freshman members from Alaska brought boxes of crab with him after Winter break. These experiences give us some peace of mind that we will not be eating grilled cheese sandwiches post-college. ADAPTING AND THRIVING Oregon Alpha Navigates a Challenging Year Lastly, in terms of recruitment, we welcomed 32 members in the Fall; 26 remain. This retention rate is less than normal; some don't want to pay the price of tuition at Oregon State while everything is online and others have opted to leave OSU for a local community college for the time being. In the Spring, VP of Recruitment Kellar McCarthy '23 hosted a few events for potential new members. At the time of writing (early April), we hope to have five to seven new recruits before we start planning for our Summer and Fall recruitment. COVID has certainly made the process tough, but we have been creative with virtual and distant events, such as a game night over Zoom and small events outside. You, our alumni, are a valuable source of referrals of potential new members. Please contact Kellar McCarthy at (503) 330-7585 or mccakell@oregonstate.edu with your recommendations. We're all looking forward to the Fall and the likelihood that chapter operations will return in full, allowing us all to experience and affirm the wonderful Oregon Alpha collegiate experience. Fraternally, Mason Bituen '23, Chapter President bituenm@oregonstate.edu Brothers help clean up the landscaping around the chapter house. President Mason Bituen '23 (front) admires our chocolate-covered strawberries. VP Programming Eric Watt '23 (not pictured) led the making of them to raise money for sweethearts.

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