Sigma Chi - University of Virginia

www.psiofsigmachi.com Brothers Excel After Leaving Charlottesville Psi Chapter Looks Forward to Fall Semester T he Psi Chapter of Sigma Chi looks forward to a fulfilling and exciting fall semester at the University of Virginia. Completing the 2013 academic year with an average GPA of 3.3, the Psi Chapter continues to demonstrate its commitment to holding high academic standards. It has been bittersweet waving goodbye to the class of 2013, but we are excited to welcome 24 new pledge members into the Chapter this fall. Recent Alumni Succeed After Graduation Our recent graduates are moving on to a wide variety of impressive positions in their first year out of school. Our graduates joined firms like Blackstone, Deutsche Bank, Accenture, Harris Williams, and Houlihan Lokey. We are also very excited that several young alumni are part of Teach for America, Venture for America, and other teaching programs abroad. We wish all of our graduates the best of luck in the working world and hope they will return to the University often to stay connected with the undergraduate Chapter. We welcome all Psi alumni to join us at these great events. Chapter Plans Upcoming Events With undergraduate members back on the Grounds, the Chapter calendar continues to fill with academic programming, leadership opportunities, Brotherhood events, and social functions. An annual white-water rafting trip, a Wild, Wild West party, and a '90s-themed social are all planned for this fall. With these events and more in the works, all Brothers are looking forward to spending time together. Charlottesville continues to be an exciting place for the Psi Chapter, and we hope everyone will continue to stay in touch. In Hoc, Morgan Lupton '15 Tribune Alumni Encouraged to Connect with Chapter We hope to see many alumni at the Annual Pig Roast on October 26. This event will allow alumni to reconnect with their pledge Brothers and get to know all the undergraduate members. The Chapter will also host tailgates at the Lawn rooms of Brothers Jeff Roberson '14 (27), Nick Cafero '14 (49), and Michael Bugas '14 (51). Sigma Chi Alumnus Helped Preserve the Honor System Thomas Hall '02 Served as Honor Committee Chairman during 2001 Scandal I n the fall of 1998, Thomas Hall '02 was introduced to Peter Leary '00 at an event at Alumni Hall. At the time, Peter was a Vice Chairman of the University's student-run Honor Committee. Little did Thomas know, Peter would influence him over the years as a student and as a leader on the Grounds. "Sigma Chi was a great experience for me," Thomas said. "There were all sorts of leaders in the house, leaders like Peter. There were student leaders in the Chapter House and they all did things at U.Va. that set a great example." Thomas would quickly become a leader in Sigma Chi and on the Grounds, through his involvement on the Honor Committee. The University's Honor System was founded in 1842 based in part on values and ideals set forth by Thomas Jefferson. It is administered only by students elected to the Honor Committee and only students serve as jurors at honor trials. If a student is caught in a significant act of lying, cheating or stealing, and the act is committed with knowledge, the Honor Committee administers the system that ultimately decides the student's guilt or innocence. While the student body elects each member of the Honor Committee, the Honor Committee itself selects its officers, including the Chairman. In 2000, when Thomas was a rising third year, he was elected to this prestigious office—a position usually held by a fourth-year student. "It was a 30- to 40-hour-a-week job on top of school work. then, suddenly, there were 150 cases all at once. I knew it was going to be an enormous workload and that we would spend hundreds of hours of student time on each case that went to trial," he said. "For a lot of people, it meant that involvement in the Honor Committee went from being a part time activity to a full time committment." It was a very serious responsibility, but it was something I had always wanted to do," he said. In April 2001, Thomas had just been re-elected as the first two-time Chairman in the Honor system's history. On a sunny, spring day that month, Sarah Hobeika, who served as an Honor advisor, walked in and said, "Thomas, you aren't going to believe what just came in the door." Just weeks before the end of the semester, Thomas was faced with more than 150 cases of cheating and plagiarizing committed by U.Va. students in Professor Louis Bloomfield's "How Things Work" physics class. As the Chairman of the Honor Committee he was responsible for overseeing the judicial process to determine the consequences for those accused students, some of whom would be permanently expelled from the University. For Thomas, the process required hours upon hours of work and investigation. "The previous year, there had been 60 cases of cheating. And The cheating scandal quickly gained national attention and Thomas was fielding calls from reporters for the New York Times and the Washington Post, all wanting comments on the situation. Thomas also appeared on CNN and on NBC's Today Show. "It was a big deal and people were paying attention," he said. "It made my last year of college a little bit different from everyone else's." Thomas graduated with a degree in history and government, next earning his master's degree at the London School of Economics,then his law degree at the University of Virginia. He served as the Psi chapter advisor from 2004 to 2006, then on the Psi House Corporation from 2007 to 2012. In 2006, Thomas married his Sigma Chi sweetheart, who is the same former Honor advisor who alerted him of the cheating scandal, Sarah. The couple has two daughters, Julia and Martha, and live in Washington, D.C., where Thomas works as a white collar prosecutor for the U.S. Department of Justice. In his free time, Thomas enjoys keeping up with U.Va. sports, traveling, and chasing around his two daughters. E-mail Thomas at tbwhall@gmail.com.

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