Sigma Phi Epsilon - University of Missouri

SigEp A PUBLICATION FOR ALUMNI OF MISSOURI ALPHA t SIGMA PHI EPSILON SPRING 2017 Tiger Heart Inside: Meet Me in St. Louis t 2 Missouri Alpha Receives Academic Achievement t 3 Welcome, New Members t 4 Alumni Support KeepS miSSouri AlphA ChApter Strong T he last few years at Mizzou have been very challenging in many ways. Stories about student protests, basketball team struggles, and enrollment declines have dominated the news. The media would let you believe that the sky is falling at ole Mizzou. In many ways, nothing could be further from the truth. New facilities are still being built. The football stadium complex is being expanded. Many academic programs at the university continue to be ranked among the best in public education. The women's basketball team has led the overall athletic program at the university to excellence never previously achieved. The news about the university's Greek System is also extremely misleading. Sure, some fraternities on campus have not changed with the times and their operations have been suspended. However, other fraternities are leading the way and are recapturing their relevance on college campuses. Our National Fraternity and Missouri Alpha Chapter are working diligently to be sure that we are part of the solution and not the cause of the problem. It is not easy as fraternities and sororities can be easy targets for negative exposure. Our chapter was one of the first at the university to modernize its facility. Now, many other Greek chapters have either completed renovations or have started to renovate or rebuild their chapter houses. SigEp was one of the first to implement the Balanced Man Program, which eliminates pledges and engages all members to develop throughout their undergraduate years. Although our program has not reached perfection yet, substantial progress has been made in the last year or so. Training and action plans continue to be put into place to accelerate our full implementation of this program. We monitor all members to ensure they live up to the principles of the fraternity and live up to certain standards such as academic performance. Last semester, SigEp ranked in the top eight fraternities in academic performance, something which has not occurred many times over the past 100 years. A common theme at Missouri Alpha is our alumni involvement. Outside observers almost always comment about the level of commitment shown by our alumni. Involvement is shown in many ways. We have several age groups of alumni that get together periodically for holiday lunches, after-work happy hours, summer float trips, and football tailgate parties. Last summer we had an alumni work weekend at the chapter house that was well attended. Everybody is welcome this summer! Of course, financial support is always important as we continue to keep our chapter house in good condition. We are in the process of updating our sign on the outside of the chapter house. The heart and pearls will be making a comeback! A group of alumni is leading the charge in honor of two recently deceased members, Tom Mulkey '74—in 1973, Tom scored the winning touchdown against Nebraska for a 13-12 victory—and Jim Lanigan '73. If you would like to contribute to the cause, please send me an e-mail at dlarusso@mpgtandem.com. Lastly, we hired Georgia Mosely as our new house director. She replaces Michelle Stadler, who left us for the University of Kentucky. Although we miss Michelle, who was our first full-time house director and served for approximately 40 years, I think everybody will love Ms. Mosely. Georgia likes to eat her meals with the guys and is really a neatness freak. Need we say, good luck! Fraternally, Dave LaRusso '76 Alumni Volunteer Corporation President dlarusso@mpgtandem.com Academic banners are given each semester to MU fraternities achieving the all-University average and above by the Missouri University Fraternity Consortium. For the fall 2016 semester, the all-University GPA was 3.076, and the Missouri Alpha GPA was 3.103, which ranks the chapter eighth among 35 fraternities. Cultivating Lifelong Brotherhood Adam Baer '85 Reflects on the Best Part of His Missouri Alpha Experience A dam Baer '85 could always count on his older brother, Terry Baer '80, for guidance, and that included his joining Sigma Phi Epsilon. Adam knew many of the members through his brother and helping Terry host summer recruitment parties and pig roasts. "They were just a great group of guys, and I knew well before I went to Mizzou that I would be joining Missouri Alpha," Adam remembered. While Adam lived in the chapter house he served as the executive vice president in charge of the physical structure. Then, when Adam returned to graduate school at Mizzou, he served as house father for two years. "The environment of the chapter house led to my personal growth in many areas, especially leadership. These experiences really helped prepare me to evolve from an 'engineer' to a 'business leader' later in my career," he said. (Continued on page 2)

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