Fall Smoker 2014

The SKuLL

Fall Smoker 2014

Special Edition | October 25 2014 | aepks.com

ALPHA EPSILON OF PHI KAPPA SIGMA NEWSLETTER

EDITOR-IN- CHIEF Jihad Zeid (Upsilon)

Executive Board

Patrick Schlomas (Alpha) Brian Raddatz (Beta) Jason DiBabbo (Pi) Collin Dunn (Iota) Alexander Jacobs (Sigma) Tyler Seppala (Tau) Brian Collins (Delta)

Officers

Grayson Watson (Theta 1) Richard Shepherd (Theta 3) Thomas Gonnot (Webmaster) Brian Collins (Judicial Board)

Other Active Members Evan James Austin Ryan Anderson Dakota Betts Krishen Stewart Blows John D’Ortenzio Martin Dillon Cedric Elam Daniel Fallon Dan-Stefan Florescu William Fox Rishi Goomar Benjamin Grimmer Eddie Ho Antonio Hudson George Kim Chuck Kozel Christopher King Kasey Klynstra Lei Ling Troy Makulec Hayden McDuffee Peter Marcianor Colin McQuone Alexander Mitchell Elmar Okanovic Mitchell Politt Scott Schwimmer Braden Sentz Richard Stevenson Charles Sommers IV Adam Summner Bill Sliwinski Jacob Waksmacki Kraig Van Wieringen Charlie Yonts Perry Zhang

Resident Advisor Paul Orawiec

From the

Housing Corp. Desk Dear Brothers, It has been a wonderful privilege to continue to serve as President of the Housing Corporation this past year. I am incredibly grateful for what has now become an “Alpha Epsilon TRADITION” of sustained and continued success in the areas of scholarship, alumni involvement, and financial and chapter management.

Of course great success doesn’t happen without great people. I want to personally thank all of the active brothers for their continued hard work, and all of the alumni volunteers who dedicate their time and passion to our great Fraternity. I am sure I will leave out many, but I want to make sure I recognize the rest of the HC board members: Doug Opicka, Dylan Easley, Chuck Sticha, Ed Chiem, Alex Callow, Sean McCann, Joe Muchna, and Alek Babel. Additionally, I also want to recognize our Chapter Advisor, Leo Bassett, and our Resident Advisor, Paul Orawiec.

I am happy to report another prolific year in financial support to our Chapter. The HC board has allocated $150,000 in scholarships and textbooks for the 2014/15 academic year from the Carroll K. Simons Fund. In addition, we have allocated over $30,000 in Chapter House improvements (which includes a new furnace for the 3rd floor study room, a new baby grand piano, and an industrial refrigerator for the kitchen) and $25,000 for educational programming (which includes funding for Grand Chapter and the Carroll Simons Institute). Finally, we are proud to host the Fall and Spring Smokers and are happy to see an increase in attendance year after year.

I encourage all Brothers to not only read this incredible Newsletter to get to up to date, but to visit our Chapter House and introduce yourself personally to our Active Brothers and recent graduates. Lastly, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me with any questions or comments through our website, www.aepks.com, Facebook page, www.facebook.com/aepks, or through the Chapter House, located at 3366 S. Michigan Ave. Fraternally,

Chapter Advisor Leo Bassett Gary Doman

Designed by

Fernando F Mier

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Michael J. Wright AE 2005

A Message from the Chapter’s Alpha By: Patrick Kevin Schlomas Brothers, It is a tremendous privilege to serve as president to the outstanding undergraduates of Phi Kappa Sigma’s Alpha Epsilon Chapter.

Entering the new academic year our active and alumni brothers alike strive to answer the question of how we can continue to write even better passages into our 116-year history as a Chapter and our 164-year history as a Fraternity.

I know that we are capable of both meeting and exceeding the challenge we have left for ourselves.

To recap, the awards banquet of the 97th Grand Chapter in Nashville, Tennessee saw Alpha Epsilon taking home ten awards for the past two academic years, the Founders’ Cup and Carroll K. Simons Outstanding Chapter Award among them. Back on campus we took both Greek Week Championship and Chapter of the Year Award for the second year in a row. The Skulls have exhibited themselves once more as exemplary academics, leaders and people at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

What, then, are we doing to advance our legacy of excellence today? We started the semester in mid-August on a trip to Backbone State Park for a four-day planning retreat. With cell phones made useless in the wooded oasis of rural Iowa, the brothers bonded through camping, canoeing and thoughtful discussion around the campfire. Goals for the semester and year were set on the trip, covering what we aim to complete in the fields of philanthropy, brotherhood, social events, alumni relations, academics, and recruitment.

Closing retreat and feeling refreshed we were ready to take on recruitment week. Brother Brian Collins and crew set the stage for an excellent Fall rush with low-key events like Taco Night and Laser Tag. With all hands on deck we were able to meet our Fall pinning goal of 25 new members. We are well on track to fill the Chapter House to capacity as the number of quality members continues to grow.

Now over a month into the semester at the time of this writing the brothers have shown no signs of slowing down when it comes to strengthening the bonds we have with each other and with the campus community as a whole. Brothers of all years have taken a strong initiative in (but not limited to) fundraising for LLS, coordinating brotherhood activities in and outside of the house, scheduling social events with sororities and The Bog, fielding Greek Football and intramural soccer teams, holding office in Greek Council, encouraging physical fitness through running and cycling, hosting regular Bible studies, and supporting all that the brothers choose to do for themselves and others.

Looking deeper into everyone’s incredible efforts I see a common love for the brotherhood and an unwavering commitment to the Fraternity and its values. What I hope to take with me from here, as I inch closer to the end of my undergraduate career, is everlasting friendship and a diverse support group that I trust like none other. I send my heartfelt thank you to all the undergraduates and alumni that continue to make Phi Kappa Sigma an organization to which I consider myself forever indebted.

Stellis Aequus Durando

Fraternally,

Patrick Schlomas Class of 2015

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PHIKAPPASIGMA

A L P H A E P S I LO N “ T H E S K U L L” FA L L S M O K E R 2 0 1 4

A SUMMARY OF ALL WHAT WE DID THIS PREVIOUS 2013-2014 ACADEMIC YEAR AND MORE...

Welcome to Fall Smoker 2014!!!

Our Time at the 97th Grand Chapter

By: Krishen Blows

This year, Grand Chapter was held in Nashville Tennessee, and we sent a moderate ­sized group of brothers down there, taking up three different cars.

We broke the journey in Geff, Illinois, where the Dunn family graciously hosted us for the night. Then, the adventure really began, as we set off for Music City. Upon arriving, none of us expected how amazing it would be.

The proceedings were scattered across the weekend, and it was awe­ inspiring to be doing actual Fraternity

business with brothers from Chapters all over the country, but I think we were all expecting to be amazed by the proceedings.

What we were most surprised by is how amazing a city it was. When we were not on official Phi Kap business, we spent our time out and about in Nashville, eating southern comfort food, with six different kinds of barbecue sauce, enjoying the sights and sounds of the city, and taking a trip to the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Our days passed quickly between these things and Fraternity business, and the

nights became just as exciting. Some of us wandered the city, seeing the town lit up and taking pictures of the night life, while many of us went to the local bars which were full of live music.

Many of us were on our feet singing and dancing until late into the night, and I don’t think any of us will ever forget Doug and the Hostess at Lonnie’s Karaoke bar singing a duet of the Phantom of the Opera. Each day was exhausting with everything we were doing, but each morning we woke up, eager to do it again.

To continue on the next page....

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98th Grand Chapter will be back in Chi-town!

We all left Nashville changed men, inspired by the official proceedings to better our Chapter, and inspired by the city to visit again. There is still the occasional conversation that percolates through the house about how we should visit Nashville again soon, and since the trip, most of those who went now listen to quite a bit more country music than before they left.

I would even go as far to say that most of us in attendance consider it one of the best trips we’ve ever taken. I guess you could say that we like our Grand Chapters like we like our women... All Nash­a­Ville.

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Congratulations to our new Executive Committee!

Grand Grand Grand Grand Grand Grand Grand

Alpha: Douglas W. Opicka, IIT '97 Beta: Mike Palladino, Georgia Tech '06 Tau: Hamilton F. Smith, Richmond '83 Pi: Sean McCann, IIT '07 Sigma: Dave Smith, New Hamphire '06 Theta: Kevin Olsavsky, Psi '86 Theta: Rick Correz, Beta Rho '94

We received a lot of interest from newcomers during this night, and that fueled the rest of the week for us.

Every event had an incredible turnout, and I think that is what made this week such a great experience this year, for older and younger members alike.

At the beginning of the week, we had events like sand volleyball and even got a taco company to come cater an event. I believe that the highlight event of the week turned out to be our Laser Tag event that we co-hosted with the lovely ladies of Kappa Phi Delta.

At the end of this crazy recruitment period, it felt nice to finally relax after how much time we as a chapter put into this week. I am proud to say that at the end of the week we handed out 33 bids and ended up pinning 25 new members.

Members of Alpha Epsilon socializing during Rusk Week

How We Did This ...

Rush Week of Fall 2014

By: Brian Collins

As always, this year’s Fall semester recruitment proved to be hectic, a little stressful, and undoubtedly an incredible amount of fun.

As the current Chi, I enjoyed taking control of this jam-packed week and helping our chapter recruit as many new members that we believed fit our bill as Men of Honor.

Taste of the Quad kicks off every Fall recruitment week, which is a night where all the houses prepare food, Greek Council rents inflatables, and we can welcome incoming students and get to meet many of them on campus.

Like every year, this event was a huge success for our chapter—due in part to our amazing food selection, which included beer braised ribs, teriyaki chicken, peanut butter chicken, and sour cream and jalapeno taquitos.

This is a tremendous accomplishment for our chapter because this is the largest pledge class in recent memory.

Hopefully moving forward we can continue this amazing success in future recruitment weeks.

I think a big factor that helped us achieve so much success was that the chapter as a whole was excited and bought into what we wanted to accomplish for recruitment.

I could not be more excited for these new guys to learn about our Fraternity and gain knowledge going through the new member program.

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Pledge Class of Fall 2014

Mentoring the Next Generation of AE Skulls By: Bill Sliwinski With pinning complete, the new members are well on their way to becoming successful Skulls. As I am writing this, they are almost halfway through the eight week New Member Education program. They have learned many chapters worth of knowledge on the Fraternity, as well as succeeded on passing their weekly quizzes.

This is a bright class, and I know they will contribute greatly to our Fraternity for many years to come. However, the education does not stop as soon as 8 | AEPKS.COM Fall Smoker 2013

the eight weeks are up. Just like all of us, these new members will continue to learn what it means to be a Man of Honor well after their pledge process ends.

how they can apply these values to improve themselves. We hope to inspire these young men to continue to strive to make themselves better each and every day.

Collin, as the New Member Educator, and I, as the New Member Mentor, hope to not only explain what our fraternity is about, but also how to apply what we teach in real life. Each weekly meeting we spotlight a specific core value.

With the help of various team-building exercises and activities we hope to build brotherhood amongst this pledge class so they get an idea of how brotherhood will play a role in their lives once they are initiated.

Through this, they are not only learning what makes a good Phi Kap, but also

On the topic of brotherhood, the eight week program will end with a retreat for the New Members. On

this retreat, they will learn the basics of brotherhood building, conflict resolution as well as successful recruitment techniques.

We hope to show them the progress they have made throughout the eight weeks as well as inform them of what to expect once they are no longer New Members.

Although Collin and I have a major role in educating this class on what our organization stands for, it is also up to every brother, active or alumni, to help guide these men on their journey to becoming Phi Kaps.

an active role in helping show what it means to be a Phi Kap. Without the large network of brothers, I wouldn’t know half as much as I do about the Fraternity. Skull Sessions can only teach so much about Phi Kappa Sigma. It is the experiences these New Members will have, along with the stories told by brothers, which will truly educate them.

All in all, these New Members already exemplify a good foundation for being Men of Honor. It is through the Education process, as well as help from the brothers, that we hope to refine them into the perfect Phi Kaps.

Dunn and I do not know everything, and we hope that all of you will take

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Greek Week Dance Off

Brotherhood is more than skin deep...

And is how we secured Our Place as Champs!

By: Colin Dunn Much like the Greek Weeks before it, Greek Week 2014 was highly anticipated by not only the Skull House, but by the rest of the Quad as well.

Through all the stress, planning, organization, and practice, though, we consistently got the most important things out of the week: great fun, great Greek community, and great Brotherhood.

The target was on our back this year, as we had to defend our crown as the reigning Greek Week Champions.

Many houses began preparing far in advance of the hallowed week-long April event, and the Skull House was no exception to that.

The week kicked off with the performance of our skit, which revealed our theme for the week: Space Jam. Brother Krishen Blows, as per usual, took the plot of the movie “Space Jam” and twisted it to fit the Skulls. After having a few cringe-worthy jokes and a fake kiss scene between “Lola Bunny” and “Bugs Bunny” added, the skit was

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performed to perfection, leading to our first event victory of Greek Week 2014.

Monday brought two of the Skulls’ best events: 8-Man and Quiz Bowl. 8-Man saw the Skulls take 2nd place, narrowly missing another victory by just over half a second. Quiz Bowl proved to be the comeback of the week, as we made a second half comeback en route to winning by a single point.

Wednesday brought two different Egg Toss events (Long Toss and Team Toss) during lunchtime. Team Toss resulted in a 2nd place finish, losing by only half

Saturday night’s Dance-Off event.

With the Photo Tag Contest and Spirit Points yet to be announced, the Skulls were leading by a slim margin coming down to the wire, causing much anxiety amongst the Quad. As the final scores for the week were about to be revealed, it came down to Skulls and Triangle for the top two places.

A moment of silence fell across the crowd as the winner was announced: “The Skulls!” A roar came over the crowd as the Skulls erupted into cheers and all the chapters congratulated each other on a great week of community and fun. A narrow five and a half point victory brought the Skulls our second Greek Week Championship in a row.

Pat Schlomas having fun during greek week

an egg after penalties were assessed.

Long Toss, a longtime forte of ours, resulted in our winning the event for the sixth time in the last seven years.

Wednesday night offered an opportunity for all the chapters to hear a presentation by a guest speaker, and 84% of active Skulls were in attendance.

The Thursday night event, a philanthropy night, saw over half of the active Skulls come to help make care packages for soldiers overseas.

Friday’s lunchtime event was Batspin, which led to a narrow 2nd place finish, missing 1st place by only two seconds.

Cart Race was Saturday’s event, as Brothers pushed our hand-made cart and another Brother navigated the obstacle course. Our outstanding time trial led to a tie for 1st place for the event. Friday night into Saturday morning saw a team of Brothers pull an all-nighter to produce cupcakes and a fully-edible display that represented our theme.

This great week wouldn’t have been possible without massive amounts of organization, leadership, dedication, and Brotherhood. A huge thanks to all of the Brothers (both Actives and Alumni) who contributed in any capacity.

From well wishes to event participation to cheering at events, all support was greatly appreciated. All victories and titles aside, Greek Week 2014 brought out some of the best things in the Phi Kappa Sigma Brotherhood: hard work, dedication, support, and camaraderie.

The secret ingredient assigned to us for the event was Sour Patch Kids, and we earned a solid 4th place in Cupcake Wars. A week of choreography and a Brother-made mix track were all the Skulls needed to earn 5th place in AEPKS.COM Fall Smoker 2013 | 11

Greek Council Executive Board 2014

We’re better Phi Kapps when we prepare for the future...

Greek Council and the Greek Community By: Richard Stevenson For the past two semesters I have had the pleasure of serving as President of the Illinois Tech Greek Council. I think that the Greek Community here at IIT has never been stronger and I am very proud to call this Community home.

This academic year has started off very strong. Recruitment numbers across the quad were above average. The nine Greek Letter organizations gave out more than 130 bids, and currently we have more than 120 new members.

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This year the council has started to track the people we have going through recruitment. This will allow the council to provide metrics to the community regarding the number of people going through recruitment, the number of people receiving bids, and also the number of people receiving bids in following semesters.

We feel that these metrics will be able to help the community grow and also create strategic planning moving forward.

The council also hosted New Member Academy. NMA is an afternoon long retreat where the council presents on programming, utilization of campus resources, team building, and ice breaker challenges.

The council also welcomes the IIT Student Health and Wellness Center to present on different topics. This afternoon was well-attended and the information was well received and I hope that all of the teachings will be put into good use in tenure here at Illinois Tech.

banner, and dance-off. In addition to those we added a secret event which was a picture hunt around town where members had to take pictures of different objects and places. The week went off without a hitch, and the icing on the cake was the Phi Kaps being victorious for the second straight year.

I am hopeful that this community will continue to experience this time of growth and strength. It has been an honor to represent the Greek Community to the university. I am hopeful for the community to continue to grow and be as successful as it has been in the past year.

Greek Council has gone through some changes in my term as well. I have moved the Greek Council meetings back into the chapter homes.

process of moving into our new office in MSV dorm East Hall. This space will provide us with much needed storage and meeting space.

This has increased the sense of community, transparency, and promoted collaboration on the quad.

In addition to moving the meetings into the homes, I have instituted office hours for all of the executive members of the council. This allows members from the different chapters to reach out to the board on a weekly basis.

One of the major arms of Greek Council is our programming arm. By the time of publishing we will have hosted our Formal.

The council has also increased its collaboration with the office of Residence and Greek Life by utilizing the Student Leadership Office.

Additionally, we are currently in the

This year’s Greek Formal was held at the Mid-America Club on the 80th floor of the AON Center. Other programming events have been our midnight madness events, snowball fights, cookie decorating contests, and of course Greek Week.

AON center was chosen as the the location of the 2014 Greek Formal heald during Greek Week

Of course Greek Week went well with the standard events of 8-man, tug, skit,

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This is the “TEAM IN TRAINING”

Together we are stronger...

Experiences Training for the Chicago Marathon By: Ben Grimmer

Two other brothers, Krishen Blows and William Fox, and I are running the 2014 Chicago Marathon as charity runners for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS). Together, we have raised more than $3500 for LLS. During the Spring semester of 2014, the three of us decided to run the Chicago Marathon. We found out that we could run on behalf of LLS (Phi Kappa Sigma’s national philanthropy partner) if we each raised $1000. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is the largest notfor-profit health agency dedicated to finding cures for people with leukemia, lymphoma or myeloma—collectively 14 | AEPKS.COM Fall Smoker 2013

known as blood cancers. They have one goal: a world without blood cancers.

The race is on October 12th and all of our training has gone well so far; so we anticipate meeting our goals. We currently have each raised at least $1000 through donations from friends and family, multiple fundraising events including two spaghetti dinners on the quad, and funding from Alpha Epsilon as needed.

During our spaghetti dinner fundraisers, Brother Blows and I agreed to run laps of the quad during the entire event (two hours). In addition to that, we agreed to wear anything people brought us while

we ran. I never expected to run around the quad in a dress, a tutu, full-body flannel pajamas, or a very feminine Robin Hood costume. However for charity, I wore all of them in the same, very sweaty day. Many of our fundraising events couldn’t have happened without help from a number of brothers. So thank you Collin Dunn, Alexander Jacobs, and many others.

Training and raising money has kept us busy the past four months, but has absolutely been worth it. I hope our chapter can have brothers run the marathon each year as another way we continue to support LLS.

and performance courses at Vandercook; some, like myself, intend on integrating these talents into our careers some day, perhaps creating software for music development or mixing consoles.

This is not to say that music is a new thing for Skulls, as our Alpha and chief music aficionado, Patrick Schlomas, has been broadening Brothers’ interests in less-mainstream genres of music from old-school jazz to neo-folk, cloud rap, and noise music. A lot of these unfamiliar sounds really struck a chord with me, the most important of which being my new-found, unhealthy addiction with anything John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and – surprisingly unironically – Yung Lean.

Brothers playing music at the BOG (IIT’s Bar & Rec Center)

Skull House Rock!!!

By: Richard Shepherd

Looking outside of the Skull House, leaves of crimson and coral envelop the ground as this mild summer inevitably encroaches upon October.

To many this means winter is coming, to others it means the return of the dreaded midterm, but to some it harkens back the melancholic melody of the song that Nat King Cole helped to popularize: “Autumn Leaves”.

For as long as anyone here can remember, amongst the gaggle of geeks and gamers

in the Skulls, we’ve always had our fair share of musicians. Occasionally these musicians have come together to participate in IIT’s Battle of the Bands, or played on the front porch, but there has never really been a consistent amount of musical collaboration and jamming; that is, not until this semester.

The Chapter took its first step toward dabbling with our creative side after gaining resident Vandercook-ie, Arthur Sommers, a music education major from our neighboring campus.

Since this annexation, a number of Brothers have been taking music theory

Having started to dabble in jazz guitar over the summer and wanting to form a jam group in the House, it was surprisingly easy to find a bass player (Al Mitchell) and drummer (Adam Sumner) who wanted to share this experience in jazz, blues, and fusion. After a couple funky jam sessions, we decided to really make the House band name, Skull Sessions, true to its moniker by playing jazz at future Skull social events.

A couple weeks later is when Skull Sessions gained piano player, RA Paul Orawiec, who was willing to express his ability at the keys and lend us his talent.

Around winter last year, the House purchased a beautiful Yamaha baby grand piano, so it will be quite rewarding to see its first appearance at a Skull event.

I hope to write about this group again, as well as future musical endeavors at the Skull House, but until that time I’m content with listening to smooth jazz being played by Skull Sessions, obnoxiously-loud rap blasting at any hour of the day on 3rd Deck, and the inhuman, guttural screams of Brothers who just learned that they have three midterms on the same day.

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We’re glad to have you back!

We’re better Phi Kapps when we prepare for the future...

Greek Council and the Greek Community By: Johnny Crouch This past school year I was attending Messiah College in Pennsylvania. I transferred there from IIT because I was looking to find a cheaper, closer-tohome college situation that would still suit my academic/career endeavors and also provide a wider and greater array of extracurricular activities than IIT; Messiah fit the bill.

away during the welcome weekend.

Upon arriving to my new school, I noticed the stark differences right

he class schedules were on the hour instead of 75 minute intervals, and

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There was a small cheer section of a few campus life employees when I showed up to sign in, activities galore, inter-dormitory competitions, a church service, and a community service time for each orientation group.

As soon as classes started I noticed a significant difference in the extroverted nature of the campus as a whole and outgoing advertising style for all of the student organizations. T

there were mini church services every Tuesday and Thursday morning before classes started; and, my goodness, the dorm food was significantly…different than what I had become accustomed to at IIT. However, it was not all sunshine and rainbows plus Jesus. My leaving Alpha Epsilon had left a serious whole in my life, as I had spent most of the previous two years hanging around Skulls. I had become accustomed to living in a closely knit community of brothers and having a brotherly relationship with my roommate before moving into Messiah.

Without the love, support, and daily fun that I found in the brotherhood, I started to flounder early and was having significant trouble passing my classes.

There was also significantly less forgiveness for swearing, which though good for me in the long run, did not help my demeanor. I eventually did find a core group of friends to get me through and spent more time at professors’ office hours and I ended up finishing the year with above a 3.00 GPA. Upon returning to the Skull house, I noticed a significant change in my attitude toward fraternity life and the university as a whole. I truly learned

to appreciate everything that the house provided me with as well as the very direct courses of study that IIT perpetuates.

Messiah, on the other hand, was very liberal-artsy (40 credit hours of general education requirements), mandated students to live on campus unless they had commuter status, and had a multitude of rules about conduct on the campus including bans on drinking and the presence of the opposite sex in dorms late at night.

All in all, I learned the true power and advantage of being in a great Fraternity. I came to realize all that the brothers had taught me had put me on a different level than other students, which made the necessary rules for some feel unnecessary and imposing to me.

Above all else, I learned how important brotherhood, perseverance, and integrity are; it was Phi Kappa Sigma that taught it to me.

These added rules felt particularly coddling to me because I had grown accustomed to making my own decisions and having to be accountable to myself.

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The Fall 2014 Pi Plan:

Going Above and Beyond to Excel By: Jason DiBabbo

If you ask any brother here at Alpha Epsilon, we take studying very seriously. Some of us may have a harder time than others doing it, but we’re here to back each other up no matter what.

The harsh reality of school is that there will be times when we don’t perform our best. During the transition from spring 2014 to fall 2014, we had a small handful of brothers go onto academic probation. What that means is that they either didn’t meet our GPA requirement or didn’t complete the necessary amount of credit hours. While it may not be good, there’s always help here for the brothers who are having trouble.

The 2014 Pi Plan covers the expectations I have of the chapter; which include having the 18 | AEPKS.COM Fall Smoker 2013

brothers establish their own personal goals, dedicating certain hours in the house as study hours, and setting up academic initiatives.

I’ve also continued somewhat of a tradition of ours, which is to encourage brothers to study together and to report the results of time to me. To further encourage studying together, I’ve assembled an index of all class subjects that brothers in the house feel comfortable tutoring others. I’ve also brought back an attendance sheet for the semester to encourage brothers to attend more classes by tracking how many they’ve missed. Finally, I’ve been working on taking our old cabinet of tests and quizzes (named the Pi files) and getting them scanned and available for download.

However, there have been some complications with the house computer and

the project has fallen to the backburner as a result. When everything is good and ready, brothers will be able to scan documents and report that for points. Participating in any/ all of the previously mentioned academic initiatives will enter brothers into a raffle to be rewarded with Amazon gift cards.

There will also be an active movement towards a more academically friendly environment in the house this semester.

Over the most recent fall retreat, the chapter decided that the Pi should do a bi-weekly check of the condition of study areas in the house and make a brief report about his findings. I’ll be working over the semester to make sure that our brothers can find a place to study uninterrupted.

We’ve experienced a good amount of growth from last semester (with two brothers increasing their GPAs by at least .8 points) and I’m looking forward to even more growth with the new environment and the new members we’ve brought into our Chapter.

Closing Remarks Skulls Gallery 2013 - 2014

We want to thank all of our alumni because without you none of this would be possible. I hope you enjoy this issue of “The Skull” and read the next volume on our Spring Smoker.

- Jihad Zeid

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Brother Mike Sm it and Michelle Davidson durin g Graduation

Brother Ryan Sutton and Gwen Parker during Graduation

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Brother Mike Sm it and Michelle Davidson durin g Graduation

Brother Ryan Sutton and Gwen Parker during Graduation

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