Grand Council

A Message from Past Grand Sage Palazzolo

Spending the last four years meeting brothers across North America was inspiring. When my term as Grand Sage started, we were still meeting in-person. After the pandemic put a stop to that, it was great to watch our brothers find new and creative ways to keep the Fraternity strong by using remote technologies. Now, with the pandemic largely behind us, it is gratifying to see the resilience of our chapters as record numbers of new members are being reported from coastto-coast. If there was ever any doubt about whether our chapters would bounce back stronger once college life returned to normal, then let that doubt be silenced because our young men are making history! And yet, there is so much more for all of us to do. For the first time in years, the crisis surrounding men in our society is receiving legitimate media coverage. College enrollments are dramatically decreasing in many areas of the country, including where we have a critical mass of chapters. Further, male college enrollment is down by more than 10% since 2019; some sources estimate the decrease in male enrollment as up to seven times larger than the decrease in female enrollment. On college campuses, an epidemic of loneliness grew in the years before the pandemic and was exacerbated by the lockdowns. And, unfortunately, men are the victims of more than 75% of suicides and drug overdoses. I have long maintained that Sigma Pi Fraternity cannot and should not try to be all things to all people. But, we can certainly be a point of light in the lives of college-aged men. We can work to ensure that the next generation of our brothers are uplifted, inspired, and mentored to be the engaged community leaders, family men, and visionaries of tomorrow. Now more than ever, an authentic, genuine approach to fraternalism - the type that should exist throughout Sigma Pi Fraternity - is needed in our country. At Convocation, I thanked several groups who stood out as points of light in the Fraternity. They included Past Grand Officers and alumni volunteers as well as many young alumni and undergraduates. Convocation was a time of celebration, but now we need to get to work. I ask all of you to make sure that Sigma Pi Fraternity is part of the solution to the problems plaguing college-aged men on campus and in our communities. I am eager to solve these problems with you, and especially within the Greater New Jersey Province, where more than 160 men gathered for their fall province workshop. If just a few of those men returned to their campuses and began working to solve these problems, then that is a major success, for which we should all be thankful. Spending four years as your Grand Sage leaves me humbled and grateful. Thank you, Sigma Pi Fraternity. Thank you for graciously opening your doors for the last four years as I traveled over 100,000 miles to meet thousands of our brothers. Thank you for your steadfast commitment to our Fraternity’s founding ideals to build the foundation of the future. Thank you for your powerful, vocal support of our undergraduate brothers in the face of the morally bankrupt who prejudge and condemn them just because they are fraternity men. When extremist administrators try to conquer, subdue, and suppress our brothers, thank you for leading the Fraternity’s efforts to educate, uplift, and inspire. Thank you for validating our work with your record-setting support of the Sigma Pi Educational Foundation over the last few years. But most importantly, though, thank you for ensuring the future of our great fraternity by working to make Sigma Pi Fraternity stronger tomorrow than it is today!

PAST GRAND SAGE Joe Palazzolo (Monmouth '00)