Spring 2012

By Jordan Miller

It was a fantastic year overall for

SigEp intramurals. Working together and

living by their cardinal principles of virtue,

diligence, and brotherly love, SigEp was

able to capture their first EIU Intramural

Championship trophy since

2004-2005. Coming off a

close second place finish to

Sigma Pi last year, the men of

SigEp came out of the gates

fast in the fall semester, posed

to come away with a champi-

onship this year. Momentum

was quickly gained by the soc-

cer team, who beat Sigma Pi

in a nail biting game that went

to a five kick shootout. Down

two to zero in the shootout,

goalie Eric Fowler was able to

save three straight kicks by

Sigma Pi, and SigEp was able to score

three in a row in order to win the soccer

championship. Soccer was not the only

team to earn SigEp critical IM points en

route to their championship in the fall

semester. The bowling team, led by cap-

tain Tylor Carson, went 15-1 and won the

intramural bowling championship. As

well, the SigEp wiffleball team was able to

capture their second straight intramural

championship in a win over Sigma Nu.

Not only did SigEp compete aggressively in

team sports in the fall semester, but also

in individual and doubles events. Individ-

ual and doubles events winners include

Justin Rueter in the 3 point shootout,

Brandon Kane in the marine challenge,

and Jordan Miller and Kevin Linde in rac-

quetball doubles. These huge wins, ac-

companied by great showing in other

sports, including a second place finish in

football and powerlifting, put SigEp in the

lead going into spring semester by a

margin of 2880-2700 over Sigma Pi.

Coming back from winter break, the men of SigEp did not lose a step in their journey to become intra-mural champions. Also, much like the fall semester, it was a roller coaster ride in intramurals. With every sport, the lead in points over Sigma Pi was either won or lost. Through this, the men stayed focused on the goal and knew that it was a long road to the intramural championship. The semes-

ter was kicked off on the right foot by a huge all campus championship in indoor soccer, a team which featured many of the same players who won

the soccer championship earlier in the school year. The basketball team also found itself in its second straight champi-onship game, but fell just short of winning back to back intramural championships. Individual and doubles event win-

2012 Intramural Champions!!

Jeff Scott, Byron Bajorek, John Ciszewski, Greg Janes, Ryan

Martin, Joe Verbeke after winning all-campus in kickball.

By: John Wilson

Greek week is a hectic time of the

year. The number of things that are going on

can be overwhelming, but the men of Sigma

Phi Epsilon always do a good job of manag-

ing their time between school work and

practices for Greek Week events. Having

participated in Tugs, Greek Sing, and Jeffer-

son Fun Day, I have taken a lot out of this

year’s Greek Week. Tugs and Greek Sing

were both a great experience. These are

two of the ‘major’ events that take place

during the week. Practices usually ran from

7 o’clock to around 11 o’clock at night.

Along with schoolwork and other organiza-

tions that I am involved in, I was kept pretty

busy. However, I got to know a lot of the

new guys in the house, and have formed

friendships with lots of young men that I

would not normally have had the opportu-

nity to form.

Jefferson Fun Day has always been

one of my favorite parts of Greek Week. The

Greek community puts on a field day at Jef-

ferson Middle School. There are various

events that take place throughout the day

including arts and crafts, relay races, kick-

ball, and a dunk tank. It is an eye opening

experience to get to spend time with these

kids. They truly do look up to the young men

and women that are part of this University.

Having been in the dunk tank and played

kickball with these kids, you get to see this

first hand. The amount of respect that these

kids show towards us students shows how

grateful they are that we put in the time to

put on this event. I look forward to being

able to participate in one last Greek Week

and am excited to see the men of Sigma Phi

Epsilon excel once again.

Greek Week Overview 2012

Executive board

Stuart Shores

President

Mike Lehman Finance

Shane Johnson Programming

Kyle Benton Recruitment

Justin Emerson Membership Development

Vito Martinelli

Chaplin

Colin McGill Communications

Edited by

John Wilson

New members:

Alpha Omicron Class, Fall 2011

Orlando Vazquez Jordan Carroll

Matt Spontak Kyle Dombroski

Christian Simmons

Henry Simmers

Ethan Shores

Justin Rueter

John Parazma

Luke Mccullagh

Kevin Linde

Brandon Kane

Jon Jenson

Thomas Doyle

Pete Devorak

Seth Kurber

Rob Malkusak

Jarrod Marshall

Alpha Pi Class, Spring 2012 (as of print)

By: Dr. Charles Eberly

In the past several years mem-bers of the general media have made much of the idea of “helicopter parents” literally running interference for their col-lege student children in their daily lives, and involving themselves in the most mundane events, from conflicts with roommates, academic advising and choice of courses, to questioning the amount of work professors ask students in their courses to complete.

What is less hyped is that students whose parents are involved in their child’s life during college are more likely to be aca-demically successful, to graduate on time, with less debt, and with fewer hurdles to overcome than students whose parents are either not involved in their child’s col-lege activities, or are not aware of the practical meaning of various warning signs about their child’s academic and social success. Parents with children who are the first in their family to attend college

are among those less alert to know the “warning signs” and when their child needs help, and the child, who has no one in the family with prior college experi-ence, is also not aware they really need any special support.

One of the value-added benefits of mem-bership in a college fraternity for many men is the “family-like” atmosphere found among members in the good frater-nity. When older brothers watch over their younger brothers, and alert them to anticipate hurdles they must overcome, a good deal of support that is absent be-cause members of the man’s immediate family are not aware that support is needed, is overcome. One of the func-tions of the chapter standards board is to monitor brothers’ academic performance, to “call them up” before the standards board when their performance does not meet chapter standards (in Sig Ep, that means all men who earn less than a 2.5 GPA). As part of that process, men are asked to report their study hours, to seek

study skills and test taking skills develop-ment from the EIU Student Success Cen-ter, and are not permitted to attend se-lected social functions, among possible actions.

Does the dedicated work of men serving on the standards board under the leader-ship of the chapter’s Chaplin seem to be effective? Within Illinois Nu, chapter members’ average grades have been above the all-men’s average more than 85 percent of the time since the chapter was founded in 1990. This past semester, among nearly 70 men, only one was aca-demically dismissed, and only three were placed on warning. By comparison, the next nearest fraternity competitor across the same period of time has been above the all-men’s GPA 25 percent of the time. Supporting brothers when they are in need of assistance, as such, is one of the reasons that Illinois Nu is one of 117 out of 204 Sig Ep Chapters who made the Du-bach Dean’s List this spring for being above the all campus grade average.

“Helicopter Parents” Appreciated

By: Stuart Shores (smshores@eiu.edu)

With the current state of the

economy money has been tight for the

organization. Mike Lehman, the new Vice

President of Finance, has been conquering

all of our financial difficulties. With a na-

tional bill close to $6,000, Mike has been

able to pay off the bill without breaking a

sweat. A national bill, however, is not the

only problems thrown in our direction.

Being that the university owns the facility

housing we have to abide by the rules and

regulations which they have created. The

university has what’s called an empty bed

fee, which has been putting us in a slight

hole. Each room that is unoccupied is an

$800 fee. Our fine last semester was close

to $10,000. If this problem of not being

able to fill the house up with members

keeps reoccurring, I can assure you that

the organization will cease to exist. For

now, with the impressive work of Mike,

we have lived to see another year and will

continue to stress the importance of this

bill.

One highlight of the year, on a

social level, was regaining the relations of

the Alumni Volunteer Corps and success-

fully hosting what use to be an annual

event, the alumni golf outing. Shane John-

son, the Vice President of Programming,

has been putting in countless hours to

make everything run smoothly. Having

put together multiple functions and phi-

lanthropies, Shane deserves a well

needed summer vacation. Shane and I

would like to thank the families that at-

tended the annual Parent’s Banquet. With

your charitable contributions the chapter

was able to bring home close to $4,000,

which went directly to paying our bills.

We hope that you enjoyed the weekend

and hope to see you in the future.

Enrollment at Eastern Illinois

University has decreased by 8% in the

past year and is expecting an additional

10% decrease for the following academic

year. This plays a big factor in our recruit-

ing process headed up by Kyle Benton, the

Vice President of Recruitment. Kyle does

not see this as a problem for his future

job. He has recently put together a board

to work on the Balanced Man Scholarship.

The scholarship goes to an incoming

freshmen that has the qualities of what

we like to call the Balanced Man. He has

been in contact with the Alumni Board

Continued on Page 4-

Word From the President

“Helicopter Parents” Continued

Can Illinois Nu do better? Yes, the chapter can do better, since it has never held a semester GPA above a 3.O in its history. This spring’s goal is to meet that objective.

Now, What about Parents?

Parents can help support their sons by encouraging them to work with the staff of the Academic Success Center in 9th Street Hall if their GPA is a 2.5 or below. They can also help by encouraging their sons to register for the next semester’s classes at the earliest possible dates for registration for their class (freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior), as well as to make certain all financial aid docu-ments are completed in detail, and on time, and all student account charges have been paid. Many men do not keep track of the deadlines for registration, student loans, financial aid, and student accounts until they must react to something rather than anticipate what needs to be com-pleted. The same occurs during the semes-ter, about six weeks into classes when mid-terms start, and near the end of the se-mester when finals will occur.

If you ask your son how he is doing, the greatest likelihood is that he will say, “I’m

fine. Everything is good.” Please do not take that statement for an answer. Even though it seems to him that you are grill-ing him, ask him to explain in detail what his progress is in every single course, and what assignments are coming up in the next several weeks that he needs to antici-pate. If he gives you vague answers, ask him to make a list by date of upcoming assignments. Your questions, however intrusive they seem to him, will encourage him to plan ahead for what he needs to do to achieve his objectives. As many men say during chapter meeting, “Do what you need to do now, so you can do what you want to do in the future.”

Intramurls Continued-

this semester included Ryan Martin and Jason Engleheart, who won tennis dou-bles, Joe Sibley, who captured the pool and disc golf tournaments, and Jordan Miller, who won the basketball hot spots competition. When the semester began to wind down, it was still a nail biter of a competition between SigEp and Sigma Pi for who would capture the overall intra-mural points championship. With two weeks to go, four sports would decide who would be the intramural champion for the 2011-2012 school year. These

sports were flicker ball, softball, home run derby, and kickball. Finishing strong, SigEp was able to place third in both flicker ball and softball. The SigEp kickball team, led by captain Jeff Scott, now had all the pres-sure on them to win the championship. If they finished any lower the first place in kickball, the intramural championship was pretty much out of reach. The men of the kickball team stepped up huge and ended up winning the kickball all campus champi-onship. This championship, accompanied with a solid second place finish in home run derby to finish the intramural season, gave the men of SigEp their first intramu-ral championship in seven long years! Word From The President Continued~

and Dean Harwood, head of Greek life, to

get a list of the incoming freshmen for the

2012-2013 academic year. Something new

that Kyle has implemented is the Panther

Pal applicant process. On move in day a

number of members will help move in

freshmen to recruit and look for men in-

terested in Greek life. Kyle has been doing

a great job so far, and I believe that he will

have a very successful term.

Sigma Phi Epsilon, Illinois Nu Chapter

2103 12th St

Charleston, IL 61920