Mu chapter is back at Duke – and stronger than it’s ever been in dec-ades. Based on working with these young men in recent years I can assure you that we can be very proud of them and what they are trying to do. Our brothers are bright, energetic, and motivated. They are campus leaders in a number of organiza-tions, and very involved not only in the chapter but in activities all across Duke’s campus.

In these pages you’ll read about what they’re doing to benefit Push America, their efforts to secure housing on campus, and other recent developments. I want to encourage you to support these men in whatever ways you can. In particular, I’d encourage you to seek them out on caumps – whether it’s around Homecoming or Alumni Weekend – or even if you just happen to be on campus and see a brother wearing his let-ters.

I know that they can also use your financial support. They are close to launching a chapter investment fund, and I urge you to consider a donation if you can afford to do so. We all remember what it was like to be a “poor college student” – and if we can help a few young men be involved in the chapter who other-wise might not be able to do so, I think that’s a very worthwhile ob-jective.

Please feel free to contact me, or any of the members of Mu chapter, with any questions or feedback regarding their early achievements.

Anders Hall

ahall@dumac.duke.edu

I am pleased to report that our recent fundraising efforts for Push America have been very successful. Last semester, the broth-ers of the Mu chap-ter worked extremely hard and put to-gether the most suc-cessful PUSH Week since Duke received its recharter nearly four years ago.

In total, we donated just over $2,000 directly to PUSH America. Our most successful event was an Empathy Dinner that attracted roughly 150 people and featured food donated from local restaurants such as Johnny Carino’s and Mag-giano’s. In addition to the “empathy” aspect of the dinner – which gave guests a first-hand ex-perience dealing with disabilities – we hosted a Special Olympics ath-lete at the event who explained his struggles and triumphs in front of the entire dinner crowd. The speech was very moving, and we hope to arrange for another guest in our next PUSH Week.

The week’s festivities also included a “Pie Kappa Phi” pie booth run by

associate members and the use of wheelchairs to raise awareness for people with disabilities.

We have been hard at work this year to ensure that the Mu chapter has another successful year of phil-anthropic activity. In anticipation of a large crowd at one of Duke's large fall concerts, the brothers of the Mu chapter saw and acted on the op-portunity to raise money for Push America. A number of brothers spent the afternoon selling cotton candy and popcorn to students and ended up raising approximately $200. Last year, we also co-hosted with Alpha Delta Pi Sorority a tradi-tional North Carolina Pig Pickin’, a lunch event that served upwards of 200 people and raised over $1,250 for PUSH America.

This spring semester during our PUSH Week, we held our first Bike-A-Thon. Brothers took turns riding two exercise bikes on the Duke Plaza for 36 hours straight while collecting donations for Push America. The Mu Chapter is hard at work to raise awareness and raise donations for Push America, and is looking forward to our upcoming PUSH week this fall. Visit our Flickr for more event pictures.

ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS

1 | Mu Philanthropy

2 | Chapter advisor letter

2 | The quest for living section

2 | Treasury Update

3 | Leadership at Duke

4 | State of the chapter

July 2009

ΠΚΦ

Archon James Holcombe (right) and brother Matt Ogren (left) at the fall Pig Pickin’ with

Alpha Delta Pi sorority on the main quad to raise money for PUSH America.

PUSH Chair

David Piccirilli

Newsletter Created by Historians Nicholas

Laucis and Brendan Saslow

Chaplain Brian Adams took on the Gear Up

Florida Challenge, biking with other Pi-

Kapps from around the nation to raise

money for PUSH America. To hear his story,

visit our blog at dukepikapp.wordpress.com

JOIN US FOR

HOMECOMING WEEKEND

September 25 - 27 More details to come in late

August. For more info, email dukepikapps@gmail.com

for this and other alumni events

Letter from

the mu advisor Push America update

Mu Musings July 2009

Pi Kappa Phi | Mu Chapter | Duke University

ΠΚΦ

Chapter Advisor

Anders Hall

MU CHAPTER ON THE WEB

As Internal Vice Archon, I am leading the Mu Chapter’s efforts to obtain an on-campus sec-tion at Duke. As most of you know, a section is an impor-tant part of the member ex-perience for the brothers of most Duke fraternities – what you may not be aware of is the fact that unfortunately our chapter currently lacks an official section on campus.

Shortly after Mu Chapter re-colonized just a few years ago, the lacrosse scandal brought Duke’s “Campus Culture” under the microscope, culminating in an administrative report that cited Selective Living Groups (and specifically Fraternity Sections) as a negative aspect of Duke’s culture. This in turn led to a moratorium on new group housing on campus – a moratorium that has blocked PiKapp from receiving the same type of housing that every other IFC-approved fraternity on campus en-joys. The convenience of an official section would only augment our ability to enhance Duke’s West Campus through philanthropy, social, and community interaction events. Though this fact may be quite obvious to us as brothers, it is not an opinion shared by Duke’s administration.

The good news is that the Mu Chapter has been incredibly successful in spite of this aforemen-tioned disadvantage. As the rest of this newslet-ter shows, this Chapter has accomplished sig-nificantly more than most fraternities – and we have done it all without a section. By blocking together, brothers have been able to live with members of their pledge classes in Craven Quad for the last two years, and will be together in Edens Quad next year.

Having personally served on Campus Council (Duke’s residential student government) for the last two years, and with the help of other broth-ers who have held equally influential on-campus positions, we as a chapter have crafted a multi-faced strategy to address our current situation.

Our first course of action is to attempt to be officially evaluated by the Residential Group Assessment Committee. This committee—chaired last year by PiKapp Kevin Thompson and of which PiKapp has two other members—grades and ranks all SLGs (Selective Living Groups) on campus based on their contribu-tions to the Duke community. If we could score highly without a section, it would be a clear indication that we deserve a section more than many fraternities that currently have a section.

Our second (and likely more realistic) plan is to

Leadership Positions

Held By Brothers

Operation Smile - www.operationsmile.org/ Pat Rutter (Trinity '11) – President

Duke Student Government – www.dsg.duke.edu Sunny Kantha (Trinity '09) – Executive Vice President Michael Lefevre (Trinity '11) – Vice President for Athletics and Campus Services Andrew Brown (Trinity '11) – Vice President for Durham and Regional Affairs Alex Levy (Trinity '11) – Senator of Academic Affairs Drew Everson (Trinity '11) – Student Outreach Coordinator

Campus Council – www.dsg.duke.edu/cc Stephen Temple (Trinity ‘11) - President Austin Boehm (Trinity '10) – Executive Board Member, Chair, FSC Kevin Thompson (Trinity '09) – Vice President, Executive Board, Chair, Policy Committee Ben Goldenberg (Trinity ,12) - Executive Board Member, Chair, Programming Committee

WISER Microfinance Committee – wiser-girls.org Sunny Kantha (Trinity '09) – Vice President Brendan Saslow (Trinity '11) – Member

The Chronicle – www.dukechronicle.com Austin Boehm (Trinity '10) – Editorial Page Man-aging Editor Drew Everson (Trinity '11) – Columnist Tariq Mohideen (Trinity '09) – Columnist

Duke South Asian Studies Committee Baldeep Pabla (Trinity '09) - Chair

Interfraternity Council (IFC) Brian Adams (Trinity '09) – Vice President of Community Interaction

Craven Quad Council Pat Rutter (Trinity '11) – Member

Project Build: Brendan Saslow (Trinity '11) – Crew Leader Graham Sharpe (Trinity ‘11) - Director

Duke Model U.N. Brendan Saslow (Trinity '11) – Chair

DukeEngage Student Planning and Advisory Committee: Sunny Kantha (Trinity '09) – Advisor

Senior Class Council Kevin Thompson (Trinity '09) – Vice President

Page 2 Pi Kappa Phi: Mu Chapter

Vice Archon Austin Bohem

Treasury Report The Mu chapter of Pi Kappa Phi has experienced stimulated growth over the past several years as we have worked to expand our programming on campus and our outreach into the community. With larger service events, new and contin-ued social interaction with campus organizations, as well as a more competitive member selection process during rush, the chapter has engaged in conscientious regulations of finances.

Past chapter treasurers have worked to provide a solid monetary foundation for this young chapter on a semester-by-semester basis for the functions of fraternal life. As newly elected Treasurer, I hope to take the financial situation of the fraternity from a break-even state to one in which money can be saved and invested over time to provide for future brothers. Ideally, this would make the chapter more formidable through times of eco-nomic crisis and would make membership in the chapter- and national-level organizations of Pi Kappa Phi more affordable for brothers of all socioeconomic backgrounds.

Our associate members pledge to the fraternity that, as brothers, they will take personal responsi-bility for maintaining the financial well-being of the fraternity, because a stable monetary situation allows for the endurance of tradition, brother-hood, and chapter success. We have already maintained a generous financial aid program within the fraternity to ensure that this goal is met, although we seem to have a chronic deple-tion of our budget each semester. I anticipate stricter regulations in spending and repeated over-budgeting to begin accumulation of an increasing surplus in funds for long-term goals, such as investment & endowment, augmented scholarship offerings, or even the possibility of fraternity living spaces should future brothers be presented with such a situation. Earlier this year, we launched our Mu Chapter Endowment initia-tive, which endeavors to raise money for an en-dowment of our chapter through the national Pi Kappa Phi organization and, eventually, through the Duke Endowment. Meeting these goals would represent a long-term guarantee that any brother economically unable to pay membership dues would be fully covered by financial aid, and could have the potential to lower costs and in-crease the number and profile of alumni, social and philanthropic events.

To this end, any alumnus who feels his time in Pi Kappa Phi was an experience that he would like others to share is encouraged to send any mone-tary donation to:

Pi Kappa Phi c/o Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life

120 Science Drive, 07 Bryan Center Box 90840 | Durham, NC 27708

If you would like your donation to be used for a spe-cific purpose, please express this intent in writing accompanying your donation. The current members of Pi Kappa Phi greatly appreciate your generosity and pledge to use any alumni funding strictly to construc-tively enhance the fraternal experience for current and subsequent members of Pi Kappa Phi Mu Chapter.

More important than monetary donations, however, are donations of time, and I know I represent the brothers of our chapter when I say that visits from past members greatly enhance the fraternal experience and the recognition of the far-reaching bonds and shared insights that make membership in an organiza-tion like Pi Kappa Phi so valuable.

Treasurer Andrew Beach

(Continued on Page 3)

Priority One:

A Living Section

have influential individuals apply pressure to the proper administrators directly. We have some outside contacts (Trustees, Deans, etc.) that may be able to help us, but we hope that our Mu Chapter alumni will be a main source of pressure. As potential donors to Duke, you each have leverage, and we need your vocal and written support.

We are currently putting together a compre-hensive booklet of documentation outlining the reasons Mu Chapter deserves a section at Duke. A group of talking points (backed up by the documentation) will be created that will give every Mu alumnus the material needed to craft a letter to administrators. These talking points will appear in the next newsletter, and will be accompanied by instructions on who to send letters to and who to call. Please be on the lookout for this information, and help your Mu Chapter when the time is right!

The mission statement of Pi Kappa Phi begins with the declaration “We will lead.” Even a cur-sory look at the brothers of Mu Chapters shows that this ideal of leadership by choice is being carried out in full by PiKapps at Duke. Both in highly visible organizations like Duke Student Government and Campus Council and in less well known but equally impactful organizations like WISER, Operation Smile, and others, broth-ers of the Mu chapter currently hold a myriad of influential and admirable positions on campus. Be the mission community service, enhancement of the Duke environment, preparation for post-collegiate life, ending poverty abroad, correcting social injustice, or a limitless number of other goals, brothers are on a daily basis stepping up to difficult challenges and contributing as only members of Pi Kappa Phi can.

As they strive to exact change and impact com-munities, locally, nationally, and abroad, Mu chapter brothers not only constantly improve the image of our Duke chapter, but also continue to grow as men in line with the vision of Pi Kappa Phi nationally. Since each position carries with it unique and uniquely interesting responsibilities, we sat down with two members to ask them about their individual leadership opportunity. Unfortunately, space constraints forced us to compile a simple and abbreviated list of other members' involvements.

Pat Rutter (Pledge Class '08) on his involvement with Op-eration Smile: “Operation Smile is a non-profit organization that offers free surgeries to impoverished children in developing countries with facial deformities. In my eight years of involvement with the organization, I have held every position in Student Programs from common member to one of twelve Student Advi-sory Board Members who advise and assist Opera-tion Smile in all of Student Program's offerings. This includes organizing bi-annual training workshops for students participating in future medical missions in third world countries to leading teams of interna-tional students in the annual International Student Leadership Conference (ISLC). I participated in the January 2006 Medical Mission to Managua, Nicara-gua, and used my Spanish language skills to facilitate communication between foreign and local doctors and to reassure uneasy parents and patients before, during, and after surgeries. At Duke, I am preparing to take over the presidency of the organization next term. As current treasurer, my primary focus is to resurrect the club after several years of mediocrity. Fighting for recognition on a campus that is con-stantly abuzz with worthy causes, I have expanded the club from two active members to 15 this year. I have finished my first event of the year, which was a benefit breakfast for Operation Smile hosted through Craven Quad, and I am looking to create more opportunities for future involvement for Duke students and for more meaningful events. Whether through unabashed enthusiasm for the cause or through securing $35,000 donations for the

Living the Creed: Leaders by Choice

Page 3 Pi Kappa Phi: Mu Chapter

Varsity Track and Field David Piccirilli (Trinity ‘11) - Thrower

Duke Microfinance Leadership Initiative Jon Pryor (Trinity '11) – Events Officer

First-Year Advisory Council Kevin Thompson (Trinity '09) – Board Member Michael Pelehach (Trinity '10) – Associate Mohamad Maarouf (Trinity '09) – Associate (Radolph) Jeremy Semko (Trinity '10) – Associate Drew Everson (Trinity '11) – Associate

The Inferno Graham Sharpe (Trinity '11) – Executive Board Representative

Catholic Student Center Brian Adams (Trinity '09) – Student Director of Community Building

Joe Hejlek (Trinity '09) – Student Coordinator Edmund Finely (Pratt '09) – Altar Student Coor-dinator

Student U Joe Hejlek (Trinity '09) – Academic Director

Residential Group Assessment Committee Kevin Thompson (Trinity '09) – Co-Chair David Stroup (Trinity '09) – Senior Member

Greek Judicial Board David Stroup (Trinity '09) – Justice

Senior Gift Committee Kevin Thomspon (Trinity '09) – Senior Week Co-Chair

Line Monitor Committee Matt Ogren (Trinity '09) – Associate David Stroup (Trinity '09) – Associate Brian Adams (Trinity '09) – Associate Michael Pelehach (Trinity '10) – Associate Graham Sharpe (Trinity '11) – Associate

Japan-America Student Conference (59th) Andrew Ruffin (Trinity '09) – Executive Commit-tee Member (America)

Investment Club Alex Levy (Trinity '11) – Board Member

North Carolina Office of Emergency Medical Services Alex Levy (Trinity '11) – Intermediate Techni-cian

Inside Joke Sketch Comedy Club Graham Sharpe (Trinity '11) – Associate Drew Everson (Trinity '11) – Associate

SMART Home Development Team Jordan Woodson (Pratt '10) – Construction Consulting Team Member

UNC-Duke Basketball Marathon Jordan Woodson (Pratt '10) – Advertising Com-mittee Chair Ryan Knowles (Trinity '10) – Co-Director

Campus Concert Series Jordan Woodson (Pratt '10) – Planner

East Chapel Hill High School Debate Team Drew Everson (Trinity '11) – Coach

Campus Council Facilities and Services Com-mittee Drew Everson (Trinity '11) – Member Jon Pryor (Trinity '11) – Chair

Duke Car Club Nich Laucis (Pratt ‘10) - Founder/Co-President

Duke Marching Band John Roelofs (Tirnity ‘09) - Vice President, Drumline Captain

organization, I am dedicated to raising awareness for the kids with cleft palates and cleft lips of the

world. If you are ever embraced by a complete stranger who doesn't speak your language because you helped a love one, you'll under-stand why I do what I do.”

Austin Boehm (Pledge Class '08) on his involve-ment with Campus Coun-cil: “As Facilities Chair, I've had the awesome opportunity to use

student funds to make real long-term changes to Duke's Campus – building new rooms for student use, improving things students use every day, and so on. I think PiKapp has pro-vided me with a great outlet to better under-stand and gauge student concerns, and with the tools to lead my committee effectively. There also was the interesting meeting I had with an administrator where I found out he was a PiKapp and we shared a moment of brotherhood, both in its young and mature form. That's when I realized being a member of Pi Kappa Phi meant being a leader for life.”

Sunny Kantha, Young

Trustee and former DSG

Executive Vice President

Section from page 2

Write for Mu Musings

We are always looking for letters or arti-cles from alumni. To contribute, email dukepikapps@gmail.org or send us a

letter at the following address: Pi Kappa Phi | c/o Office of Fraternity

and Sorority Life | 120 Science Drive | 07 Bryan Center | Box 90840 | Durham, NC

I hope this newsletter finds you well. As you may or may not already know, the Mu Chapter of Pi Kappa Phi is back on campus and thriving! Since obtaining our charter in September of 2006, we have grown into one of the largest fraternities on campus with over 80 active members. This is the first of many newsletters dedicated to keeping you, the alumni of Mu Chapter, up to date with our Chapter’s activities, accomplishments, and goals.

I would like to begin by briefly introducing myself. My name is Michael Pelehach, and I’m a junior here at Duke. I am working towards a Major in Psy-chology and a Certificate in Markets & Management with the intention of attending business school sometime after graduation. I’m from Greensboro, North Carolina which is only about an hour west of the University. I joined Pi Kappa Phi as a freshman, and took on the role of Push America Chair last February. After a rewarding year in that position, I wanted to get even more involved in the fraternity, so I decided to run for Archon. Even though I just started in mid-February, I’ve already had many great experiences working with our new executive board to help Pi Kappa Phi succeed, and am excited about the year to come.

Leading this fine group of men is truly an honor and a privilege for me. Our brothers are tremendously involved in student organizations, campus af-fairs, athletics, and community service. I am proud of the numerous accomplishments, both individually and collectively, of our members, and look forward to watching us grow together as a chapter. Despite all of its successes, the Chapter still faces several challenges. Most specifically, we are the only fraternity in the Inter-Fraternity Council (IFC) without a living section on campus. We are currently doing everything possible to secure a living space for the fraternity, and the future classes that will follow in our footsteps.

We hope that this newsletter gives you the opportunity to reconnect with the fraternity, if you would like to do so. All of us here at Duke are excited about reaching out to alumni, and hopefully meeting you in the future. Look for upcoming newsletters to contain information about alumni events in the future.

If you enjoyed being a part of this great fraternity and would like to help others have a similar experience by making a financial donation, we would be very appreciative. All donations will be used towards our internal financial aid system, service events, chapter improve-ments, and non-alcoholic brotherhood events. If you would like your money to be dedicated to a specific cause, please attach a note with your donation and send it to the chapter address listed on the front page. Thank you in advance for your generosity!

Feel free to contact me at any time if you would like to arrange a visit, or simply talk about the past and future of our great fraternity. I wish you all the best.

YIPKP,

Michael Pelehach michael.pelehach@duke.edu

Duke University ’10 336-314-0926

Dear Brothers, State of the Chapter

Archon

Michael Pelehach

Congratulations to Brother

Sunny Kantha (‘09) on be-

coming the 2009 Young Trus-

tee. The Young Trustee is the

highest award a Duke under-

graduate student can achieve.

The Young Trustee serves on

Duke’s Board of Trustees for

three years.

Young Trustee