Beta Sigma Chapter letter to The Emerald

1.3.2006 When some of the alumni were initially contacted the patient was barely breathing, and everyone from the landlord of the chapter house to the national were more than ready to pull the plug. Beta Sigma Chapter of Northern Illinois was ready to pass on to that Valhalla of lost fraternity chapters. The symptoms were many and severe; a debt in excess of $20,000, an insufficient number of active members, and no status with the university. Yet, several actives were adamant about keeping the chapter alive and sought the help of any alumni that would listen. They sent out an SOF letter that had as much probability of success as a message in a bottle cast off in the ocean. That was the winter of 2002 and there did not appear to be any medicine that could cure all these maladies. Now, most of us from the 70’s, having peacefully put away our wild days from the frat long ago were comfortably settled into middle age. Northern was long ago and far away and Sigma Pi was a warm, distant memory. Why should we get involved? However, some of the alumni did take an interest and met with the actives to investigate the exact depth of the troubles. Aaron Ball the current president explained a few of the more serious symptoms. He failed, however, to mention them all. First, the national told us the chapter had not paid their insurance premiums, many of their dues, and had not filed the proper paperwork in quite some time. The debt exceeded $20,000. Next we spoke with the Chris Juhl at NIU to see how they stood with the university. He told us they had not attended any of the mandatory meetings that year. Further, the university has a list of requirements for every Greek organization such as service projects and grades that are scored on a 100 point scale. Chris informed us that Beta Sigma had a zero!! Then the current landlord gave us an earful on the condition of the house and bitter relations with the students. Maybe it was time to consider euthanasia! However, with a core of young of actives like Joe Menzione, Dino Petrin, Mark Dabbert and a few willing alumni we decided to revive the patient. The standards of triage dictate that you stop the bleeding first and treat long term ills second. So a new house was rented for the next year. It should have had a wrecking ball swung through it years ago, but with only 20 or so actives committed to living there and no budget our choices were extremely limited. Next, the students began running the chapter using proper fraternal protocol. Paul Wydra and the national hooked up the house with Kevin Kagerweis a Sigma Pi grad from Purdue. He helped the chapter comport itself according to the mandates established by the national. Getting the house back on good terms with the national was paramount. Then new president and Mark Briscoe from the national met with the IFC at Northern and reestablished the chapter as a going concern. They IFC did put Beta Sigma on probation with a list of sanctions including no rush or pledges for fall of 2004; which for a struggling chapter is almost a death sentence. It did give the chapter a chance though. Meanwhile, Leo Laughlin ’74 and Jeff Valentine ’75 went house hunting to find a suitable house for the frat. They knew the chapter could never recruit enough new members to sustain itself with the dilapidated house that they were currently renting. It so happened that the old Delta Upsilon house, a rival of Sigma Pi for many years, was on the market. Although it was a little worse for wear (aren’t all frats houses?), it was well built. Leo and Jeff provided the capital and bought it in the spring of 2004 for occupancy fall semester 2004. Meanwhile, I logged some phone time with Paul Wydra and Mark Briscoe of the national regarding alumni associations and the lingering debt. On their advice, Beta Sigma Corp. of Illinois was established to undertake the business end of the fraternity housing. By the time the students moved into the new house in the fall of 2004, the patient was recovering nicely. They worked their way off probation at the university and set up a payment plan for the past debt with the national. Kevin Kageweiss had the frat operating in a professional manner running real meetings, paying dues, and submitting paperwork on time. It truly was a real fraternity again. Since last fall we have settled all outstanding debts with the national. Further, we posted one of the best overall scores with Northern Illinois University’s IFC. We have a strong and growing alumni association complete with a new website professionally created by Kyle Ballard ’02 with help from Phil Shlimon ’04. As we all know, keeping a fraternity healthy is an ongoing process not a single task. And no one has the illusion that our work is over. Truly, our responsibilities are just morphing into new ones. Why did we not allow Beta Sigma chapter to die peacefully? I believe it was to preserve a way of college life that many of us experienced at Northern; where we were part of an organization that developed friendships that endured. I believe we all felt this was worth saving and nurturing for future generations. Marty Gallagher ‘75