Last night I attended another design session (6pm-7pm) presented by
ASU, Century Development, the company that will manage the project,
and the Architects from Gould-Evans that are designing the site which
was in turn followed by a meeting address management issues of the
site (7pm-8pm)

I did not hold out much hope that what they would be showing us would
begin to address the numerous flaws in their design and they did not
disappoint.

Some of the low-lights of the meeting

1. One of the telling moments for me was when Boyd Heckle (SigEp)
asked the Architect (the same guy that I said I would have graded an
“F” in my last email) making the presentation if he could discuss the
philosophical difference in building a Fraternity House and a
Dorm. He stuttered and stammered for a while and finally started
going on about how fraternities were begun as study groups and lived
on big plots of land in big houses but that the needs had changed and
that besides the shape of a Chapter House differed from region to
region. He of course did not indicate how he knows any of this or
that he has looked at how our needs in this region have been analyzed
and looked at.

2. Boyd also asked him to explain what the design criteria was that
ASU supplied them with. Sally Rammage from ASU then stood up to
start talking about this and Boyd told Sally that he wanted to hear
it from the Architect not from ASU. He then gave a none answer.

3. In addressing the concerns on Chapter room size that were brought
up in the previous meeting they showed various room configurations
with furniture and walls, but did not address actual square footage
as the design of the structure has not actually been changed. They
showed how the room could be configured to accommodate tables for
dining, couches for relaxing and chairs for chapter meetings. They
did not show where all this furniture is to be stored when one of
these three needs in being exercised.

He did try to show that by removing a room above the Chapter room
that they could open up the ceiling to make the chapter room more
airy. I asked the flippant question that “since we are unable to
levitate how does making a high ceiling addresses the needs of square footage?”

4. They showed various pictures of buildings around campus to justify
the exterior brick treatment that the clusters will be given so as to
identify the buildings with ASU. I pointed out that I need the
building to identify Sigma Chi not ASU.

They went off on a discussion that the Houses need to be part of a
greater community and not to be individual kingdoms (or words to that effect).

The extent of our individual “branding” will be in putting a vote in
as to weather the complex will have Greek letters on the side of the
building (in either a vertical or horizontal arrangement or will the
names be spelled out.

5. On a positive note they have deleted the walkways on the second
and third floors that tied all the buildings together and have
increased the elevators so that there in now one for every two buildings.

6. Two houses of 80 guys each will be sharing a single laundry
room. This to me is an issue of concern.

7. There is still no parking and since that design criteria was not
provided to them they will not be addressing it.

8. They have changed the bathrooms in the rooms to have showers
instead of tubs.

9. To address the issue of natural lighting in the rooms they are
proposing to use glass doors and for the rooms that are in the inner
hallways without direct contact with the courtyard they propose glass
walls too. Again they are building a dorm not a fraternity house.

The second meeting entailed providing ASU with a list of questions
and concerns dealing with how the structure will be managed. Such as:
1. How it is determined who gets to move in
2. Is the building classified as Fraternity Housing or Residential
Life Housing (the alcohol policy is different)
3. Can the individual rooms have things built in them.
4. Is the building held by the House Corp which in turn licenses
space to members or does ASU lease directly to the individual.
5. If all beds are not filled will ASU move random students in
And many pages more of questions. When the answers are supplied by
ASU I will forward them on.

As for time lines to move in they are giving “right of first refusal”
to the fraternities to be displaced on Old Row and they have to sign
a letter of intent by the local Chapter, the House Corp and their
Headquarters by March 1 as well as submit an applications. Selections
will be announced in early April and individual license agreements
will be due in May.

As for our ability to continue occupancy of one of these structures,
should we decide to move to one (over my cold dead body), beyond a
one year individual license agreement signed by our members with the
University there is no guarantee and final authority to determine
this will rest with the Vice President for Student Affairs there is
no allowance for Alumni and house Corp input into the hearing or
decision process.

Enough for now…

REALTY EXECUTIVES’ RICH RECTOR SIG SPEAKER FOR DECEMBER

Brother Rich Rector (Stanford ’75), Chairman and CEO of Realty
Executives Phoenix and Chairman and President of Realty Executives
International, will talk about the changing residential real estate
market and more at the December meeting of the Phoenix Sigma Chi
Alumni Chapter.

The meeting will be held Wednesday December 11 at our regular
location at the Phoenix City Grill, 16th Street and Bethany Home Road
in Phoenix. Drinks at 6pm followed by dinner at 6:30 and our speaker at 7:00.

Our tentative speaker for the upcoming January meeting will be
brother Steve Hart, General Manager of the new J.W. Marriott Desert
Ridge Resort and Spa “Mega-resort”.

——————-

The Active Chapter at ASU, along with four of the Sororities that are
joining in with them this year, are once again doing a toy drive for
Christmas to support the Boys and Girls Club. If any Alums would
like to donate a toy please bring it to the Wednesday meeting or call
me at 480-610-8234 to see if we can arrange to meet up and I can get
it from you. They are asking for a cost limit of between $5-$10 per toy.

I attended both sessions this evening of a presentation that ASU had
the Architect and the Private Management company that will run the
“Small Group Cluster Housing” (the use of the word cluster is quite
appropriate when you see the description further down) project to
show us what a wonderful new utopia they will be building for us and
the other Fraternities on the “South” campus. They showed us all
seven or so phases that are planned for this area in addition to that
encompassing the Housing described below.

Well to sum it up in a single sentence – as Fraternity Houses they
will make nice Freshman Dorms for non-local students.

Now some details just pulled in order from my notes.

1. Location: Bordered to the South by the railroad tracks that run at
the half mile point between Apache Blvd. and Broadway Rd., to the
east by Rural Rd to the west by the Sonoran Dorm (separated from the
dorm by a pedestrian walkway) and to the north by the bike trail that
runs at about the 1/4 mile point south of Apache.

2. Last item on their list that they are considering (and it is not
even planned) is how to safely move students across Apache Blvd to
the Main Campus. There is talk of a Bridge (ala that over University
Dr) or a tunnel but no plan and no commitment.

3. Not one single parking space is planned for this development that
will house at least 560 people! The closest parking will be a half
mile away on the other side of Apache Blvd. The neighbors to the
northwest of this development will be the Adelphi Commons where the
Sororities were moved to and for whom no parking was built either.

4. The first phase calls for building a line of eight identical
building. The front door will open onto the pedestrian walkway
across from Sonoran Dorm. Entering the house through this door will
find you in what they are referring to as the “Chapter Room” will
obviously double as a living room and foyer. This room will be about
1,200 sq feet, certainly not big enough to accommodate an actual
Chapter Meeting. Unless of course all the furniture is moved out and
everyone stands shoulder to shoulder.
Continuing into the building you will come to two small 180 sq. ft.
rooms. The room on the left will be a study/office and the room on
the right will be a kitchen with the typical type appliances that you
would find in a single family tract home, one fridge, one stove/oven
and one dishwasher. There is no dining room. Don Anderson from
Delta Sig asked the question “Why bother?” No additional University
owned dining facilities are planned to accommodate these University
housed (or is that hosed?) students either.

5. The bedrooms will be arranged on the first, second and third
floors into two man suites that share a bathroom between the two
suites. The second and third floors are reached via one of two
staircases at either end of the facility. The front door of the
suites empty into courtyard if you are on the first floor or a
balcony that looks down into the courtyard. The back end of the
courtyard faces Rural Rd.

6. 45 feet across the courtyard will be the back wall of the next
cluster which comprises the shared bathroom facilities of that
building. There will be non-functioning windows mounted high up on
each floor with the glass frosted or otherwise treated so that they
will just let in light.
Just imagine what this concrete canyon courtyard will be like in
August/September/October and March/April/May with no ventilation
except from directly overhead!
I asked the architects if they had actually modeled what amount of
sunlight will actually make it into this courtyard since it will be
bordered by three story walls to the north and the south. The best
way I could describe the look on their faces was “vacant” I do not
think the idea had even crossed their mind, well it did mine and I am
not an architect nor do I play one on TV.
The guy making the presentation also works as an instructor in ASU’s
architecture school. Don Anderson (Delta Sig) asked them after the
presentation if they had thought about actually visiting a Fraternity
House to see how we operate and utilize a building. They said
no. Lord help this instructors students. Finding out what the
customer needs, wants and how they make use of your product is the
first thing that a consultant needs to ascertain. I would give this
ASU instructor an “F”.

7. There will be a breezeway running down the front of the buildings
on the second and third floors that will tie the clusters
together. On the second floor landing at the front of the building
is where they plan to have a couple washers and dryers to accommodate
two clusters. Now we will have 80 guys from two different chapters
sharing a single laundry room. Oh, yeah that sounds like some
thought went into the design.

8. At separate ends of the facility will be an elevator. If a house
in the middle finds that it has a member with a sprained ankle
(probably obtained during his mile long hike to and from his car in
the parking lot on the other side of Apache Blvd.) he will have to
take the elevator in one building and walk through three other
houses. I say “through” because on the second and third floors there
will be a bedroom positioned above the front door of the house and
across this walkway from the balance of the House. Kinda
cantilevered out in space.

9. The total floor space will be about 10,000 sq. feet but if for
some reason you are unable to occupy all the rooms in your building
ASU will take the third floor away from you and house general
population students in your facility. ASU will also enter into
separate leases with your members instead of allowing the House Corp
to do a master lease and then sublicense the members the rooms so
that a member causing problems cannot be removed by the Chapter.
There are currently no plans to allow us to “customize the exterior
fronts and entryways to our buildings either (although Mernoy
Harrison indicated last week this might be able to be
changed). Kinda like being in a fascist police state type of Home
Owners association with they won’t let you grown a flower that is not
on the approved list.

10. They are currently planning on having three single rooms in each cluster.

11. Phase 1 (eight clusters) calls for them moving Old Row into this
facility in January 2004 (two semester away) and Phase 2 (six
clusters) calls for moving the Alpha Drive Houses in the Fall
Semester of 2004 (three semesters away).

Summary: Based on the presentation I am even more convinced that we
cannot and will not move into this facility. With no parking we will
not be able to get students to move. If we do not get students to
move in the University will squeeze us out. once we are out of
housing our chapters die.

Even if we somehow manage to get guys to live-in (all rooms filled
means 1/3 of the Chapter is around) we will have no way to provide
for the other 2/3rd of the Chapter to come over for Chapter meetings
or just to be around the house because there is no parking for them.

The size of the “Chapter” room is not big enough to accommodate us
and we do not want to use the Chapter Room as a living room and
entrance foyer to the House either.

Without parking, meeting space and dining facilities we will not be
able to attract Alums to come by the House either.

If Michael Crow is serious about wanting to beef up ASU’s Home Coming
festivities he should help us on Alpha Drive because with our current
proximity to the Stadium and parking and the size of our houses we
could make a good focal point for that goal of his.

THE RITUAL MARKS THE NOVEMBER MEETING

Brotherhood will be celebrated Wednesday night November 13th with the
semi-annual Ritualistic meeting when the Phoenix Alumni Chapter of Sigma Chi
gathers.

The location will be at the Epsilon Upsilon Chapter House at ASU (606 E. Alpha
Drive in Tempe. Directions are: Rural Rd. (Scottsdale Rd.) south from the 202
to 6th Street(second traffic light). West two blocks to Alpha Drive. The Sig
House is on the northeast corner across from the Basketball
Arena. Park in “large” lot across the street from the House as that
parking is open parking at that time of day.

Dinner and a “keg” is being provided at no charge by the Epsilon Upsilon
Housing Corp. Cocktails at 6pm, dinner at 6:30 and the meeting will start at
7:00. See you there!
——————————–
The speaker for our upcoming December meeting will be Brother Rich Rector,
Chairman and CEO of Realty Executives Phoenix and Chairman and President of
Realty Executives International
——————————–
The Active Chapter at ASU is doing a Toy Drive for the Tempe Boys and
Girls Club. If you would like to donate a toy to the cause please
bring one with you to the November or December meetings.

DISTRICT COURT JUSTICE TO ENLIGHTEN SIGS

With the vast majority of court proceedings occurring at the district court
level, Justices of the Pease have heard and seen it all!

District Court Justice Jacqueline B. McVay will address the Phoenix Sigma Chi
Alumni Chapter this month on her experiences, standards and philosophy in the
courtroom.

The meeting will be held Wednesday, October 9 at the Phoenix City Grill, 16th
Street and Bethany Home Road. Drinks at 6PM followed by dinner at 6:30 and the
speaker at 7PM.

—————-
ASU Update

All nine of the House Corporations with houses on Alpha Drive held a
meeting last night in which we discussed ASU’s stated intention to
the Board of Regents that they will seek to reacquire our
properties. We held discussions with a top Condemnation Attorney
(that we will probably be retaining) on the steps and process that
ASU will have to go through to attempt to take our properties from us.

If you would like to be helpful you may want to call your Legislator
to let them know some simple statistics.

1. The State Budget Deficit next year is projected to be $1 Billion.
2. The Universities already have deferred maintenance on existing
facilities to the tune of $239 million.
3. The cost to reacquire the buildings from us (at least) $3 million
x 9 buildings/properties = $27 million plus the legal cost when we
fight them in court.
4. Greeks at ASU have higher GPA’s than the General Student Body at ASU
5. Greeks at ASU have higher graduation rates than the General
Student Body at ASU.
6. Greeks make up only 9% of the Student Body but contribute 70% of
the charitable giving to the Universities.
7. The Houses on Alpha Drive already serve a public purpose in that
we are deed restricted to provide Student Housing at ASU. Housing is
already in short supply around campus and ASU does not need to make it worse.

When the Sig Chapter at UofA lost the old “Plaster Palace” it damaged
some ties with their Alums who do not really feel that the current
House is “their” house. I do not want to see that happen to us at ASU.

Well, I just got back from the Arizona Board of Regents meeting at
ASU and before I dash out to try and earn a living today want to drop
a quick note.

On the “Good” news front the Board voted to approve the “delegation
of authority” to allow ASU to meet it’s contracted obligation to sell
us the House.

Therefore we are planning on either closing the sale on Oct 8th or
filing suit against ASU on Oct 9th should they move us past that date
since we had originally agreed to close on September 30th.

As you know our loan is approved for $364,000 dollars and we have
every intention of closing on the 8th and to continue with the
remodeling and renovating that we started in July. The other houses
on the Row will be doing the same. In fact Chris Ward, the Pike
representative, was calling his National as we broke from lunch
following the Regents meeting to inform them to begin making his $1
million dollar loan available so that he could being construction immediately.

The simple statement that we were approved however does not begin to
reflect the atmosphere of “our” portion of the meeting.

When the Regents finally got to that part of the agenda that
addressed Alpha Drive they indicated that they had already met to
discuss this topic in a closed Executive Session so the balance of
the Open Meting became a bit of a “Star Chamber” proceeding with only
Michael Crow (ASU President) and Mernoy Harrison (ASU VP) addressing
the Regents. Chris is putting in a call today to one of the top
First Amendment Attorney’s in the state on the possible issue the
Regents violating Open Meeting laws by holding this discussion in private.

Both reiterated to the Regents of their intention to redevelop Alpha
Drive once they repurchase our properties from us. Mernoy even went
so far as to tell the Regents that ASU would be back before the
Regents with that request before the end of this calendar year. He
also told the Regents that is was ASU’s intention to move the
Fraternities into an as yet undesigned facility on the south side of
Campus (this would mean south of Apache). Mernoy also bald faced
lied to the Regents when he was asked how long the negotiations with
the six houses seeking to exercise their options had been going
on. Mernoy’s answer – “About a month”. Silly me I wonder what all
those meetings with ASU have been about for the last X number of
years have been about?

The Regent conducting the meeting then took a few minutes to tell
those assembled that the Regents did not agree with the
characterizations that have supposedly been made in the press that
their is an anti-Greek or anti-fraternity bias at the University. And
that the people they had talked to didn’t seem to have a problem with
moving the Fraternities to the south-side of campus. We do not know
who they would have talked to since the House Corporations represent
the housing interest of our Headquarters and none of us have been
talked to or interviewed.

After the vote to approve was concluded Mernoy walked by Chris Ward
who was standing at the door, and who was standing ready to address
the Regents should the opportunity or need arise, and this time
Mernoy verbally leveled a threat towards the Fraternities when he
told Chris “I warned you to be careful of what you wished for.” This
would be a follow-up to his letter of August in which he attempted to
extort the Houses to walk away from their properties for pennies on
the dollar if we wanted to be included in the planning for the
south-side housing facility.

On the subject of anti-Greek bias I believe the following anecdote
will provide a bit of illumination.

While I was seated with other members of Alpha Drive house
corporations (Pike, Sigma Nu and Sig Ep) waiting for the meeting to
get started Michael Crow (the new ASU President) walks over and is
talking to a couple seated in the row in front of us (he has never
met any of us) and I overhear him talking to them about
Fraternities. He certainly let slip his personal animus towards
Greek Letter societies. He said “When I left to go to school my
father said to stay away from anything with Greek Letters so when my
Phi Beta Kappa arrived I threw it in the trash”. Now does that
indicate a deep seated bias and outright hostility?

For the future of the Row and our House on the Row only time will
tell but with a State deficit projected to be $1 Billion dollars next
year and with the Universities already behind to the tune of over
$200 million in deferred maintenance on facilities they already own I
would think that there is no way that they will be able to come up
with the minimum $4 million it will cost to move us and a similar
dollar figure to move the other eight houses.

Duty Performed…

We had originally planned on just letting our September meeting be a
time for a quite get together due to the date. Bro. Bart Graves
however came up with a wonderful idea for a speaker and we are very
pleased to present the following announcement.

SEPTEMBER 11TH WORLD TRADE CENTER REPORTER TO ADDRESS SIGS

John Gibson, anchor/reporter for KFYI-AM 550, who reported from New
York City and Ground Zero within 72 hours of the attack and for the
following ten days will be the September speaker at the monthly
meeting of the Phoenix Alumni Chapter of Sigma Chi.

The meeting is set for Wednesday, September 11th, at the Phoenix City Grille,
16th Street and Bethany Home Road in Phoenix.

Cocktails at 6PM, followed by dinner at 6:30 and the speaker at 7PM.

———————————————-
Scholarship Established in Dr. Bert Snyder’s Memory

The Alumni Chapter Executive Committee has decided that an excellent
way that we can remember Dr. Snyder and all that he did for the
Fraternity that he loved would be to establish a scholarship in his honor.

As part of our Charter to support the Active Chapter within our
geographic area Epsilon Upsilon at ASU and our adopted Active Chapter
of Zeta Omicron up at NAU we will be selecting one Brother from
either ASU or NAU that will be moving into his Senior Year of
School. The Scholarship amount will $500.00 and will be judged on a
combination of three criteria: 1. Scholastic Achievement, 2. A 500
word essay on “What Brotherhood Means To Me” and 3. The contributions
that the applicant has made to his Chapter.

We will also be establishing a plaque bearing Bert’s likeness that
will be held in trust year to year by the host Chapter of that years Recipient.

We feel that these are three traits that Bro. Bert clearly
demonstrated. Since the Award is partially based on grades the
deadline for application is still being determined. As we finalize
this award we will provide further information.

———————————
ASU News – Two quick notes

The other day I met the Alumni Advisor and the House Corp President
for SigEp at our House and the Advisor complimented our guys. He
said that the previous weekend he had been on the Row and our guys
had invited he and his Girlfriend over to our House where we were
having a private party. He said he could not believe how Risk
Management conscience our guys were in how they controlled the
door. They both wanted to know how our guys had gotten that way.

I also just found out that our guys had originally just planned on
taking a small Pledge Class this semester (this would mean around 30
or so) but by the time the second day of Rush had ended they were
talking 65! Well this evening at Bid Night the count stood at 72 new
Pledges for the Epsilon Upsilon Chapter!

Start clearing your calenders for the morning of Saturday, January
11, 2003 because I am going to need lots of help with Alumni
Interviews with a Pledge Class of this size!

While the recently revealed video tape scandal has done tremendous
damage to the causes of Fraternities in general at ASU especially in
light of the negotiations currently underway with the University for
the remaining University owned houses to go private we as a Chapter
and a General Fraternity can take comfort in how our guys behaved and
handled themselves.

Today I was asked to come down to the KTAR Radio studios to appear on
a segment of Preston Westmoreland’s show. I did so only because in
my talks with the producer he expressed surprise that our house had
actually said no and he wanted to make sure that their listener’s
knew that. I fell the segment went well and the feedback that I have
gotten from brother’s that heard it is encouraging. However even
more heartwarming was the report from one of the Actives in the House
who along with the rest of the House was listening to the show that
his Grandmother called him during the segment to ask him if he was
listening. She told him that he had made the right choice as to
which house to join.

When I stopped by the House on my way home from Phoenix our guys are
reporting that they have now been sought out on campus when wearing
letters and told that our house is the one that these students will be rushing.

The Active House is now of the opinion that they may take a smaller
than normal Pledge Class to help ensure the quality of the guys they
are taking by being extremely selective. I was please to hear
reported to me that the Rush Chairman was having a conversation in
the downstairs hall with some of the other actives how this current
lesson shows how important one guy can be to the success or failure
of the House in demonstrating the roll that Consul Medina played in
this incident.

I for one want you Alums to know that I am passing on your
appreciation to the House as to your feelings of how the house did
not blacken your character in this matter. You can certainly be
proud of them. Our House is the biggest Fraternity on campus and by
the normal law of averages we should also be subject to our own share
of discipline problems with the Administration that we have not has
been a testament to the type of guy that we generally are admitting
and specifically electing to positions of responsibility.

In hoc…

Just a reminder,

Initiation is this Saturday. I still need interviewers in the
morning (starting around 8:30am) which should take about two
hours. The location for investiture is still being decided between
two places. The house is planning a BBQ afterwards at the House and
Alums are of course invited to both events.

and an FYI.

This matter came to my attention a few weeks ago and now that it is
in the news I thought I would give you a little background.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0822asuporn.html

You will notice that we are not mentioned. The reason we are not
mentioned is because we had a Consul in place that knew what to say
when presented with this opportunity. When the limo stopped at our
house and wanted to bring their “actresses” inside to film Mike said
no. Whether he said no because he knew that was the correct answer
or he said no because the presence of our House Mother acted as a
deterrent does not matter – he said no. They moved on to the next
house and we fortunately did not get to make the news.

As I told someone else our guys seem to know where the line is and
while able to lean pretty far ove the line at times they don’t step
across. Other houses seem to treat the line as the take off point
for the running long jump.

In hoc…

GASKIN SPEAKS TO SIG ALUMNI

Dr. Fred Gaskin, chancellor of the Maricopa Community College
District, will address the Phoenix Alumni Chapter of Sigma Chi at the
monthly meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 14th.

The Maricopa Community College District is the nation’s largest
community college system of its kind, composed of 10 community
colleges, two skill centers and numerous education sites.

The dinner meeting will be held at Phoenix City Grille, southwest
corner of 16th Street and Bethany Home Road in Phoenix. Drinks are at
6 p.m., dinner at 6:30 and the speaker at 7.