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.

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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.

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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…

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.

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…

The Phoenix Alumni Chapter of Sigma Chi Fraternity lost its oldest
and most cherished member on Wednesday morning with the death of Dr.
Bertram L. Snyder.

Born on April 5, 1911 and initiated into Mu Chapter at Denison
University (Class of 1933), Brother “Bert” was a longtime Phoenix
doctor, lifelong supporter of Sigma Chi and mainstay at the monthly
meeting of the Phoenix Alumni Chapter.

Bert will be cremated and a private graveside service for family
members is planned for Monday, but Bert’s life will be remembered at
4 p.m. Wednesday (Aug. 7) at Shadow Rock Church, 12861 N. 8th Avenue, Phoenix.

A White Rose ceremony marking our Brother’s entrance into the Chapter
Eternal will be performed as part of the service. Brother Arthur
Almassy will deliver the euology.

“Bert personified the enduring nature of Sigma Chi. ‘Brotherhood’ was
more than just a word to him. He was always there for a brother, and
his participation in the alumni chapter inspired all of us,” said
Marshall Christy, consul of the Phoenix Alumni Chapter.

Christy urges all available brothers to attend Wednesday afternoon’s service.

Brothers,

Based on the email flying around this evening there is a tremendous
controversy raging in the Fraternity that deals with what all the
Active Chapters through their House Corporations have to pay for
their Housing and Liability Insurance.

A few short years ago the Risk Management (RMF) cost for ASU was
about $5,000.00 per year which for a 100+ man house like ASU was a
good deal at about $50.00 per person for the School year. Last year
(2001-2002) the cost was up to $17,906.00 and we just got the bill
for the 2002-2003 School year and the cost has exploded to $27,887.00
which works out to about $300.00 per man for the year. The following
are the rates for the three Arizona Chapters:

Beta Phi- $29,528.00 up from $18,390.00. 62% increase
Epsilon Upsilon- $27,887.00 up from $17,906.00 64% increase
Zeta Omicron -$8,773.00 up from $5,390.00 61% increase

Based on what other House Corps around the US are saying it seems
that the numbers are based purely on Chapter Population with no
allowance given for real risk management (Fire Alarms, sprinklers, no
previous claims etc – until two weeks ago ASU has not made a claim
since I got back involved in 1996…)

Are there any Brothers in the area that work in liability insurance
that would like to take a swing at getting us a lower rate. As much
as I (and I am sure the other House Corps in the Province) might like
to stay with the Fraternity’s RMF plan at this pace of increase we
will find our Chapter Houses begin to close based on simple
economics, particularly for the smaller Chapters like ZO up at NAU
where this increase seems like it will equal about $400 per man and
that Chapter is housed in a dry University owned Dorm!

In hoc,

David W. Riddle (ASU ’87)

Greetings Brothers (ASU Alum’s and other Sigma Chi Brothers in the
Greater Phoenix Area),

If any Brother has pull with the University we are in dire need of
assistance. ASU now appears to be bargaining in extreme bad faith
with the Fraternities on Alpha Drive and we are all in danger of
having our houses condemned and being kicked off the row!

Background: ASU provided land for the construction of Alpha Drive
and backed the issuance of bonds for the building of the Houses,
construction of the street (Alpha Drive) and the construction of the
parking behind the houses and across 6th street. Since 1962 the
fraternities have been paying down the bonds (which were retired last
year) and the additional fees for redoing the electrical grid for
that area (retired earlier this year).

The leases allowed for a purchase option (expires September 1, 2002),
which ASU has fought tooth and nail to stop the houses from
exercising. They made a tactical mistake a few years ago when they
told the Houses that we would have to retrofit fire sprinklers to the
structures and pay for it even though we were the tenants. While the
houses were negotiating with ASU on this point one of the houses went
ahead and did it and then filed suit against ASU to recover the
funds. When ASU saw that they were going to lose the suit (which
would have meant setting precedent for the other Houses) they offered
to settle with that house whereby in exchange for the house dropping
the suit and not requesting fees that ASU would deed them the land if
they retired their bond. They did so and became the first house to
go “private”. ASU’s mistake was that now they had now checker-boarded
the property.

Since that happened two of the other houses on the row exercised
their options (the last one did so in February 2002 after a prolonged
fight with the University ending with placing their money in escrow
and having to threaten to sue to get ASU to perform according to the
terms of the purchase option). The remaining six houses have been
working in concert to get ASU to finalize the remaining issues before
we purchase. Those issues have dealt with zoning, parking, the street
and other issues. The attorney that we hired has been working
diligently with the ASU General Counsel to reach agreement on the
documentation (we are very close to terms with them). Plus the
Houses hired Grady Gammage to work with the City of Tempe to work out
a zoning classification to accommodate our use. All of these efforts
had been moving forward until the new Michael Crow Administration
came into power.

In the last two weeks the remaining six houses notified ASU per the
terms of the purchase option of our intent to exercise. We had even
notified ASU back in June that they would be getting this notice from
all the houses the first part of July once our appraisal was
completed. ASU is now telling us that they will not be able to talk
to use again on this matter until the end of August and they have
even changed the negotiating person that we are to deal with to a
person that “Although not yet verified, he is reported to have stated
to the Board of Regents and others that he does not believe the
fraternities should exist on Alpha Drive.” Additionally the head of
the Alpha Drive Association stated the following in an email to the
Representatives of the Houses with the following statement
“Condemnation. I don’t want to put my reasons in writing, but I am
now 100% convinced that ASU is looking at the possibility of
condemning us immediately. With that belief, I absolutely believe
that we need to press ASU very hard to get these sales closed ASAP.”

The House Corp for our house at ASU just spent $20,000.00 from the
Reserve Funds held for us by the University, with the Universities
approval, in the last three weeks putting a desperately needed new
roof on the house in preparation for the coming fall semester because
we could not wait for the final purchase and the remodeling to
follow. If ASU, as The Alpha Drive Association President now
believes, is seeking to declare Eminent Domain and condemn the
properties this is very distressing that they would allow us to draw
down and expend $20,000 in July to then turn around the next month
and condemn the property.

So Brothers, if you have pull with the University please let your
fingers do the walking and contact those with the ability to get
those process set back on track.

The person now leading the negotiations for ASU is named Mernoy and
his number is (480) 965-3201.

Of course please feel free to contact me at home 480-610-8232 or via
email if you have any questions or comments

In hoc,

David Riddle
Chapter Advisor and House Corporation President for Epsilon Upsilon

ETHICS PROFESSOR WILL GIVE SIGS THE BUSINESS

Enron… Worldcom… Martha Stewart. The list of businesses suspected
of shady dealings and questionable accounting practices continues to
grow. What became of ethics and honesty?

Shari Collins-Chobanian, Ph. D., Associate Professor of Philosophy at
ASU West and expert on business ethics, will address what’s happened
and what needs to be done to hold U.S. businesses accountable at the
July dinner meeting of the Phoenix Alumni Chapter of Sigma Chi.

Collins-Chobanian will speak on Wednesday, July 10 at Phoenix City
Grille, 16th Street and Bethany Home Road. Drinks are at 6 p.m.,
followed by dinner at 6:30 and our speaker at 7.

——————————-

Also, if you’re a golfer, we’ll have sleeves of Sigma Chi golf balls
for sale that were left over from the 3rd annual Founders’ Day Classic.

——————————-

Big Cudos to the Active Chapter at NAU!

The guys up there sure have shown how to bounce back from
adversity. Since being placed on probation by the University in 1999
and undergoing membership review they have:

1. Not violated the terms of their probation
2. Not been involved in any University or IFC violations
3. Not violated the terms of their alcohol probation
4. Not been involved in any hazing violations
5. Provided education sessions for other Greek organizations
6. Two Sigs were recognized with the University’s Gold Axe award for
“Exemplary Student Leadership” in 2001 and 2002
7. Recognized as the 2000-01 Greek Fraternity of the Year
8. Received the Bash Award from Sigma Chi as most improved chapter
9. Ranked top three in Greek Chapter GPA last four semesters
10. Raised $3,000.00 for Children’s Miracle Network

NAU Alums you can be very proud of your Chapter.

—————————–

ASU Update

The loan application to CCI for the purchase of the house at 606
Alpha Drive is going in this week! The remaining six houses on Alpha
Drive that have yet to exercise their options (this includes us) will
be providing notice to ASU on July 12 or 15. We hope to have ASU
submit the purchase to the Board of Regents at either their August or
September meeting and to close as soon as possible after that hoped
for rubber stamp.

If you go by the house this week (or went by last week) you will have
seen that a new $20,000 roof is going up over the Residence portion
of the structure. We have many renovations planned over the coming
school year and hope to have an “Open House” to show it off in the
Spring so stay tuned!

This summer the row saw a rash of burglaries including our house
getting hit two or three times in a one week period! Julie was
awakened by something during one of these break-ins and called the
police who came into the house with guns drawn and came out with two
thieves. We have had many windows broken and doors pried open with
crowbars so we have some considerable damage to fix in addition to
the renovations that are planned. Looks like we will add a security
system to the planned items to install since the fence that is put up
during the summer does not appear to be deterring the bad guys anymore.