2003 Delta Chi Chapter History

The following is an overview of 2003 Delta Chi Chapter History.

New Semester, New Class

With the Gamma class now in the brotherhood, they are becoming active in every area. Two Gammas served on the Executive Board the spring of 2003, and Mark Elloff took on Daryn Reyman as the initiation co-chair, in order to train her for a possible position the next semester, as everyone else received their committee assignments at the first meeting of the semester, January 13, 2003.

Despite continued tensions from probation, the chapter was able to hold a canned food drive on February 3, 2003, and fundraised by selling Valentine Grams on February 10-12. Fundraising Chair Deana Willard also began an ongoing fundraiser in which the brothers would put money into cups that each had a different executive’s name on it. Little did the Executive Board know, but the person who received the most money would be creamed with a pie at the last meeting of the semester. Although the pie event never happened.

The first scholarship event was held nearly a month later, when some Brothers supported Brothers Jessica Maurer and Sarah Shelley who showed their work at an Architecture Exposition on March 4, 2003. Soon after, on March 18, the brotherhood attended the Mr. Lehigh contest as a social event and in the same week for another social event, they went to the local bar for happy hour and appetizers on March 20. March 26, the Progressive Student Alliance sponsored a Global Symposium that discussed the environment, human rights, and University issues, and with the attendance of several Brothers, this became another scholarship event. In addition, another canned food drive worked as another service event on March 31.

Tripod, the national meeting of brothers to discuss and workshop on the three legs of the Fraternity took place in Philadelphia, and Brother Stella Maher, and initiate Kai Schlingmann attended and represented the Delta Chi Chapter at Lehigh. From this experience they returned, and had much new knowledge and ideas for the chapter to work with to enhance the Delta Chi’s tripod.

Rush, Initiate, Induct

Rush for the Delta Class began on February 3 with an information session, followed by two more on the 4th and 5th. In order to meet and get to know the rushes better, a meet lunch was held on February 6th from 11-1pm. A rush service event was held at the local retirement complex at which rushes and brothers mingled with the residents.

Preferred voting for the initiates was held over email on February 10 because of a snow storm that closed all academic buildings. Although a decidedly bad idea, it still occurred in order to complete preferred voting. In the future the Chapter's governing documents were amended to prevent events like this from happening.

Although preferred voting occurred, no additional events were held in between then and the day the rushes were voted in to be initiates, on February 24. An initiate policy was voted in as only 25% of the chapter’s numbers could be initiated. This was to avoid such a large group as the Gammas which prevented much intimacy within the class. On February 24, 21 rushes were initiated.

The initiates worked with Stella Maher and Mark Elloff in their own initiate meetings in order to earn their brotherhood. The Delta class fundraised for the chapter by making absolute brotherhood t-shirts that they then sold to themselves and the rest of the chapter at a profit of five dollars a shirt. To complete their other events they had a social event at one of the initiate’s houses, they saw the play Fire in the Basement at Zoellner, and to complete their service event they had a canned food drive.

On April 24, 2003, the chapter voted in the Delta class with the exception of one initiate. Induction followed on Tuesday April 15, 2003.

Bylaws Suspended

To provide for a longer transition process for the new members voted onto the Executive Board, voting would be done on April 7, 2003. Nominations were taken on March 31 and on April 7. On the day of voting, it was decided that the initiates, who had yet to be inducted or voted upon, could nominate themselves, run for a position, and vote on those who were running for the positions. The Chapter Bylaws, forbid such action, and so a motion was made and passed for the Bylaws to be suspended during this time of voting.

As the votes came the results concluded the following positions: Jeff Samuels, President; Jess Maurer, Vice President; Angela Rizzo, Treasurer; Michael Sullivan, Rush Advisor; Stella Maher, Initiate Advisor; Rachel Mandeville, Historian; and Kevin Schaefer, Parliamentarian.

After the elections were completed, Ryan Marquiss was once again elected as the Alumni Advisor for the chapter, and during this vote it came to the attention of the current executive board that the ballot box had been stuffed for the vote for presidency. Ten more votes were counted than there were Brothers and initiates at the meeting.

Stella Maher, one of the candidates for the presidency discussed the stuffing of the ballot box with Brothers at other chapters in order to decide how to deal with the situation. She concluded that she would have to go to the chapter.

At the next chapter meeting, on April 14, the docket was already filled with the voting on initiates, and so when Stella brought up the situation regarding the ballot box stuffing, she was met with hostility. In order to amend the situation, all of the elections, not just the one for president would have to be redone, and the chapter did not want to do that, as they showed in a vote when Stella motioned for such action, and so the election stood as occurred on April 7.

The year ended on a high note with a new executive board that had a retreat on May 15 to discuss the next semester. Most importantly and exciting was the official release of the Delta Chi Chapter from probation on April 25, 2003.

Fundraising Goes Wild

Fundraising for the fall semester of 2003 started off strong with a bookstore tent at a football game on September 13, then continued with another tent at the September 27 football game, and then again at the November 1, Parent’s Weekend, football game.

Halloween Grams were sold once again from October 27-29, and then delivered to the students’ mailboxes. At this time, Deana Willard, the fundraising chair, stepped down from her position to focus on school work and track, and so Andrea Luebbe filled her spot. As fundraising chair, Andrea Luebbe ran the buying, organizing, and selling of Lehigh-Lafayette t-shirts. This fundraiser involved selling t-shirts that showed that Lehigh is better than their arch-rival Lafayette. These t-shirt sales gained over $600 for the chapter, making it the one most successful fundraising event seen by the chapter.

Epsilon Class Does it Right

After participating in a comprehensive and well done rush process, the Epsilon Class was initiated and started the pledging process. This process consisted of weekly meetings run by Initiate Advisor Stella Maher, completing an event for each part of the tripod, interviewing ten brothers, and passing the national exam. During these meetings the pledges learned about the national and chapter history of Phi Sigma Pi through power point slides prepared by Stella.

Their first project was to take pictures with all ten mules in Bethlehem and all groups completed it on time, but this amount of work and effort was too much for two of the initiates, who soon dropped out of the process.

Craig Foo, Allison Zimmerman, and Nick Moukhine posing with one of Bethlehem's mules.

The Big-Little process and bond is an important part of pledging for any fraternity, and to make this aspect stronger in the Delta Chi Chapter, Stella Maher organized an icebreaker event at which potential bigs and littles could get to know one another on September 25. After this event, each would choose who they would like to partner with. Once assigned littles, the pairs were able to get to know one another better through interviews. Their knowledge of one another would be tested at the Big-Little Quiz show held on October 23. Big Rachel Mandeville and her Little Yos Priestly won the game at this event.

At the second initiate meeting on October 7, elections were held as they are held in the chapter meetings, for the initiate officers: Katie Rikkola, Gamma Class President; Lauren Halgash, Secretary; Matt Griffiths, Treasurer; Suzanne Whitten and Craig Foo, Co-Historians. In preparation for brotherhood, Stella divided the initiates into committees, which would then plan the specific events that had to be completed. Committees were also formed to plan the events that the pledges had to complete to become brothers.

For their service event, the pledges went to the Boys and Girls Club again to play with the kids on November 4. As a scholarship event, as a class they saw the play Picasso at Lapin Agile on October 30 which was playing at Zoellner Arts Center. The fundraising committee sold class t-shirts as all initiate classes do, but with the help of Treasurer Matt Griffiths, the class obtained Play Station 2 games, an X-Box with games, and a computer game pack all free of charge. They raffled off these items and raised over $150 for the chapter. The class also went on a initiate class retreat on October 25 to Sayre Lodge where they were able to complete interviews with one another and bond as an initiate class should. On October 27, the chapter did a midway vote on the initiates, and all of them were voted to continue the pledging process.

The National Exam approached the group quickly, and as a study tool for the exam, the chapter’s scholarship committee and Stella organized Brothers vs. Initiates Jeopardy on November 10, and all of the questions would be related to those on the exam. Despite the fact that the Brothers had much less schooling in than the Epsilon Class, the Brothers won Jeopardy.

First Ever Brotherhood Retreat

A retreat had been in the works for the previous semester, but due to lack of interest and funds, the event did not go through. With the help of Vice President Jessica Maurer, the retreat this semester happened, and it became a camping trip.

Brothers bonding around the campfire.

October 17, 2003, the twelve people brave enough to go camping left Lehigh at half past four to head towards the campgrounds in the Poconos. When they arrived, the ground was damp and it was becoming dark. Immediately all of the brothers took a task and some began to set up the tents, while others collected dry wood and leaves and started the fire, while others prepared the food for dinner.

Although difficult to start because of the rain, the camp fire was soon built with the help of lighter fluid, and stories and laughs were shared all around such as now inside jokes as the “Ass Link” and the “Chapter Pyro”. Soon President Jeff Samuels decided that he needed to become more rustic than before and attempted to make the fire as large as possible. Others, such as Secretary Kai Schlingmann were not far behind.

As everyone grew tired, slowly they went to sleep in the tents they put up themselves. They awoke early and decided that one night of camping in the cold was enough, and so they quickly packed up and went to breakfast with brothers who did not come camping at the local Perkins.

Brothers eating at Perkins after the first Brotherhood retreat.

First Annual Semi-Formal

At the request of several brothers, a semi-formal was planned for the fall 2003 semester for the brothers of Delta Chi. From the beginning of the semester, Historian Rachel Mandeville searched for venues at which to have the semi-formal. She quickly discovered Carmine’s, a small Italian restaurant with a banquet room and a dance floor. With the right price and the right room size, the place was quickly booked for Thursday November 6, 2003. The semi-formal was huge a success. Centerpieces of live fish in vases awed the crowd and were given out at the end of the night. Many of the Brothers attended and had a fantastic time dancing and eating.

Scholarship and Service Hold a Record Number of Events

In addition to the rush events that involved service, the service committee chair, Jackie Lanzon, dedicated to her job, offered many service opportunities throughout the semester. The Boys and Girls Club was revisited several times including November 4, 2003 with the initiates, and the chapter participated in Spooktacular. Spooktacular involves the local area children coming to Lehigh and going through the University Center in costume, getting their faces painted and playing games, and then going to some of the residence halls to go trick or treating. Delta Chi had the face painting station. In addition, the chapter collected and donated over $100 to Turning Point, a women’s shelter in Allentown, who was in much need of money this semester. The final service event of the semester consisted of making cards for sick children at the local hospital in order to help them get better.

The first scholarship event, which doubled as a risk management event, was held on October 6, 2003 right before the Chapter meeting, and at it SexPerts, one of whom was brother Reid Gronostajski, educated the chapter on safe sex. Games were played and free condoms and dental dams were given out. A successful and informative event proved to be a lot of fun.

The scholarship committee also sponsored a Career Services event at which Faculty Advisor Richard Freed came to the chapter on October 27 and answered questions of the chapter about resumes and interviews and getting jobs, internships, and externships. And of course, the next month, the Scholarship committee helped organize the Brothers vs. Initiates Jeopardy. These usually weaker aspects of the Tripod for the chapter saw great strength in the fall semester 2003.

First Founder's Day Potluck Dinner

On December 3, 2003 the chapter celebrated its founder's day with a potluck dinner. Brothers formed small groups and prepared food to share. The Brothers like the idea so much it has continued to be part of the Founder's Day tradition.

A Successful Semester Closes with a New Faculty Adviser

Richard Freed informed the Delta Chi Chapter that he could no longer serve as their faculty adviser after the fall semester of 2003 because of previous commitments, and so the search began for a new faculty advisor. An ad-hoc adviser search committee was formed and headed by Daryn Reyman. Reyman found several potential candidates, but due to illness, soon had to turn the committee over to AJ Miceli, who interviewed several candidates and found the best person for the job in Professor David Small. Small was invited for a chapter interview, at which he could also ask the chapter questions. Voted on by the chapter at the meeting following the interview, Professor Small was voted to be the new faculty adviser for Phi Sigma Pi on December 1, 2003 and he soon after accepted the position. Another position filled at the end of the semester was that of Rush Advisor for the spring semester. Michael Sullivan would be going abroad to London along with several other Delta Chi Brothers, and so his position needed to be filled. Several brothers ran for the position, and the votes showed that Laura Spessard earned the spot on November 10, 2003.

After 97 motions, a record number of social, service, scholarship, and fundraising events, the election of a new rush advisor, and the election of a new faculty adviser, the Delta Chi Chapter saw great improvements over the previous semesters.