Xi Chapter Starts 2012 With Lofty Goals

The new executive board took the reigns with a bang at Xi’s first chapter meeting of 2012. Now that Mu class has been initiated, they were able to watch both their first chapter opening ritual and ceremonious installation of new officers. During the meeting the new executive board made their goals clear to the chapter, and made announcements about upcoming events and new programs in the works. Our Brothers were eager to get involved with upcoming athletic events, potential fundraising opportunities, and newly developed alumni, parent, and brotherhood events. The chapter and executive board have a lot of work to do before these goals can be achieved. To find out how you can help us succeed, click here! Currently, Xi chapter is poised to do great things in the upcoming year and beyond. Check back here often to learn more about the continued successes of Xi chapter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

End of the Fall Semester!

Alas, the stress of the end of the semester is over! The Xi Chapter young men recently went through the stressful weeks of Dead Week and Finals Week here at the University of Iowa. All members worked very hard this semester to maintain our spot as one of the top fraternities on campus academically.

 

After all the hard work we put in this semester, we get to enjoy the month-long holiday break! Though we will be on a break, everyone will be working hard to plan out a successful spring semester! We wish all of you to have happy holidays!


CONGRATULATIONS TO THE NEWLY ELECTED EXECUTIVE COUNCIL!

 

This past weekend, Xi Chapter held it’s annual Executive Council elections to determine who will lead our great fraternity over the next year. Our chapter as a whole would like to congratulate every active member nominated to be a candidate for the Executive Council of a seventy-seven man fraternity chapter. That in itself is quite an honor and it just goes to show how highly your fellow brothers think of you. Each and every one of you were very qualified and prepared for your respective positions and it showed during your presentations. Unfortunately, with a chapter full of competent young men like us, not every great candidate can get elected to one of the seven Executive Council positions. Though not all of you may not have won a position, you’re candidacy still benefited the chapter as it provided a competition within the fraternity. Competition creates better and more prepared candidates which, in turn, creates better leaders and a better Executive Board.

 

Our entire chapter is very pleased with the outcome of these elections and look forward to working with such a qualified and competent group of young men. By being a very professional and business oriented Executive Board this coming year, we will accomplish our goals and lead this chapter to new heights while we build up other leaders along the way. As long as we work together as a team and stay focused, we will achieve great things and our term will be one marked by great success.

 

Without further ado, here is your 2012 Xi Chapter Executive Council:

President- Lane French	Vice President- Ryan Bartz
Sergeant At Arms- Sean Billie	Treasurer- Tyler Dixon
Herald- Jordan Nurre	Secretary- Ricky Brandt
Recruitment Executive- Bailey Lepp

 

2011 HOMECOMING WEEK CHAMPIONS!

This fall, the young men of Sigma Pi were paired up with the lovely ladies of Alpha Delta Pi for Homecoming Week 2011! As always, Homecoming Week is one of the the funnest, yet most work-filled times of the year. Sophomore John Menken was our Homecoming Chairman and was in charge of organizing and executing all events. He sure didn’t let us down, he did a great job! There were several events held throughout the week including a Blood Drive, Penny Wars, Ruckus at the Rec, the ColdStone Challenge, Iowa SHOUT!, and of course the parade!


Iowa SHOUT! is always the most fun, yet most time-consuming event of the week. The guys of Sigma Pi and the wonderful women of Alpha Delta Pi put in several weeks of practice and work on our performance which had a Batman theme. For three weeks, we put in several hours a week for the guy dance, girl dance, and the guy-girl dance so that we could perfect it! All of our hard work paid off as we won Homecoming Week 2011! This once again proves that we’re the best fraternity on campus and one of the best Sigma Pi chapters in the nation!

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Xi Chapter Donates $2,000 To Charity!

On October 11th, Sigma Pi Xi Chapter held a formal ceremony at the Iowa Memorial Union with the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Iowa. At the ceremony we presented the charity with a $2,000 check to go towards making “Wishes” come true for their children! Make-A-Wish Foundation of Iowa Chairman, Robert Kelly, made an appearance and gave a great motivational speech and thanked us for our generous contributions. Other speakers at the event included frequent Make-A-Wish donor Gary Roth, Xi Chapter President Ryan Armstrong, and Xi Chapter Treasurer Ben Roth.


This bountiful donation is result of the amazing proceeds we received from our very successful first annual Sigma Pi Sorority Super Bowl philanthropy! This event that we held last spring at Hubbard Park was a flag football tournament between all the sororities on campus. Every single sorority had at least one team for the event and in total we had over three hundred young women participate! If it wasn’t for these fine young women and their efforts, none of this could have been possible. Next year, we hope to improve the event and raise even more money for the cause! Our efforts and the $2,000 that we donated will help grant the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions and will continue to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy.


Xi Chapter Philanthropic Participation!

Over the past few weeks, the young men of Xi Chapter have been participating in several philanthropic events around campus. In late September, many members participated in the annual A-Phi Pancake Breakfast to benefit charity. A weekend later, some of the actives went to the Pi Beta Phi and Phi Delta Theta “Walk A Mile In Her Shoes” to benefit victims of domestic abuse. In early October, there was the AXO “Around the World Dinner” that benefited domestic abuse as well. Most recently, the Xi Chapter actives participated in the annual “XO Caddies” golf tournament that gave proceeds to the Make-A-Wish-Foundation. Sigma Pi always does well in this tournament as a lot of our members like to play golf as a hobby. The team of Chad Donahue, Lane French, Ryan Armstrong, and Tyler Zaumseil managed to shoot a five under par round of 31 at Brown Deer golf course to pull in 2nd place! More photos from the events can be seen in our “Fall 2011″ photo gallery.


Sigma Pi in the Sky Brotherhood 2011!

As you may know from last year’s newsletter and website update, last year was the first year of our now annual “Sigma Pi in the Sky” brotherhood. Because of the success and how fun it was, we of course had to do it again! At the end of September we again drove out to Brooklyn, Iowa to Skydive Iowa. Nearly all of our new members went and were joined by several of the older actives. The all-day event helped to bond the latest pledge class with each other and with the older guys. Just like last year, we had a great time!


Our other big brotherhood plans for this year include a Cedar Rapids RoughRiders hockey game, a paintballing, and possibly a Cedar Rapids Kernels game!


Congratulations To The Newest Xi Chapter Pledge Class!

After months of preparation and hard work, Xi Chapter once again experienced great success in this fall’s formal fraternity recruitment by recruiting twenty four excellent young men. Vice-President Alex Brodsky and Recruitment Executive Brad Jackson put in a ton of time and effort to prepare for and follow through with all of the recruitment plans this summer and fall. All though these two put in a substantial amount of work, recruitment would not have been successful without the dedication of the chapter as an entirety. Without the dedication shown by the Sophomore class especially, none of this could’ve been accomplished at all.


Once again congratulations to the Mu pledge class! You’ve just done one of the best things in your life by joining greek life and becoming a Sigma Pi. This fraternity is now partially in your hands and you are the next generation of leaders that can take this fraternity to new heights. If you put in the time and effort, this fraternity will benefit you in all aspects of life.


Fall 2011 Recruitment Event Schedule!

Monday, Sept 5th, 1 pm – 9 pm:
Burgers and Brats – 111 South Governor (Next to Pi Phi)

Tuesday, Sept 6th, 6 pm – 10 pm:
Wings at Summit (Downtown)

Wednesday, Sept 7th 6 pm – 10 pm:
Bags Tournament at Brothers (Downtown)

Thursday, Sept 8th, 6 pm – 10 pm:
Steaks and Stogies –Invite Only, 512 N. Gilbert (Gilbert and Fairchild)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interested In Joining A Fraternity In 2011?

First and foremost, we’d really like to congratulate you on being accepted and deciding to attend the University of Iowa! As you will soon find out, your years spent here at the University of Iowa will be some of the best years of your life! Besides choosing to go to the University of Iowa, congratulations on deciding to take an interest in Greek life! As all of our members will tell you, going Greek is one of the best decisions that we’ve ever made and it will continue to pay off for the rest of your life.


Here at Sigma Pi, we are interested in recruiting only the finest gentlemen. We want, and only recruit, young men who are interested in developing themselves to become better leaders, individuals, and most of all, well rounded gentlemen. We are a group of young adults that are focused on leadership, dedicated to respect and honor, and devoted to both social and academic success. Does this sounds like who you are and what you strive to be? If so, we’d appreciate it if you would take the time to come to our recruitment events and get to meet a few of our great members as it will only reassure you of this great image that we project on campus.


If you think that you fit to our high standards and are interested, make sure to fill out our online recruitment form and get into contact with some of our officers. Please, take a look around our website to see what we’re all about! Check out our constantly updated photo gallery, our impressive awards section, and all of our other in-depth sections. If your parents are interested in seeing what we’re about, show them our website and our parents section. Our great website is just another example of how we separate ourselves from other fraternities on campus and succeed in all aspects of fraternity and college life here at the University of Iowa!


We hope to see and hear from you in the near future!


Congratulations To Lambda Class!

This weekend the following new members were initiated into Xi Chapter:

Tyler Bullen
Luke Denlinger
Cameron Griffin
Ryan Mabbott
Storm Vaske

Congratulations on officially becoming brothers of Sigma Pi Fraternity International! You’ve officially become members of the best fraternity at the University of Iowa and we can’t wait to see you help lead this fraternity to new levels and successes!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back To School!

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end eventually, and this couldn’t be anymore true for the summer of 2011. Over the past few weeks, all of the brothers have started to slowly move back to Iowa City from their homes and summer jobs that have taken place all over the United States. Some brothers have had summer internships in places like Denver, Hollywood, and Florida, while others have worked in the Iowa City area. A few have even gone overseas to vacation and study abroad. Though we’ve had a blast this summer, it has come time to buckle down and prepare for another school year academically as well as fraternally.


The end of summer can be a bittersweet time for all of us. As sad as it is to see the fun and class-free summer come to a close, it’s a great feeling to be back in Iowa City and be reunited with our best friends and resume fraternity functions here at Xi Chapter. Everyone is feeling refreshed, excited, and motivated to take the fraternity to higher levels than it has ever seen. This is going to be one of the most challenging and pivotal years in Xi Chapter’s young history, but above all, it’s going to be one of our best as we yet again succeed in all aspects academically and fraternally here at the University of Iowa.


Xi Chapter Attends Sigma Pi University in Nashville!

This past July, brothers Ryan Armstrong and Lane French travelled down to the Vanderbilt campus in Nashville, Tennesee to attend Sigma Pi University. Sigma Pi University is a special three-day summer program, which was initiated in 1999 and has been held in every subsequent odd-numbered year. Unlike the Mid-Year Leadership Conference, its attendance is open to all interested undergraduates (brothers and pledges) as well as alumni. The focus of Sigma Pi University is personal and professional development of our membership. Meetings and training sessions were held daily on important topics that included Networking, Social Excellence, Leadership Training, and Financial Management.


Besides attending meetings and training sessions, Ryan and Lane had the perfect venue for exchanging successful ideas and activities among the chapter representatives and alumni volunteers from other chapters. After the daily schedule, the guys were allowed to go out and see the Nashville night life which provided a perfect venue for entertainment and future memories to look back on and laugh about. The twelve hour road trip each way was definitely worth it as they both came back to Iowa City filled with great ideas and motivation for the upcoming school year here at Sigma Pi Xi Chapter.


School is out for Summer!

The weeks of cramming and stressing for finals are finally over for the members of Xi Chapter this year. For a few, it was their last finals week that they’ll ever have at the University of Iowa. The graduation seniors this year are Michael Stephenson (past president and sergeant at arms), Dave Siegel (past sergeant at arms), Mike Kroeplin, and Ryan Wallace. We wish good luck to all of our graduating members and hope to keep in contact with them in the future. Their leadership and experience will be greatly missed here at Xi Chapter.


The brothers here at Xi Chapter are doing a variety of things with their summer. Most are heading back to their homes in Illinois, Minnesota, and Iowa, but a few of them will be staying in Iowa City and working at their jobs and internships and taking a few summer classes. Andrew Daniels will be traveling abroad to Barcelona, Spain for further education this summer and Alex Brodsky will be staying in Denver, Colorado for his engineering internship.


Besides working and studying, those staying in Iowa City for the summer have formed their own slow-pitch softball team that plays on Thursday nights at the Hawkeye Complex. Besides that we play golf together and go out as there’s always something to do here in Iowa City. Though we are happy for summer to be here, we’re all anxious for the next school year so that we can all get back together.


Congratulations Annual Xi Chapter Award Winners!


Xi Chapter annually hands out four chapter awards at their formal dinner. These awards are handed out to four of the hardest working individuals in the fraternity that continue to help the chapter progress and excel in all aspects of fraternity life. All award winners are extremely deserving of these awards and the chapter is lucky and grateful to have people like this in the fraternity. These are the award winners for 2011:

 

New Member of the Year: Lane French


This award goes to the new member that has made the most positive impact on the fraternity during the past school year. Lane French was elected to the Executive Council position of Secretary/Fourth Counselor as a freshman and also served as his pledge class’s Vice President. As Vice President of his pledge class he organized meetings, collected money, took attendance at pledge events, did more than his fair share of hard work, and held his fellow pledge class accountable for their actions during their pledge period. As Secretary, he completely revamped the position and helped highly organize all the fraternity records. He turned this fraternity website from a drastic negative to the greatest Greek Chapter website on campus by far. Lane also took accurate attendance at all fraternity events, was in charge of running the fraternity’s accountability/rewards “Pi Points” system, completely changed the quality of the meeting minutes, and was responsible for over 1/3 of the chapter’s national report points leading them to hopefully another Grand Chapter award.

 

Scholar of the Year: Steven Linden


This award goes the the brother that has displayed academic and scholastic dedication throughout the school year. Steven Linden is well deserving of this award, winning it two years in a row! Not only does he achieve an extremely high GPA of 4.0, he serves as a scholastic role model for the rest of the fraternity. One will often find him in the library studying his Dentistry major, one of the hardest programs to get into at the University of Iowa. Besides that, Steven is the scholarship chair and is in charge of collecting the study hours of all the members in the fraternity and helping them achieve academic success. His high GPA certainly helped out our fraternity average and led us to be one of the top fraternities academically on campus.

 

 

 

 

 

Senior of the Year: Mike Stephenson


This award goes to the senior member that has made the most positive impact over the academic school year. Mike Stephenson is highly respected member that is very deserving of this award, serving as Chapter President from Fall 2010 through Fall 2011 which was one of the most stressful times for this young chapter. He carried out his term wonderfully, handling risk management and financial responsibility phenominaly as any great fraternity leader should. Mike helped lead the fraternity to the prestigious Grand Council and Grand Chapter awards. He was also in charge of putting together the fraternity’s Semi-Formal and Formal events for the year, which takes a ton of work to make sure everything is organized and goes well. Xi Chapter is extremely grateful for the work that he has put into this fraternity and we will deeply miss his leadership next year as he goes onto John Marshall Law School.

 

 

 

 

 

Brother of the Year: Alex Brodsky


This award goes to the brother that has made the most positive impact on the fraternity during the last academic school year. In the past year, Alex Brodsky has served as Social Chair, Philanthropy Chair, Recruitment Chair, and Vice President. As Social Chair, Alex helped lead the fraternity to social success, making us a lot more popular on campus, especially with sororities. He made sure to go out of his way to make sure that we had a fun event booked every week, making every week something to look forward to. Serving as Recruitment Chair this fall, he was in charge of recruiting Xi Chapter’s best and most motivated pledge class in its short history. Elected to Vice President this fall, helped make the crucial and tough decisions that go on behind the scenes on Executive Board. He made great improvement in chair responsibility and chair communication leading to a much more organized year internally with the chapter. Besides this, he helped take charge of the stressful housing situation and made sure that everyone ended up happily with their housing situation for next year. Alex Brodsky has managed to do all this while balancing his fraternity duties with being both a full-time Computer Engineering student and a full-time worker at Proctor and Gamble.

 

Formal in Utica!


This past weekend, the brothers of Xi Chapter had their annual formal weekend in Utica, Illinois at Grand Bear Resort. In the past, formal has always been the funnest weekend of the year that all members and their dates look forward to and it was no different this year. Every member, from freshman to senior had a blast from Friday afternoon until Sunday morning! The weekend was full of going to the indoor waterpark, hitting up the amusement park, and of course hanging out and having fun in our extremely nice villas that were provided for us. On Saturday night we had our formal dinner where everyone dressed up and had a great sit down dinner with an awards ceremony. Our weekend in Utica is one that nobody will ever forget and we are looking forward to next years formal already!

 

First Annual Sigma Pi Fraternity Golf Outing!

This past weekend, the brothers of Xi Chapter held their first annual golf outing fundraiser! Brother Tim Oakley was in charge of the successful event and arranged everything from e-mails to tee times. Overall, there was a solid turnout with quite a few parents coming to Iowa City to play a round of golf and talk to various members of the fraternity. After the round, we all went back to the fraternity house and grilled out. Everyone had a great time and we can’t wait until next year’s golf outing!

Greek Week 2011!

Last week was the University of Iowa’s Greek Week which kept everyone in the fraternity busy. There were several events held by the University including various letter check-ins, penny wars, a blood drive, Greek Olympics, educationals, service events, and of course Follies! It was a very hectic week, especially for Sigma Pi Greek Week organizer, Bryan Wentworth, who did a fantastic job or coordinating events with our paired sorority, Alpha Chi Omega. There was a lot of time and effort put into the week, especially by the Follies guys dance team which held practices over a three week period to be ready for the big event. Though we didn’t win, we had a great time over the course of the week.

Sorority Super Bowl Philanthropy!

On Saturday, March 19th, we held our first annual Sigma Pi Sorority Super Bowl philanthropy at Hubbard Park! In the previous years, our philanthropy was the Sam Spady Foundation Philanthropy which raised money to show parents and college students the dangers of high-risk consumption of alcohol. The parents of Sam Spady decided to end the programs tenure, thus allowing us to come up with our own philanthropy. Our sorority flag football tournament was a great success with over 375 women signing up to participate and raise over $3,000 for the Iowa City Make-A-Wish Foundation.Brother Ben Kresner did a great job of setting up the event and making sure it ran smoothly. Everyone in attendance had a blast at the event, leaving us anxious for next year’s philanthropy already. The beautiful women of Gamma Phi Beta ended up dominating their competition on the way to winning the first ever Sigma Pi Sorority Super Bowl championship!

Finishing Out The Semester Strong!

The Xi Chapter members just returned to Iowa City from their week long spring break! Popular vacation destinations for the guys included Panama City and Cancun. Everyone had a great time and wished Spring Break would last another week, but unfortunately classes do have to resume sometime. Feeling refreshed from a fun week off, we look to finish the semester off strong. In the near future we will have our Sorority Super Bowl and Greek Week events to look forward to!

 

 

 

 

Check Out The New Photo Gallery!

The members of Xi Chapter have been working hard over the past few weeks to put together a collection of photos for our website and annual Herald scrapbook. We chose some photos taken throughout the years that show who we are and show what we have been up to recently from community service to messing around in the house. Feel free to take a look and have a laugh or two. Make sure to check back frequently for new photos!

 

 

 

 

Fundraising, Fundraising, Fundraising!

Xi Chapter is excited to announce that it has created a Donations page on our proud chapter website! Our academic achievement, fraternity membership, campus involvement and ranking with nationals are at the highest levels since we re-founded seven years ago, but there is just one thing that we are missing – a house of our own.

The time has come for us to purchase a property, and we need your help. Please take a moment and make a donation to our housing fund. Whether it be $5 or $500, every dollar helps the advancement of Xi Chapter. All proceeds will go to secure a beautiful permanent structure for the Sigma Pi Fraternity at the University of Iowa to call home. Thank you! Our words cannot come close to expressing how thankful we are for your generous contributions.


Welcome to the Brotherhood!

Xi Chapter would like to welcome our 21 new members, the Kappa pledge class. We are very proud of our Recruitment this year and like to thank everyone for their hard work and dedication. New members: Welcome to the best fraternity at the University of Iowa.

Spring Semester Starting!


Spring semester has started recently at the University of Iowa. I-Week took place during the first week back in Iowa City. The Kappa class pledges got the chance to experience a week in the life of an active member as they stayed at the fraternity house over the course of the week. They became fully initiated members of Xi Chapter at the end of the week.


Great Finish to Fall Semester!


Xi Chapter finished the fall semester with a cumulative GPA of 2.91! This places us in the top four fraternities on campus academically. Our fall pledge class also had a GPA of 2.90, our highest pledge class average yet! We had nine members make the Dean’s List this semester achieving a GPA of 3.5 or better. Keep up the great work guys!


Alumni, Check it out!


A new Sigma Pi email service in now online. Plans for regular update mailings are in the works.

The Alumni registration page is now live! If you’re a Sigma Pi Alumni, please take a few minutes to register and to give us feedback about the new site.