the MUSE SPRING 2016 Mu Chapter of Sigma Pi Fraternity Centennial Plaque in the West Lounge and updated honor plaques in the Memorial Room library. See article on page 4. www.sigmapicornell.org Mu Chapter Committee Develops Kitchen Website & Social and Dining Strategy Media Outlets Since our last report in the fall Muse, the undergraduates and the class of 2015 was alumni board launched a strategic initiative conducted in November 2015. A total of 53 to develop a comprehensive plan focused responses to the survey were received, the on modernizing and enhancing the kitchen majority of which were by current brothers. and dining facilities of Sigma Pi. A commit- The results of the committee’s work were tee consisting of alumni industry leaders presented to the alumni board at a meet- and undergraduate leaders was formed. ing that took place in New York City in late The committee communicated with March. The alumni board authorized that a representatives from Sigma Pi Internation- preliminary study be conducted with a repu- al and Cornell Fraternity and Sorority Life table design firm that will present strategic on kitchen and dining issues that impact options for considerations. This will lead to Greek life to determine if “best practices’” a comprehensive plan, which will be com- exist in the Greek system. Conclusion: best municated to the alumni once it is complete. In the fall of 2014, the alumni board practices don’t exist. This might be an op- worked closely with its communications portunity for Mu Chapter to lead. In addi- Alumni Kitchen and Dining Committee partner to completely update the Mu tion, the committee collected competitive Chapter’s website, sigmapicornell.org. market feedback on other fraternities. • Brian Finneran ’81: CEO at Intermedia There were a number of requirements In order to gain a better understanding of Events & Conference Group that were a part of the redesign process. the issues around kitchen and dining, mem- • Steve Pirozzi ’80: Food & Beverage The new website: bers of the committee (Brian Finneran ’81, Dept., The Hotel Plaza Athenee, New • increases the ability for our alumni to stay York connected and to be kept up-to-date • Alexa Bosshardt ’82: Corporate re- • has a robust section for our under- search chef at American Sugar Refining; graduate brothers to enhance new culinary professional and registered/li- member recruitment censed dietitian with expertise in recipe/ new product R&D, nutrition, nutritional • has a section for parents to find the in- labeling, and nutritional marketing formation they need, whether their son • Greg Vojnovic ’85: Chief development is a current or prospective member officer at Arby’s Restaurant Group • has better support for mobile devices. • Kevin Kruse ’79: Chief development With these factors, as well as the desire New chef David Brown, John Wu ’17, officer at Hurricane Grill & Wings; expe- for a very aesthetically pleasing and high- Steve Pirozzi ’80 rience in franchise sales and operations, ly functional site, a new visual design was Steve Pirozzi ’80, Alexa Bosshardt ’82, and franchise law, business development, created and new content was added. Greg Vojnovic ’85) conducted multiple on- market mapping, and site selection We’re sure those who have visited site visits to review facility infrastructure, to • Dave Williamson ’77: President at Five the website would agree, both visually meet with undergraduate leaders, and to re- Star Restaurants, LLC; entrepreneur, and content-wise, the new site is a ma- view dining and sanitation conditions. Addi- opening fast casual restaurants in Ne- jor step forward. tionally, a comprehensive survey with current vada and Southern California If you haven’t visited the site, please go, check it out, and register for the members-only section to gain access to the full range of content. Facilities Committee Making In addition, the alumni board is keen to make the most of existing social me- Improvements for Mu Chapter dia channels. Please visit our current so- By John Morrison ’75 the dining room and one in a bedroom. cial media outlets. The original vendor had inspected those We have taken multiple steps to ad- two windows and determined that they dress window hardware and air leakage, Facebook: (continued on next page) which have been significant problems for facebook.com/groups/250850591718094 many years. All third-floor windows were replaced in November 2015. Those win- Instagram: Twitter: dows were casement-type (crank-out) @cornellsigmapi @CornellSigmaPi windows, which have contributed to most of the maintenance problems. The Sigma Pi Foundation replaced the windows in LinkedIn: the Memorial Library in February. At that /groups/Sigma-Pi-Mu-Chapter-Alumni-4734302 time, two additional windows were re- placed: the one in the main stairwell to page 2 Spring 2016 Sage Report By Fernando Cevallos ’17 Cahoon ’77 Tech Center to host our alumni speaker series, where the brotherhood gets To begin the year, Mu an opportunity to hear how being a mem- Chapter held its yearly rush ber of Sigma Pi has positively influenced By Mike Vernick ’83 week, where we attracted Mu Chapter alumni. One highlight of the se- over 400 rushes to our first mester thus far was our yearly brotherhood The Mu Chapter of Sigma Pi Educational recruitment event. As al- camping event, Omega Chi. We ventured to Foundation sponsored the first-ever confer- ways, rush week is incred- a campsite 30 minutes north from the Pi ence on entrepreneurship for undergraduate ibly competitive, and we house and spent a night camping in the wil- brothers on April 16 at the house. The con- are happy to announce that our efforts yield- derness. Although it was cold and windy, we ference was held in conjunction with the En- ed 14 outstanding new brothers. Although kept good company around the fire. Need- trepreneurship at Cornell celebration held on this incoming pledge class is slightly smaller less to say, it was quite the adventure. April 14 and 15. The event was attended by than previous ones, it’s important to note that We had our annual Parents Weekend over 50 undergraduate brothers and alumni. these new members are an extremely good from April 8–10, where the families of the The keynote speaker was Felix Litvinsky, fit for the house and have all contributed im- current brothers partook in several activities managing director of Blackstone LaunchPad mensely since joining. Following the great with the brotherhood, including attending at Cornell University. Blackstone Launch- success of last year’s pledge party, the new a Cornell lacrosse game, going on a win- Pad is an experiential campus-based pro- brothers are diligently planning a second an- ery tour, and enjoying a formal dinner at gram designed to introduce entrepreneur- nual beach-themed pledge party called “Oa- the Pi house with the whole brotherhood. ship as a viable career path and to develop sis.” We will again fill up the bottom parking Additionally, we hosted our first-ever entre- entrepreneurial skills and mindset through lot with sand. It is sure to be a great time. preneurship conference at the Pi house on individualized coaching, ideation, and ven- The new members were initiated on April 16, where various tech industry lead- ture creation support. In addition, the direc- February 28. This leaves us with a total of ers spoke to the brotherhood about rele- tor of Entrepreneurship at Cornell (E@C), 70 active brothers. Given the problems we vant topics in tech and entrepreneurship. Zachary Schulman ’87, spoke about the had last year with our new-member educa- As always, we will wrap up the spring se- Cornell entrepreneurship program that was tion process, I’m very happy to announce mester with Slope Day and the Orchid Ball, created in 1992 to promote entrepreneur- that we successfully completed the process two of the most exciting events of the year. ship education, experiential learning op- without any issues this year. We all worked As my term as sage comes to an end, portunities, programmatic activities, and extensively with the university administra- I’d like to say that the Pi house continues events for the Cornell community. tion and new-member educators to make to excel in all aspects of life on the hill, and Sigma Pi alumni speakers included sure everything went according to plan. I invite all, no matter the distance from Cor- John Zimmer ’06, founder and CEO of Over the course of the spring 2016 se- nell, to share the same pride that results Lyft; Quin Garcia ’05, managing director of mester, we’ve continued using the Dick from seeing the house succeed. AutoTech Ventures, a venture fund invest- ing in ground transport startups that are focused on connected, autonomous, ener- gy-efficient cars, motorcycles, commercial Tom Silver ’81, incoming president of vehicles, and services; Randy Ottinger the Mu Chapter Educational Foundation, Facilities Committee ’80, founder of Leader-2-Leader, a firm discussed the ways undergraduates could Making Improvements that helps founders, CEOs, and senior lead- partner with the Foundation on entrepre- ers build great companies with the strate- neurship endeavors. Brody Ehrlich ’10, and (continued from previous page) gies, cultures, and networks to accelerate Brian Lederman ’10, spoke about a new were beyond repair and required replace- growth, innovation, and financial value;Ali initiative to help secure funding for under- ment. The original vendor has inspected Hamed ’14, co-founder, managing partner, graduates’ entrepreneurial and business and is in the process of making neces- and partner at CoVenture, a venture capital projects. If you’re an entrepreneur and would sary repairs to all other windows. Work is firm, specializing in seed and early stage like to be involved in further promoting en- scheduled for completion in late April.