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Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity California State University, Northridge Volume 42, Issue 3 Fall 2014

BETA-RHO BULLETINBETA-RHO BULLETIN

Initiation Accomplished

The ritual for 20 new initiates went off without a hitch on Nov. 21. Despite a second hazing incident that threatened to freeze new CSUN fraternity member inductions in October, the fall initiation preparations continued as planned. Extra precautionary measures were taken to ensure that the associate members’ fraternity education sessions were conducted with the full chapter’s participation. It was also the earliest start time for a Beta-Rho initiation in several years.

Vince Vergara with his big brother (and High Kappa) Myke Davis.

! 2 Corp. Annual Meeting 6 Fall News: Actives 8 Founder’s Day/Barbecue 9 Secret Santa 10 Big Show XIV 12 Meet The Danes 14 Alessandro Hoenig: Surfing Exchange Student 15 Jorge Reyes: Volunteerism 16 The Class of Fall, 2014 18 Larry Greene: 1959-2014 19 2014 Alumni Loyalty Fund 20 Editor’s Journal

Features

Although the showery weather probably affected the alumni attendance a little, at least 37 alumni and undergrads took refuge at the Lindley House on Dec. 2 for its second consecutive restaurant-free Annual Meeting of the chapter’s house corporation.

The undergrads and live-ins sprang back into action to set up the house with tables and chairs for a dinner catered by Stonefire Grill. Corp. Board Vice President of Activities John Bonilla (BP 593) showed up early to supervise the setup with the chapter’s banquet coordinator and High Rho Vincent Pimentel (BP 676) before he had to forego attending the meeting and leave for work.

Most of the evening’s speakers addressed the crowd in front of the living room fireplace. Whether by design or sheer luck, a large display board of supermodel Gisele Bundchen wearing black lingerie dominated the mantle among the Lambdi Chi mementos. Both of the oversized Bundchen placards had been acquired by a couple of fraternity brothers who had previously worked at a local Victoria’s Secret store. At the very least, the supermodel’s chest tended to photobomb snapshots of the speakers and views of the crowd looking toward the fireplace.

Once the alumni and actives had mingled for more than an hour, Corp. Board President Spencer Schmerling (BP 288) made judicious use of his new gavel and called the meeting to order.

As the actives put an assembly line of servers through their paces in the kitchen to kick off the dinner hour, he recognized the High Beta, Adrian Morales (BP 642). He sat in for High Alpha Wesley Lamphere (BP 611) who had stayed home due to an illness. Before his report, Brother Schmerling deferred to Howard Brightman (EΣ 528) to lead the brothers in the Creed. Then he asked Corp. Board Vice President of Communications

Rick Childs (BP 83) to introduce distinguished guests, original charter member alumni and ones involved with its rechartering, plus all the former High Alphas in attendance.

After approval of the previous Annual Meeting’s minutes, Brother Schmerling described the occupancy of the Lindley House in generally upbeat terms.

“This is our best year so far with filling the house with live-ins,” Brother Schmerling said. Occupancy numbers for the Lindley House bedrooms had been reconfigured to enable the corp. board to lower the rents and attract more tenants this fall. The plan worked; the income from rent and earlier parlor fee collections nearly matched the house expenses “for the first time since we were on Halsted.”

One of the corp. board’s greatest challenges in recent years has been its inability to raise enough capital to widen the street in front of the house, a pre-condition for qualifying to obtain a zoning variance. At a cost of upwards of $200,000, this street improvement detail has hindered the property’s lot to be split up and partially sold off which would greatly reduce the mortgage and revitalize the capital fund program.

Brother Schmerling said that he had been working with Brother Brightman and Gary Thomas (BP 146) in addressing this problem. He told the audience that Brother Thomas had been negotiating with the local city councilman to work on a plan and convince his fellow city council members to allow the street widening project to go forward without any financial impact to the chapter.

In his report on chapter publications, Brother Childs described the campaign he undertook on social media plus emails and

FALL 20142

Corp. Board’s 2014 Annual Meeting: Shelter From the Rain

Closing out the last corp. board meeting of 2014. New and returning members of the corp. board were, from left: Vincent Pimentel (High Rho), Spencer Schmerling, Scott Press, Hamid Jahangard, Kevin Mojaradi (High Pi nominee), Tim Pena and Rick Childs.

Nick Dinsmore

phone calls to gather new contact and job information from alumni for the 2015 directory. Also, this was the first year that directory sponsors agreed to submit color ads in places besides the inside and outside cover.

Its cover photo resulted from an informal contest on social media. Undergrads were asked to post pictures on Facebook or Instagram of chapter events this fall for directory cover consideration.

“Chapters are lucky to get a directory once every three years,” Brother Childs said. “If you want to do a really good directory, do

not wait three years... because you’ll spend ages trying to [find brothers].”

Publishing Beta-Rho Bulletins took on more urgency since they had fallen behind schedule for much of the previous year. Since June, three newsletters spanning all of 2013 up through the summer of 2014 had been posted on Issuu.com, promoted on social media and with emails. Plans were underway to publish additional newsletters for the fall semester and winter.

Mini-bulletins, separate from the newsletters, were emailed to most

of the alumni in late October. A second issue was planned for insertion with the directories for alumni who did not attend the Annual Meeting.

Beta-Rho was undergoing a major transition in membership this fall, according to Chapter Advisor Chris Dyer (BP 500).

“The older gentlemen of the chapter are leaving and the new blood is taking over,” he said. “It went through that phase when I graduated, and it’s about to go through it again. We initiated 20 this semester; it almost doubled the size of the chapter.”

3BETA-RHO ZETA OF LAMBDA CHI ALPHA INTERNATIONAL FRATERNITY

Taking care of business. Shawn Showkati, Kevin Mojaradi and Mahdiar Karamooz (upper left) listen as Christopher Aston walks the chapter through the events that led up to the Student Affairs staff’s decision to place new restrictions on new member induction activities and spring recruitment. Mark Widawer, Jay Friedman and Howard Sapper (above) kept the speakers on their toes with plenty of questions and comments during reports. The undergrads took care of all the setup, serving food to the alumni and cleanup tasks (left). Adrian Morales looks on during Brother Schmerling’s commentary as Jacob Holmes looks over his Annual Report (below left).

All photos by Rick Childs

Volume 42, Issue 3 Version 2.0

Editor, reporter, designer & photographer: Rick Childs

The Beta-Rho Bulletin is the official publication of Beta-Rho Zeta of Lambda Chi Alpha, Inc. at California State University, Northridge. Article ideas, directory revisions, weddings, anniversaries, births and career info should be snail mailed, e-mailed or sent via Facebook to the editor. His mailing address is 44044 Engle Way Apt. 65, Lancaster, CA; 93536-6660. Email: rc4x4profit@verizon.net. All other correspondence to the corporation should be sent to P.O. Box 280311, Northridge, CA 91328-0311. Made on a Mac Mini with iWork Pages ’09 v.4.1. Originally published on Dec. 31, 2014. Last revised on April 21, 2015. Editor’s phone number: (661) 948-3260

Fall 2014 Housing Corporation Board of Directors:

President Spencer SchmerlingVP, Communications Rick ChildsVP, Activities John BonillaSecretary Rob PressTreasurer Steven ShapiroAlumni Director Scott Press Alumni Director Hamid JahangardChapter Adviser Chris DyerHigh Alpha Wesley LamphereHigh Tau Jorge ReyesHigh Rho Vincent PimentelHouse Manager Mychal Davis

On the Web: Headquarters www.lambdachi.orgFacebook CSUN Lambda Chi Alpha BP Alumni PageTwitter CSUN Lambda ChiInstagram CSUNLambdaChiAlpha

Brother Dyer stopped short of reporting on the recent hazing incidents that had placed constraints on CSUN’s Greek system. He turned over this portion of his report to a Beta-Rho alumnus who works for the university’s Student Development and Involvement Office on campus, Christopher Aston (BP 452). He is the assistant director of programming.

Recapping the Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity hazing tragedy that took the life of a 19-year-old CSUN pledge in early July, Brother Aston discussed the steps that were taken to prevent further incidents of this nature. All fraternity actives and potential new members were required to attend a Pre-Recruitment Education Program (PREP) presented by Greeks Life Advisor Jamison Keller in late August. The recruitment process was further modified with a first-ever bid day that culminated Fall Rush Week.

Incredibly, a second hazing incident rocked CSUN’s Greek community in October when Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity pledges were badly mistreated during a chapter retreat. Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. William Watkins stopped short of calling for the removal of the university’s Greek system. However, every fraternity and sorority on campus became subject to a recruitment moratorium until new guidelines were put in place.

“How did this physically affect [Beta-Rho of] Lambda Chi Alpha and its recruitment this past semester, its programming and its initiation?” Brother Brightman asked.

“It didn’t at all,” Brother Dyer said. “We recruited 30 and initiated 20. [Our programming] wasn’t changed at all.”

Brother Brightman then asked, “Moving forward, are there any restrictions still on us, or on the other Greeks?”

Brother Dyer responded, “The original ruling said that there would be no recruitment in the spring. However, from what I’m understanding, that may be overturned.”

“We are still guessing,” Brother Aston added. “Currently, our director of my office who oversees Greek Life—they are at the AFA [Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors] Conference. That is a big topic of conversation. A lot of CSU presidents are anxious to find out what to do with these types of phenomena.

“CSU Chico—for those of you who know—two years ago they had a death [from a fraternity hazing incident]. And immediately, the president stopped all fraternity and sorority action together. They were silenced. They did not exist. They’re still recuperating from that. Those who are in Greek leadership are looking at the AFA Conference to set some tone so that they can bring it back to their presidents and find out what to do. I don’t suspect that we will have a halt in fraternity organizations.”

Howard Sapper (BP 257) asked, “What are we doing to show the positive benefits of Greek society that doesn’t haze its members?”

“Rick [Childs] came up with an ingenious idea which we have already run by Headquarters and they have already approved,” Brother Dyer replied.

“Whenever the university decides to take the next step in their education program for new members, PREP Part 2, Headquarters is going to come down and present on behalf of Lambda Chi, to speak to the university as to what it is that we’ve been doing for the last 40 years in this chapter, and in Lambda Chi in general since 1909, as to the non-hazing practice.”

Later in the meeting, Mark Widawer (BP 220) responded to the Greek system’s spring recruitment moratorium by commenting, “There are what seem to be insurmountable problems, but Beta-Rho always gets through it.”

After experiencing a lot of fallout from the chapter’s overall academic performance last fall, it increased the GPA requirements to above Headquarters’ minimum requirement. It has been raising the minimum GPA by .05 increments per semester over four consecutive semesters.

At the beginning of the semester, the chapter’s GPA was higher than the university’s All Men’s Average, as well as the minimum that Headquarters required (2.5). Brother Dyer said that he didn’t know the chapter’s current overall GPA, but Brother Aston interjected that he would know what it would be in three weeks.

The chapter’s involvement in Headquarters’ official charity, Feeding America, has been robust this year. It submitted a four-figure amount of cans it had collected to Headquarters this fall. Brother Dyer also mentioned the Watermelon Bash that had been held in the spring and pointed to the walls in the downstairs study where banners had been hung after the event.

Since his relocation to Anaheim Hills earlier this year to be closer to his job at Downtown Disney’s House of Blues, Brother Dyer informed the corp. board and General Headquarters that he would be vacating his post [after tonight’s meeting].

At his request, the chapter produced a list of ten candidates for his replacement. When Brother Dyer brought up the list, it didn’t take long before one of the other alumni in the room to take the spotlight.

FALL 20144

Housing Corporation Annual Meeting 2014

“Through conversations tonight, and the first person to answer what PREP stood for, [the chapter’s favorite candidate for the next High Pi would be] Kevin Mojaradi (BP 462),” Brother Dyer said.

“Unfortunately, the High Pi [selection] process is not a nominate and agree upon situation. However, should the chapter decide to submit a letter on behalf of Kevin to Headquarters saying, ‘Hey, we want Kevin to be our next High Pi,’ and if he responds to the phone call saying ‘yes,’ it’s a done deal.”

Brothers quickly rallied on behalf of Brother Mojaradi, and the cheers were quelled only after a few poundings of Brother Schmerling’s gavel.

“Because Kevin was on that original list of ten, I think the chapter agrees that they want him as High Pi, so long as he agrees,” Brother Dyer added. When it became obvious that Brother Mojaradi would be replying affirmatively to that call from Headquarters, the crowd loudly sang ‘Here’s to Kevin….’

Afterwards, Brother Schmerling thanked Brother Dyer for his two years serving as Beta-Rho’s chapter advisor.

Proxy statement cards and printouts were handed out to various brothers before elections got underway. But once again, four candidates stepped forward for the four expired terms. Re-elected were Brothers Schmerling, Childs and Scott “Papa” Press (BP 55). Tim Pena (BP 264), a former corp. board member, returned to the fold. Brothers Childs, Press and Pena accepted two-year terms while Brother Schmerling opted again for a one-year term

During announcements/open forum session, Brother Widawer turned the meeting’s attention to a situation at UCLA concerning a student body vote that took place recently. Students approved a non-binding resolution to boycott Israel.

“Although it holds no weight in any way whatsoever, it does reflect the sentiment of the student body that is woefully uninformed,” Brother Widawer said. “I’m curious to know if you heard about this on campus. Prior to voting and going along with what looks like public sentiment, you get informed. This devious movement is racist, it’s hate-filled, and there’s no place for it at the university or among intelligent human beings.”

Later during the open forum before the meeting adjourned, Brother Pena issued a challenge when the next alumni-active softball game is played.

“In the memory of brothers we have lost over the years to cancer, I would like to see the chapter donate money to the American Cancer Society,” Brother Pena said. “We’ve had some high scoring games, 26-22, something like that. A buck a run, five bucks a run per man to honor the brothers we’ve lost.” The runs scored starting with next summer’s game would determine the amount.

5BETA-RHO ZETA OF LAMBDA CHI ALPHA INTERNATIONAL FRATERNITY

State of the chapter reports. Clockwise from upper left: Spencer Schmerling, Rick Childs, Christopher Aston, Chris Dyer. One of the chapter’s Watermelon Bust banners (left). Opposite page: Brothers study a photo of the chapter’s 1984 homecoming float entry after the meeting. From left: Niklas Petersen, Mark Widawer, Adrian Morales, Jacob Holmes and David Burgos.

All photos by Rick Childs except where noted. Adrian Morales

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Chapter Chronicles:

Fall, 2014When the chapter wasn’t busy pursuing its brotherhood or philanthropy activities, its social calendar was booked with several sorority charities and social events. Brothers took part in Kappa Kappa Gammas’ Kappa Splash (1) and the American Heart Association’s Heart Walk sponsored by Alpha Phi (5) on Oct. 19. Wes Cole (2) placed 2nd and took Best in Talent in Alpha Omicron Pi’s Mr. CSUN Contest on Nov. 7. Tri Delta Airlines (3) on Oct. 10, featuring food from around the world, raised money for the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, St. Jude and the Tri Delta Foundation. Delta Zeta’s Turtle Tug (4) took place in Oct. 18. Alpha Xi Delta sponsored its Pizza Palooza (6) on Dec. 3 in support of Autism Speaks. Brothers also competed at the Phi Mu Sir Fidel Cup (7) on Nov. 22 in support of their philanthropy, the Children’s Miracle Network.

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CSUN Lambda Chi Alpha General Bulletin Board / Facebook & Instagram

FALL 2014

BETA-RHO ZETA OF LAMBDA CHI ALPHA INTERNATIONAL FRATERNITY

Actives carpooled to Big Bear City for the Fall Brotherhood Retreat (1) over the weekend of Oct. 10-12. The group photo, shot by Corey Davis and originally posted on Instagram, was chosen for the cover of the chapter’s 2015 membership directory. Jesse Martinez (2) was one of three candidates who went on to win the election for High Gamma during the chapter meeting on Oct 26 in Jerome Richfield Hall. High Beta Adrian Morales, HIgh Delta Myke Davis, fourth from left (3) posed with some of the actives on Sept. 22. Eric Roberts (4) played his final season with the Matador Ice Hockey Team. Daniel Ruelas Verduzco and his girlfriend, Roxanna Hernandez (center), purchased a coat of arms sticker for the Lindley House living room in September (5). High Alpha Wesley Lamphere (6) listens to Hamid Jahangard on an iPhone speaker during a housing corporation meeting on Nov. 12. Brothers rehearse for their KKGlee skit (7) on Nov. 12 for the show that was held two days later. Brother Ruelas Verduzco (8) was voted in as one of the Brothers of the Week in September.

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Corey Davis (1), Rick Childs (2, 6 & 7), all others CSUN Lambda Chi Alpha General Bulletin Board / Facebook & Instagram

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A quartet of alumni paid a visit to the Lindley House on Nov. 2 for the chapter’s first Sunday of the month barbecue with the active membership. The barbecue coincided with the day of the 105th anniversary of the founding of Lambda Chi Alpha.

About 25 undergrads filtered in starting at around 2 p.m. Hot dogs and burgers were picked up by event organizer and High Rho Vincent Pimentel (BP 676) and High Beta Adrian Morales (BP 642) before the table, chairs and grill were brought out to the driveway. Due to a scheduling mixup, the alumni were told that the event began at 1 p.m., so they toured the house for a bit. Early on Kyle Shaver (1) was helped by alumni with changing can light bulbs.

The monthly barbecues started at the recommendation of

Educational Leadership Consultant (ELC) Justin Reed. He visited the chapter in early September before rush. As a way to forge closer ties between big and little brothers, the barbecues have become a fixture since October.

Among the alumni in attendance were Dr. Dave Cary (EΣ 491, the one holding a light bulb in photo #2) and Phil Abbenante (BP 254). Rick Childs (BP 83) took a selfie (3) with Brother Abbenante. Tom Lawrence (AI 620, not shown) also stopped by.

Brother Pimentel, Keshon Robinson (BP 661) and High Kappa Justyn De Leon (BP 602) took turns at the grill (4). Bryan Martinez (BP 674) and David Burgos (BP 684) were among the actives who added to a winning recipe for brotherhood.

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Founders Day/Brotherhood Barbecue

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All photos by Rick Childs

BETA-RHO ZETA OF LAMBDA CHI ALPHA INTERNATIONAL FRATERNITY

Secret SantaFor the final social event of the fall semester on Dec. 17, the

actives had selected gift exchange recipients during the Dec. 7 chapter meeting. This was to be their Secret Santa night.

Festivities were delayed for an hour or two when the event’s master of ceremonies and High Epsilon Daniel Bermudez (BP 650), stepped out, presumably in search of Niklas Petersen (BP 695), Mikkel Steinlien (BP 697) and Espen Tandberg (BP 699). They were heading back to their university in Denmark the following week, so this was their unofficial going-away party.

A few alumni also made appearances. Nikko Trinidad (BP 625) easily won the Man Miles Award. He was finishing up his final semesters at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. Rick Childs (BP 83) had planned to meet with Brothers Petersen, Steinlien and Tandberg before deejay John Bonilla (BP 593) launched into his setlist in the media room.

Brother Childs paired up with Wes Cole (BP 671) since they didn’t have Secret Santa recipients. For Brother Cole’s In ‘N Out gift card, he received a collectible set of Pink Floyd playing cards.

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FALL 2014

Big Show XIVBig Show XIVThe 14th annual Big Show at CSUN on Oct. 4 marked Eric

Planas’ (BP 630) final bow as the event’s executive producer and show runner. He also served as executive producer for the previous year’s Big Show and has been involved with Associated Students Productions since the fall of 2010 when he was an incoming freshman.

Headlining this year’s Big Show was Laidback Luke, (Lucas Cornelis van Scheppingen, a Filipino-Dutch DJ and producer). Opening for him was the Canadian dance music duo DVBBS (pronounced “dubz”) followed by DJ Joaquin Bamaca.

Planned along a similar scale as 2013’s Big Show that featured Afrojack, the program’s continuation of an all-EDM format meant that crowd control problems were minimal in comparison to the hip-hop/EDM format of Big Show XII.

“2012 was the year that we almost got cancelled after Big Sean and Diplo,” Brother Planas recalled. “[Due to] campus politics, we can only have 9,000 people go because of [Big Show XII] when they had almost 15,000 students there, and it caused a little chaos.”

Although the concert planning ran smoothly, Big Show XIV presented a different challenge for Brother Planas.

“The thing that we struggled with was that we didn’t sell out right away; we sold out on the day of,” he said. “Ticket prices were different. They were $10 and they went up to $20.”

As in prior years, attendees could find eateries around the Sierra Quad along with plenty of other attractions.

According to Brother Planas, “When you walked inside the venue, we had different vendors. We had eight food trucks there as well. We had Universal Studios, and they promoted their Halloween Horror Nights. We had a Kind Bar, which is a nutritious bar that gives out free samples. Pizza Rev was there

to give out free giveaways. There were photo booths from Rock Star and Universal. There was a Rock Star tent where they were giving out some of their products for the students to try. When you walked further up, we had an Art Wall where you could paint with neon paint. We also had this art installation where you walked down into a wall of colors and had video stuff on it. The trees were lit [on the west side of the Oviatt Library], so that was pretty cool too.”

As the executive producer, “I was the student show lead, so I did artists’ relations and artists’ management. So from DVBBS, which is our opening act, DJ Joaquin Bamaca and Laidback Luke, I worked with them, greeted them, took them from their cars to their dressing rooms and brought them onstage.”

As the artists’ concert manager, Brother Planas took particular pleasure in working with Laidback Luke.

“One thing about Laidback Luke that is really cool about him is that he actually came to a sound check before the show. Doors opened at 5; the sound check was at 4. Usually the artists don’t come to sound checks. [He’s] one of the nicest guys I’ve worked with. He took a little tour of the venue and met some of the student volunteers. [Then] he painted on

Eric Planas

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BETA-RHO ZETA OF LAMBDA CHI ALPHA INTERNATIONAL FRATERNITY

the art wall for a little bit.”However, not everything worked out with the lead act. “We were scheduled to do a balloon drop. We bought 100

large 3-foot balloons to throw into the crowd during Laidback Luke’s set. When we told Laidback Luke that we had them, he said he didn’t want us to put them out because he was afraid of balloons. They mess up his set because they pop near him. Usually artists at large music festivals have big balloon drops.”

One of the concert’s ongoing traditions that Brother Planas started with Big Show XIII made up for the lack of balloons. It was unquestionably a big hit with the fans.

“Yeah, we had 7,000 glow sticks,” he said.Working as a producer for concerts has been the highlight

of Brother Planas’ work with A.S.“I started off as a volunteer. I wanted to get involved right

away. During my Freshman Orientation at a table I met the people that were in charge of the Big Show. At that time it was (EDM rapping duo) LMFAO, and I really liked them. I had been involved with ASB in high school [at Pete Knight in East Palmdale]. In the third day of school of my freshman year I was already in a meeting talking about Big Show. And then I got promoted as an assistant to the executive producer of the show lead. Then I got promoted to assistant director of marketing. On January of 2012 I got hired as a producer for A.S. Productions. Then in December of 2012 I got promoted to executive producer of A.S. Productions.”

The chapter’s volunteer involvement at Big Show XIV wasn’t as significant as in prior years, but most of them continued the tradition of walking from the Lindley House en masse to attend the event.

“This year the only person that volunteered was Nelson (Tobar, BP 616). I’m not sure what his duties were that day. But all the other brothers came to support the show in one

area with the [Lambda Chi] flag.”There is one thing he regrets about his involvement with the

concert series.“I know that I’m not going to be able to see the full

performance. That’s one thing I had to accept: either work at it or see it. My job is not to watch a show; my job is to make sure that everyone is having fun and being safe. People came up to me afterwards and said, ‘Eric, this is the best Big Show I’ve ever been to.’ So at the end of the day, I’m happy with that.”

As the show runner for the past two years, Brother Planas expressed confidence that his experiences will help him find work as a concert promoter.

“From this I learned how to manage a big budget, working with a team, and it was a great leadership experience. I never thought I would program an event with a $350,000 budget and 9,000 students coming to these events. It’s an amazing feeling to do that, and I’m just forever thankful for it.

“My idea after graduation is to continue what I am doing,” I absolutely love programming events. We have a big lecture coming up with James Franco (in March at the Valley Performing Arts Center).”

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FALL 201412

Meet the Danes

Sometimes big ideas result from unusual circumstances. The chapter’s inception resulted when Dave Trimble, an Arizona State transfer student, wanted to bring Lambda Chi Alpha to what was then San Fernando Valley State College in 1968. Now there are three brothers from Beta-Rho who want to do something similar that no North American fraternity has yet accomplished: start a colony at a college or university in Europe.

Call it a highly unusual trend in recruitment for Beta-Rho: four of its 20 fall initiates were exchange students from European nations. While it’s not unprecedented for the chapter to induct international students, their exchange programs ended after one semester at CSUN.

Six years earlier, Thomas Nirmark (BP 566), a physics major, became the first exchange student to join the chapter while on a two-semester study overseas program from Uppsala University in Sweden.

Three seniors from the Copenhagen Business School in Denmark plus another senior from the Cologne Business School in Germany joined Beta-Rho in September. Niklas Petersen (BP 695), Mikkel Steinlien (BP 697) and Espen Tandberg (BP 699) became collectively known around the chapter as ‘The Danes’ and shared the same apartment in Reseda. Alessandro Hoenig, a native of Oldenburg, Germany, was the fourth exchange student.

None of the brothers from the Copenhagen Business School seemed to mind their collective nicknames. Recent alumni might recall that Brother Nirmark was known at the Chipotle House and on campus as ‘Sweden’. However, not all of them are Danish natives. Brother Tandberg originated from Sandvika, Norway, a suburb of its capitol, Oslo.

Before their departures from California after finals, Brothers Petersen, Steinlien and Tandberg sat down for a quick chat in the Lindley House study about an hour after the Secret Santa gift exchange on Dec. 17. As a couple of brothers began deejaying in the media room outside the door, they talked about the obstacles that they faced to establish a beachhead for Lambda Chi in Denmark.

While campus organizations have flourished at European

colleges and universities as well as ones in the Philippines, none of them fit the model of an American or Canadian fraternity.

All of the Copenhagen initiates knew what they were up against. “I think if we pull it off it would actually be the first [U.S. type of] fraternity at all in Europe,” Brother Tandberg said.

“We know that it’s not going to be easy,” he added. “We really would just like to have the chance to do it.”

Brother Petersen said, “We have been talking with Tony [Ball], Wes [Lamphere] and Justyn [De Leon] about it. Tony is my big brother, and he told me ‘I’m not even sure if [Headquarters] will take it seriously, or they will actually consider it.’”

As far as extra-curricular activities are concerned at European colleges, the concept of Greek Letter societies has not been part of the mix with one exception.

“We have them in Germany,” Brother Steinlien said.According to a fraternity and sorority chat network called

GreekChat.com, a user named VictoriaGermany wrote in 2007 that fraternities were started at colleges there about 200 years ago, but they vanished while the Nazis were in power in the 1930s and during WWII. German fraternities have been named after geographical locations such as Danubia, Slesvico-Holsatia, Germania, Palatia and others. Sororities in Germany have taken on names of Greek or Roman goddesses like Athena, Victoria and Selenia. Half of the sororities were founded after 2000.

Aside from Germany’s college fraternities, nothing resembling

Three brothers who want to start a colony: Espen Tandberg, Niklas Petersen and Mikkel Steinlien.

Courtesy of Niklas Petersen

BETA-RHO ZETA OF LAMBDA CHI ALPHA INTERNATIONAL FRATERNITY 13

around the city. “Instead of having one campus, we have six campuses

around the city because it’s difficult to get space,” Brother Petersen said. “And you have to travel between them when you take classes.”

Unlike CSUN, the Copenhagen Business School offers a narrower range of degree programs—a single academic college for business and economics.

“There’s a wide variety of economics [coursework],” Brother Tandberg said. “For undergraduates, they have mathematical, philosophical, political, international and social economics. For graduates they have something like four schools: finance, accounting, management and marketing.”

Once they return to Denmark, the brothers believe that they have a good shot at organizing a colony.

“This is something a lot of people have heard about,” Brother Tandberg said, “and they like the concept of a fraternity. And we know a lot of people [at the school]. Everyone is graduating with a bachelor’s, but they’ll go on to get their master’s.

Aside from getting administrators from the Copenhagen Business School’s student affairs division’s approval, Brother Tandberg expected that they would need a workable business plan to obtain Headquarters’ support.

“I think that our problem isn’t going to be recruiting,” Brother Tandberg said. “That’s going to be easy in Denmark. We know we can get a lot of people interested. The problem is going to be getting National on board and getting the school on board.

Headquarters did get word of the Copenhagen School of Business expansion plan later in December. Director of Chapter Services Nick Zuniga responded to a request that had been filed online and followed up with an email by writing that they were seeking counsel on the matter.

“I think the wildest thing would be having enough members to be a chapter, not just a colony,” Brother Petersen said.

Secret Santa wardrobe addition. Niklas Petersen unwrapped a pair of shorts during the Secret Santa gift exchange on Dec. 17. Mikkel Steinlien with Brother Petersen, Alessandro Hoenig and Espen Tandberg on Nov. 22.

Photos by Rick Childs.

American fraternal Greek Letter organizations currently exist in Europe.

“There are a lot of organizations [in Copenhagen], but first of all, they are coed,” Brother Petersen said. “So they’re purely about a professional thing like management, finance. Then there’s social things like fencing, golf, beer, wine. The kinds of social groups that are at the school right now are purely interest-based or business-based [so] it doesn’t make sense to divide it by gender. But with a fraternity, it would make sense to divide it by gender.”

Like Brother Nirmark, all three of them have embarked on combined bachelor’s and master’s degree programs, the academic norm at their university, according to Brother Steinlien.

All three brothers are business/finance majors.“The cultural thing in Denmark is that you take a bachelor’s

and then a master’s,” he said. “Then you’re done.”Earning a bachelor’s degree in several European countries

is a lot like getting an AA degree in the U.S.: the job opportunities are somewhat limited.

“You can’t really use a bachelor’s degree for anything,” Brother Tandberg said. “Especially with a [bachelor’s] degree in Denmark. Every policeman, fireman, military—they have a bachelor’s degree.”

While their active membership at Beta-Rho lasted only four months, Brothers Petersen, Steinlien and Tandberg believe they still have time left before they truly become alumni.

“We’re seniors right now,” Brother Tandberg said. “But we’re all getting our masters at the same university. So we’re still going to be in Copenhagen for at least four more semesters.

The student population at the Copenhagen Business School is somewhat larger than CSUN’s—around 44,000, more like UCLA’s or the University of Texas at Austin.

Due to Copenhagen’s densely developed environs, the university ended up as a series of satellite campuses spread

When Alessandro Hoenig (BP 690) landed at Los Angeles International Airport on Aug. 18, probably the last thing on his mind was joining a fraternity. Booked on an Iberian Airlines flight from Düsseldorf, Germany, he had one semester to make the most out of his study abroad program experience. He had already traveled extensively around Europe and visited Sydney, Australia in January of 2012.

“I looked on Airbnb for a few weeks for a place to stay,” he recalled during a phone interview on Jan. 26. “I ended up staying [at a house in Northridge] the whole time. The people were really nice.”

Brother Hoenig grew up in Oldenburg, Germany near Hamburg and Bremen, about a 4-hour commute from Cologne.

As an international culture and management major at the Cologne Business School (CBS), Brother Hoenig quickly took advantage of Southern California’s climate and opportunities.

“[The semester studying abroad] was mandatory in my degree program. I had to go somewhere, and I wanted to study in the U.S. I chose California because it had colleges that were closest to the beach. And I went with my roommates who were tanning or running while I went surfing. I went to Malibu, Point Dume and Will Rogers, mainly. Santa Monica or Venice, one or two times.”

Compared to CSUN, CBS compares in student population to the Northridge Academy Charter High School’s on Zelzah (at the site of some of the university’s former baseball diamonds and tennis courts). “It’s a private university, and it’s pretty small, about 1-2,000 [students].... They have semesters there.”

Like fellow foreign exchange students Niklas Petersen (BP 695), Mikkel Steinlien (BP 697) and Espen Tandberg (BP 699), Brother Hoenig started to become aware of Lambda Chi Alpha during the New Student Orientation.

“I met Niklas during Introduction Week. That’s how we got to know each other.”

Not long afterwards, Brother Petersen invited him to attend a social event before Fall Rush got underway.

“I went to one of the parties at a random house [which turned out to be one of Beta-Rho’s], and I didn’t know it was a fraternity party at first. They were nice, and we got along pretty good. Then I decided to go to Rush Week. That’s when I decided to join.”

Thirty years from now, there are a couple of things from his semester with the chapter that he will still be thinking about.

“Initiation I will remember, definitely. [Also] what I enjoyed the most: all those parties.”

There is nothing like a North American Greek letter society system in Germany, and that’s one of the reasons why he joined Lambda Chi Alpha. Also, he noted that German universities do not have the brand recognition that American colleges and universities enjoy.

“You mainly go there for your courses and your exams. It’s a

different system in Germany because there aren’t the fraternities and house parties. You mainly go out in the city at night. Most of my friends aren’t even in the university there. We don’t really identify as much with the [CBS] university as people do here.

“We don’t have soccer or football [intramural sports]. We do have soccer tournaments sometimes, but we have people showing up to go to Berlin for the tournaments. I did play soccer at one time, but we would meet up once a week….”

Besides his big brother, Jesse Martinez (BP 675), Brother Hoenig became close friends with Charlie Rios (BP 670), and Melad Haddad (BP 689) along with The Danes.

During his semester in SoCal, Brother Hoenig managed to squeeze in a few side trips.

“We went to Disneyland. It was fun, but I didn’t plan on it at first. But I did go to San Francisco. That’s what I did one weekend. Other than that, I went to Vegas one weekend.”

Before he left for Germany, Brother Hoenig set his sights on one more U.S. destination on Jan. 7: New York City.

“I’ve tried to check out most of Manhattan, like the typical tourist stuff. I stayed in Brooklyn, but I didn’t do that much [there]. I went in the Empire State Building. Other than that, I mainly walked around through the city, shopped for clothes, and checked out the bars and restaurants.”

Once he graduates from CBS after the spring semester, he plans to go on to earn his master’s degree, “but I will have to re-apply at the university for that.”

A little bit of California went home with him: his surfing gear.“My grandparents live at a German beach, but it’s smaller

and colder, and there’s no waves, so it’s not that nice. [But] I sometimes go to Spain and can go surfing there.”

14 FALL 2014

Naught Without Surfing

Alessandro Hoenig hits the beach on Aug. 26.

Courtesy of Luise Helene Persson Kopp / Facebook

Anyone who knows Jorge Reyes (BP 618) will tell you that he is an extremely busy guy. Besides being the chapter’s treasurer since May of 2013, he is currently the Associated Students chief of staff and CSUN’s California State Student Association representative. He also completed an internship in November at KCSN, the university’s FM (88.5) and internet radio station.

Brother Reyes traced his desire to major in broadcast journalism and becoming involved in student government back to his high school years.

“In the first two years of high school I was involved with the newspaper,” he said during an interview at the Lindley House study on Nov. 12. “It was Leap Academy, the first charter school I went to. It was in Chatsworth. They got shut down. So I transferred to Santa Susana High School, but over there I didn’t really do any journalism. I did more [things] like leadership.”

While he interned at KCSN, Brother Reyes took on the health reporting assignments for the news programs.

“I’d go in and look at my stories and then go on the online server to find my sound bites. So these are sound bites that are already done by the news director who interviews the actual medical news teams from other places, or doctors, specialists— depending on the story. So what I’d do is read the actual print story posted by a server, which could be CNN, AP (Associated Press), or anything else. And then write it into broadcast as any news [organization] would, and putting the sound bite together

and making the story as just printed… making sure that I’d get at least four minutes. And then go and record it.”

A couple of the stories he followed presented creative and sometimes difficult challenges.

“There was one about diabetes in teens. That one was very complex, just because there’s a lot of different words that I had to look up to make sure that [it was factual], how to pronounce it—the medical jargon. The other one would be the [respiratory] virus that was affecting children [other than the flu this fall]. That was something [where] I had to do the interviews myself.”[According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website, the virus he referenced was non-polio enterovirus, or EV-D68, first identified in California in 1962.]

Not long after he entered CSUN, Brother Reyes began working at the student government office.

“I started volunteering for the Associated Students in the summer of 2011. That was going into my sophomore year. I started as an event assistant. I was an assistant for the event producers for Associated Students (productions). Then I became a producer in June of 2012, I believe. I planned Big Show XII with Eric Planas (BP 630). Then I ran as a senator (for the School of the Arts, Media & Communication) and wanted to explore other options. I was also the chair of internal affairs. Internal Affairs oversees all the functions within the Associated Students—our Children’s Center, production team, little things like Appreciation Day, and many other things.”

As a senator, one of the issues that stood out for him was the administration’s streamlining of

the commencement exercise schedule.“One of the things I always remember is the commencement

discussions we had. That was the year when President [Dianne] Harrison wanted to [cut] commencements from eight to six [ceremonies] as well as having a ticketed option. So, [I was] in that group of students who advocated and put in work during Winter Break to gather information from the student body and then presented it to President Harrison. It was something that I definitely take pride in.”

In June Brother Reyes finished his term as a senator and took on the chief of staff position. Once again, he said, President Harrison has issued more changes for the next commencement.

“[It’s] been at the Oviatt [Lawn] for more than 30 years. It’s easier [to have it there] in the eyes of the students. At this point they’re just throwing numbers, and I don’t think the administration is being as transparent as they can be. We as Associated Students have held open forums to make sure that students come and speak their minds. Right now we are still in the process of presenting these [student opinions] to President Harrison. So far it seems that students are okay with having 4-7 tickets at the Oviatt.”

Although he admits that it’s often difficult to juggle his classes, fraternity life, plus work with A.S. and the CSSA, Brother Reyes has felt a great deal of satisfaction by paying it forward as he approaches graduation this spring and grad school next fall.

“I think it’s passion that drives me. I definitely have a lot of passion giving back to the community, giving back to the students. After graduating from CSUN I want to go into public administration. I’ve been either really lucky or been really blessed.”

Brother Reyes’ next goal: running for A.S. president.

BETA-RHO ZETA OF LAMBDA CHI ALPHA INTERNATIONAL FRATERNITY 15

Wearing a Lot of Hats

Jorge Reyes at KCSN.

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16 FALL 2014

The Class of Fall, 2014

Alfredo R. AlamilloClass Level: SophomoreMajor: PhysicsBig Brother: Kyle ShaverHometown: Santa Paula

Birthday: March 5 BP 681

Joshua E. BascouClass Level: FreshmanMajor: UndeclaredBig Brother: Jorge ReyesHometown: Pasadena

Birthday: Sept. 17 BP 682

Cameron BrandtClass Level: FreshmanMajor: PsychologyBig Brother: Eric RobertsHometown: Montrose

Birthday: Feb. 1 BP 683

David A. BurgosClass Level: SophomoreMajor: Bus. Admin./AccountingBig Brother: Glen ProbstHometown: Venice

Birthday: Aug. 14 BP 684

Cyrus A. CarilloClass Level: JuniorMajor: Chicano StudiesBig Brother: Adrian MoralesHometown: El Monte

Birthday: Aug. 30 BP 685

Tyler J. FerholzClass Level: FreshmanMajor: PsychologyBig Brother: Kyle ShaverHometown: Sylmar

Birthday: July 27 BP 687

Manuel A. FuentesClass Level: SophomoreMajor: Bus. UndeclaredBig Brother: Glen ProbstHometown: Lennox

Birthday: March 13 BP 688

Melad HaddadClass Level: SophomoreMajor: Bus. Admin. / MarketingBig Brother: Justyn De LeonHometown: Saugus

Birthday: Dec. 31 BP 689

Rush Chairman: Justyn De LeonFraternity Educator: Myke Davis

Ritualist: Tony Ball

Fall initiation kicked off on Nov. 21 during the last phase of a waning crescent moon. Black or gray hoodies were handed out by big brothers to their little brothers before the post-ceremony group pictures were taken. Big and little brothers (right) celebrate before calling it a night.

Alessandro HoenigClass Level: SeniorMajor: Bus. Admin. / Mgmt. & International CultureBig Brother: Jesse Martinez Hometown: Oldenburg, GermanyBirthday: April 11 BP 690

Ryan T. ClarkClass Level: FreshmanMajor: Civil EngineeringBig Brother: Nelson TobarHometown: Valencia

Birthday: April 20 BP 686

BETA-RHO ZETA OF LAMBDA CHI ALPHA INTERNATIONAL FRATERNITY

Justin B. MacielClass Level: FreshmanMajor: BiotechnologyBig Brother: Chris BurgosHometown: Hollywood

Birthday: Jan. 29 BP 692

Esteban D. MarquezClass Level: FreshmanMajor: UndeclaredBig Brother: Chris BurgosHometown: San Pedro

Birthday: Feb. 10 BP 693

Christopher MartinezClass Level: FreshmanMajor: CTVA / TV ProductionBig Brother: Eric PlanasHometown: Sylmar

Birthday: Jan. 18 BP 694

Niklas B. PetersenClass Level: SeniorMajor: Bus. Admin.: FinanceBig Brother: Tony BallHometown: Greve, Denmark

Birthday: Jan. 15 BP 695

Brian RomeroClass Level: SophomoreMajor: UndeclaredBig Brother: Glen ProbstHometown: Lennox

Birthday: April 9 BP 696

Mikkel A. SteinlienClass Level: SeniorMajor: Bus. Admin. / FinanceBig Brother: Daniel BermudezHometown: Rønne, Denmark

Birthday: Aug. 11 BP 697

Mark TadrosClass Level: SophomoreMajor: BiologyBig Brother: Rodrigó ValenzuelaHometown: Woodland Hills

Birthday: March 16 BP 698

Espen S. TandbergClass Level: SeniorMajor: Bus. Admin. / FinanceBig Brother: Justyn De LeonHometown: Sandvika, Norway

Birthday: Feb. 28 BP 699

Vince VergaraClass Level: FreshmanMajor: Bus. Admin. / MarketingBig Brother: Myke DavisHometown: Granada Hills

Birthday: July 22 BP 680

Patrick HolmesClass Level: SeniorMajor: Bus. Admin./ManagementBig Brother: Daniel BermudezHometown: Augusta, Georgia

Birthday: July 23 BP 691All

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17

Lawrence S. “Scott” Greene, BP 129 passed away on Nov. 4 of congestive heart and renal failure at his home in Los Angeles. He was 55. He is survived by his father, Allan Greene; his sister Jacqueline “Jen” Greene, his father’s longtime companion Beatrice Kidwell, his companion and soul mate, Dr. Angela Seared; along with a host of aunts, uncles and cousins in Florida, Connecticut, Maryland, New York and Virginia.

A memorial and graveside service was held for him at the Oakwood

Memorial Park Chapel in Chatsworth on Nov. 22 presided by Pastor Fabian Culton. During the service Brother Greene’s sister gave a heartfelt and at times hilarious eulogy of her brother’s life.

Among the brothers and guests in attendance were Tom Lawrence (AI 620), Rick Childs (BP 83), Terry Lucero (BP 149), Spencer Schmerling (BP 288) and Beta-Rho little sister and Alpha Omicron Pi Sorority alumna Melinda Kelly. A luncheon and reception followed at the Radisson Hotel on Topanga Canyon Boulevard a short drive south from the memorial park.

Born on Long Island, New York, on May 20, 1959, he and his family slowly headed West via Amityville, New York; Chicago and Downers Grove, Ill. before settling with his family in the west San Fernando Valley. He began his broadcasting career by reading announcements at his middle and high schools in the Midwest before reaching John F. Kennedy High School in Granada Hills where he graduated in 1977. His first work experience in radio was at WDGC-Downers Grove, Ill. when he was 14 years old.

As a saxophonist in his high school marching band, he participated in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. Unbeknownst to his fraternity brothers, he kept practicing tenor and soprano sax at home throughout his life. He also enjoyed videography and playing his electric guitar.

Aside from his broadcast journalism coursework at Cal State Northridge, he also studied at the Hollywood School of Broadcasting.

Initiated into the Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity on May 6, 1978 as Larry Greene, he combined a droll sense of humor, infectious laugh and an unforgettably soothing baritone voice perfectly suited for broadcast radio.

Once Brother Greene became an alumnus, he worked for a number of L.A. area radio stations over a span of nearly 30 years. Somewhere around this time he dropped his first name in favor of his middle name and became known professionally as Scott Greene. Most recently, Brother Greene worked as a traffic announcer for CBS radio affiliates KNX, KFWB and many others. Typically, Brother Greene worked the swing and graveyard shifts reading traffic reports from his computer monitor. When asked several years ago at a Halloween costume party about his desk job preference, he said he preferred studio reporting to flying over L.A. freeways in helicopters. His aversion to helicopters may have been exacerbated by a close call with some military helicopters while on assignment, according to an excerpt from an article written by his friend and radio co-worker, Kaci Christian.

“I wasn't flying the plane.” That was Brother Greene's first line when interrogated for five hours after his traffic pilot violated restricted air space during Pope John Paul II's visit to Los Angeles in 1987. “Our plane was forced down via two military choppers with an aimed 16mm-military cannon. Very scary.”

According to Desmond Shaw (BP 481), Brother Greene provided him with an invaluable opportunity to pick up air time and hone his broadcast skills for CBS Radio. “He was a catalyst to my career as I was struggling to get going,” Brother Shaw recalled. “He always put in a good word for me and made sure I got to fill in for all of his vacations which was a huge help when I was part-time. He had a pretty cool Dodge Stealth as well, and I enjoyed talking cars with him.”

Jim Emmerson (BP 137) could still picture him telling stories at Halsted 1 when they were undergrads. “I got along with him

18 FALL 2014

Larry S. “Scott” Greene: 1959-2014

Larry Greene’s “Luminize” t-shirt.

Rick Childs

greatly as I saw him occasionally over the years,” he remarked on Facebook. “I was never sure whether or not to call him Larry or Scott. (We always joked about that.) I’ll always be able to hear his ‘Goo!’ loudly in my head and I don’t think anyone will ever forget his ‘Luminize’ black t-shirt that he never seemed to change when he was an active!”

When Mike Cooperman (BP 386) was considering a career move to broadcasting after his stint as an educational leadership consultant, Brother Greene may have inadvertently convinced him to look elsewhere. “When I came back from traveling for the fraternity, I thought I might want to go into radio,” Brother Cooperman wrote. “After I bought him a pizza at Numero Uno and he took home the leftovers, I realized radio might not be so lucrative. He was super helpful at a critical time in my professional development.”

In recent years, Brother Childs could count on a traffic report or two in the pre-dawn hours from Brother Greene on KNX 1070 while driving home up Highway 14 to the Antelope Valley after initiations. He also looked forward to seeing Brother Greene each Halloween at a costume party where the radio personality would show up with his longtime companion, Dr. Seared, usually attired in a variation of a Count Blacula outfit.

Brother Greene's memorial page can be found online at forevermissed.com. The email

address is lawrence-scott-greene@forevermissed.com. A tribute article about his career in broadcasting written by Ms. Christian can also be found at laradio.com/whereg.htm.

When the Beta-Rho Bulletin transitioned to a digital format in 2011, the printing and mailing costs no longer ate up most of the chapter’s Alumni Loyal Fund. However, we do still print small press runs of these publications for some of our alumni and friends. They can typically be found at alumni events like the Annual Meeting in December. It turns out that only a fraction of our Fraternity’s chapters still make newsletters, and nobody makes one quite like ours. During the past eight months, four of them have been produced ranging from 16 to 36 pages. What started out as a typewritten newsletter in 1973 has blossomed into something more like a news magazine. Editions from late 2010 until the present have also been archived at Issuu.com.

Membership directories have been published annually since 2007. The 2006 edition didn’t quite make it to the printer, but otherwise, our alumni have received comprehensive listings of its entire membership since Tom Lawrence began making these little productions more than 35 years ago. If you think our newsletters are a rare breed, try finding a chapter that can claim that they have produced and mailed directories like ours to its alumni membership nearly every year since 1980.

The corp. board has maintained a P.O. box at the Northridge Post Office since the 1970s. One of its functions is to serve as a catcher’s mitt for returned alumni mail. We work diligently to maintain contact with our alumni, and in the past decade we’ve been able to keep track of all but around 27 of them out of 699.

We haven’t been mailing dues drive solicitation letters for the past couple of years because most of our communications have migrated to the internet. Aside from newsletters (many of which have included Alumni Loyalty Fund forms on the back pages), we have been sending out emails and maintaining an active presence on social media, particularly Facebook, to remind our alumni that the chapter would still benefit from your first time or continued support. We have been asking for an annual gift of $50 or more to help support our programs and outreach.

This past year alumni contributed $845 to the Alumni Loyalty Fund. Although this is considerably lower than an average year in the 2000’s, we are grateful to have received contributions from some of our brothers. Donations have ranged from $25 to $100, with an average gift of $52.

2014 Beta-Rho Alumni Loyalty Fund Contributors:

Phil Abbenante Tim Pena Howard Brightman Scott Press Erik Bossuk David Primes Dennis Crain Jon Rice Mark Eskander Howard Sapper Jay Friedman Patrick Schaefer Richard Greenberg Spencer Schmerling Hamid Jahangard Tim Shannon

BETA-RHO ZETA OF LAMBDA CHI ALPHA INTERNATIONAL FRATERNITY 19

Jen Greene

Remembering Larry “Scott” Greene. At the Greene family’s lunch reception, pictured from left: Melinda Kelly, Tom Lawrence, Spencer Schmerling, Terry Lucero and Rick Childs.

A Special Thanks to Our Alumni Supporters

When was the last time you talked to your big or little brother?Big and little brothers are a big deal at Beta-Rho. Nevertheless,

it troubled me to read in ELC Justin Reed’s recent report that the chapter needed to develop ways to improve closer ties among its big and little brothers.

One of the great joys of staying for an entire initiation is the moment after its conclusion when big brothers hand their little brothers hoodies or sweatshirts with ‘house letters’.

Through the decades, big and little brother relationships have gone far beyond memento exchanges. The bond of friendship affords an extra layer between many big and little brothers. One or the other has graced some of the alumni memorial services in recent years. Dr. Joseph Coyne attended his little brother Jim Wirosko’s funeral in 2010. Big brother Robert Hartung gave one of the eulogies at Matt Frerer’s memorial service in 2012.

Last night one of my occasional dreams about a fraternity retreat in Big Bear re-occurred. It’s based on some memory that replays a variation of one of the retreats I attended as an undergrad or the first couple of years after I graduated. In the dream I happened to notice my big brother, Mark Jacobs, sitting off to the side and strumming his acoustic guitar. He looked up at me and said, “Where’ve you been?”

After I joined Lambda Chi Alpha, my fraternity educator Richard (Dick) Greenberg asked me whom I wanted for a big brother. In no particular order, I replied with Brian Garfield, the recruitment chair; Ritualist Mark Jacobs and him. I got Brother Jacobs. As much as I admire Brothers Greenberg and Garfield, it turned out that Mark was an ideal match.

While we haven’t kept in touch as much as I’d like over the years, I have a string of happy memories about Mark. He was a ritual team member when I joined in the fall of 1975 and continued running the initiation as High Phi during the following semester. I played his same part during a later initiation, so I consider him as my main role model for my brief foray into ritual performance.

More often than not, when I encountered Mark I found him practicing guitar chords from a David Bowie song. On a few occasions when I visited the apartment that he shared with Brother Greenberg and Larry Burns in Westwood, he drew me deeper into his musical spheres of influence. Mark generally commandeered the stereo as we socialized and played various albums by Bowie, Roxy Music, Elvis Costello, Electric Light Orchestra or Bebop Deluxe, plus the occasional Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen albums to appease Brother Greenberg. Those visits eventually persuaded me to become a big fan of a few of his favorite artists, particularly Roxy Music.

During that period we wound up together seeing Roxy Music perform a tour date at the Palladium in Hollywood. We waded into the crowd on the dance floor close to the stage and almost got crushed when a large number of fans began to fall back on

each other. Miraculously, a surge from behind us got everyone back up on their feet again as Bryan Ferry sang ‘Love Is the Drug’ from their album “Sirens”. Despite my close call at the show, earlier tonight I ordered Ferry’s new album “Avonmore” on Amazon.

One of the things I enjoyed most about Mark’s company was his infectious laughter. The best way to describe it is an uncontrolled fit of hiccupping comparable to actor Seth Rogan’s laugh. During the winter of 1976 he, Richard, Larry and I were driving from Westwood to Hollywood to see the medical mystery movie “Coma” at the Grauman’s Chinese. En route we ended up waiting at what had to have been the city’s longest red light at La Brea and Hollywood Boulevard. Some random remark got a big chuckle, and then Mark torpedoed our sanity as we ended up gasping for air as long as he kept laughing.

The only little brother I have is Jeff Watson. Again, we haven’t kept in touch as much as I’d like. He served as the chapter’s High Alpha during a particularly difficult stretch of time right when I became an alumnus in 1979. I admired his low key leadership style, and he had a particularly tough time working with a number of brothers who were not living up to the fraternity’s ideals.

As many of you may have read or heard, I started researching the chapter’s big and little brother relationships a couple of years ago. It turns out that collecting big and little brother information has been more difficult than anticipated. However, it’s much easier than asking alumni about majors and graduation dates. As of this writing, I have recorded 266 big brothers on my main contact information spreadsheet, excluding the founding father classes from the spring of 1969 and 2002. Those initiates did not have big brothers, and neither did the chapter’s three honorary initiates: Eddie Bankston, Virgil Green and the late Irving Rice. Ten of the big brothers I know of are listed among the 21 chapter initiates who have passed away.

When I obtain contact information on each new class of associate members, I routinely request the names of all their big brothers. It’s a lot easier than chasing alumni for that knowledge years later. (The alumni on my list who have not clued me in to the identity of their big brothers have little delta symbols next to their names.) In our most recent conversation, my big brother couldn’t recall the name of his big brother. It’s possible that I may find that answer in the future, but such details may be lost for some of our alumni, particularly those who have died, lost contact with us or disengaged from the fraternity for various reasons.

Once my list of big brothers exceeds 300, future plans call for a chart of the chapter’s big and little brothers that I could publish in the center spread of a newsletter.

Who knows? Maybe a poster-sized enlargement of a chapter big and little brother chart will become more popular to display than the Lindley House’s two posterboards of supermodel Gisele Bundchen from Victoria’s Secret.

BETA-RHO BULLETINBETA-RHO ZETA OF LAMBDA CHI ALPHA FRATERNITY

P.O. BOX 280311NORTHRIDGE, CA 91328-0311

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