THE ALUMNI NEWSLETTER VOL. LXXI ITHACA, N.Y.-WINTER 1982 N0.1 PUBLISHED BY THE CORNELL CHAPTER OF ACACIA FRATERNITY A FIRE! We are working very hard this year to accomplish a successful rush, we have to. Our organizational methods are superior to anything Well, not really, but I figured that title would catch your attention, used in the past, and we seem to have a good image around campus. and I guess I was right! Well, since there are no other "burning" These factors should combine for a fine rush, despite the general topics for me to write about, I'd like to review our progress of the lack of freshman interest. past few months. This is your chance to know what we've been up Overall, I feel that the house is running well this year. However, as to, unless of course you've stopped by recently. Venerable Dean, my opinion here may be biased. Personally, I feel Due to a small rush class last year (in numbers, not height!), we're that I am becoming more effective as President as time goes on, al· feeling a little bit undermanned this year. We are, however, an ex- though I am still feeling overwhelmed by the responsibilities of the tremely close group, which makes living in the chapter house very office. In general, all of our officers are doing a fine job in their re· enjoyable. We have 23 actives living in, two living out, and three spective areas, and many brothers are extremely dedicated to the boarders. Our finances are solid, and should remain stable through- house. I am extremely proud to be associated with Acacia, and I out this year. hope you are too! We have just started kitchen renovations by installing a new booster Fraternally, heater for the dishwasher. Our next planned improvements are Kenneth M. Weiss (902) aimed at the ovens and broilers. Unfortunately, our current seventy- Venerable Dean fifth fund won't cover all of the kitchen renovations we need to make, and it will only be a matter of time before some of these units become completely unfunctionable. I cannot thank some of you enough for.your donations to this fund, which is being used to cover our most urgent kitchen repairs: you know who you are! Rush this year seems to be going well, but it is still too early to give .... an accurate prediction. As of this writing, there are three weeks of informal rush left, and these next few weeks will be of prime impor- tance. Campus wide, I feel there are fewer freshmen rushing frater• nities this year. This was extremely evident to me after seeing two very sparse north campus smokers. A combined total of only 42 rushees visited our house during north campus smokers, despite our efforts to bring them in. I feel this is partly due to several new dorms opening on campus. Page 2 THE TRAVELLER December 1982 EDITOR'S NOTE, As it now stands, Alumni Dues and Donations for Cornell HEYYA'ALL Acacia are not tax deductible. Houses that are owned by the University can have these deducted, but since we own our house, we cannot. This is v«y un- The active chapter could really benefit from your help. Your involve· fair, and as a result University owned fraternities receive greater alumni finan- ment can be an effective catalyst for strengthening our fraternity as cial support. This is common to all fraternities at colleges nationwide and well as the brotherhood. The driving force of a strong alumni is al- many national's have been trying to lobby in Washington and have this most a requirement for a strong house in our competitive environ- changed for years. We are currently looking for some legal advice on a new ment, and I'd like to see Acacia remain strong for many years to approach for ourselves. We are considering setting up an Educational Fund (which would be deductible) to replace current Alumni Dues. Money would come. still be used as it is now, but it would hopefully increase the a.mount we re- I take a lot of pride in Acacia, because it is a direct reflection upon ceive. If you or any other readers have any comments or ideas concerning myself, as well as all of the brothers. Yet, even after I graduate, this problem, please feel free to get back to me. the term "Cornell Acacia" will remain as a source of pride for me. I hope you all feel as I do, and there are many ways we can assure that Acacia remains a fraternity which we can all be proud of. As an alumni, there are many ways in which you can provide us assistance and support. One of the most obvious is through finan- cial assistance when we need to initiate large projects, but this is by far not the only way. Certainly, generous contributions by Thomas Visconti (849), Andrew Mercer (890), and others should not be overlooked. indeed, they have started a fund which will ultimately bring our kitchen back up to standards. However, I'd like to dedicate the rest of this article to propose some other ideas. How about aiding some of our actives in finding good summer jobs? Many of you are in the position to help us out immensely here. Even if you are just aware of an opening, a short note to let us know may help a brother here start off on the right foot, and it may help your company secure a top notch employee! JUST LIKE MOM MAKES In addition, whether you realize it or not, those who return for visits or alumni events are helping our morale, as well as securing a great time for themselves. We are a social fraternity (and proud of it), and we judge the success o_fo ur alumni partially by the number of alum- .-,j who participate. So why not stop by? You'll see some old friends, ,1eet some new ones, and I think you'll enjoy yourself! I am sure there are other ways in which you can help. Got an idea? Then let us know. I also send thanks to those who have contributed to us in the past, and to those who intend to in the future. See ya' Kenneth M. Weiss (902) OFF TO THE SHOWERS! December 1982 THE TRAVELLER Page 3 THE 75th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION Overall, it was a great experience. I'm getting ready for the 100th THE FINAL REPORT Anniversary, when I should be married with 2.4 children. Oh, one more thing. The 75th Anniversary Fund is still alive and So where do I begin? It's difficult to discuss the actual 75th Anniver- going. We received several contributions over the weekend, in- sary Celebration, which we spent so much time planning and work· cluding $500 each from Thomas Visconti (849) '78 and Andrew ing on, but seems to have flown by. (Actually, this is a pretty bad Mercer (890) '82. With these, we have been able to purchase a new lead paragraph.) Actually, I'd like to tell it from my point of view. pre-heater for our dishwasher. We're still working on other acces- sories for our "dream kitchen," and it's never too late to show your It all began Friday afternoon (well, Thursday night, if you want to support. get technical, because that's when the first alumni started pouring in) with a frantic cleaning of the house to prepare for the opening Curtis Alliaume (919) reception that night. I found myself tending bar at the reception ... for a short while. Most everybody seemed to prefer mixing their own drinks, which was fine with me. I'm an awful bartender. The re- ception was a lot of fun. It gave everybody the chance to either meet each other or renew old acquaintances. I went to sleep around mid· night (having stayed up late the previous night for some reason), but there were still plenty of people around for a long time after that. Saturday. Of course, it rained (this is Ithaca, remember?). Fortu· nately, we had contingency plans. Lunch was a huge barbecue in the dining room. I still remember about 10 people trying to get everything straightened out about 30 seconds before we started serv- ing ... and after, as a matter of fact. Afterward, we had an alumni vs. active volleyball game at Helen Newman Gym. I wish I could say what happened, but I wasn't there. I think the alumns won. But if I had been there ... Dinner was a huge success. It started at the Holiday Inn with cock- PRES. AND MRS. RHODES DURING COCKTAILS tails, and our special guest was Cornell President Frank H. T. Rhodes. The dinner was served buffet-style, with about every imaginable type of food available. (Well, it may not have been the best ever, but you whohave to remember ymr're talking to a kid from New Providence, N.J., who's never seen anything like that before.) After dinner, we heard speeches from Venerable Dean Ken Weiss (902), National Treasurer G. Kenneth Nelson, Alumni Board Vice President Ernie Schaufler (500), '78, Little Sister Alum Patty Warner Kehe (651) '79, and Andrew Mercer (890) '82 (thanks for the birthday card!). After this, we all returned to the chapter house for a great party, the highlight of which, for me, was the mortgage burning. Yes, the house is all ours now. The party officially ended at 2 a.m. I was among the last stragglers who retired sometime after 4. I was also one of the first people awake at 9 a.m., for kitchen crew as Pearl cooked brunch for us. For a few minutes, it looked like we would set a record for most people in the kitchen until Julie Traver THE YEARS REUNITED and Laura Mikalchus (LS 17 and 20, respectively) volunteered to waitress, much to the relief of the kitchen crew. They will be appro- priately rewarded at Christmas with a tape of Rupert Holmes' Greatest Hits each. On a more serious tack. The 75h Anniversary Celebration was a success mainly due to the alumni who attended. I found myself being asked questions about the house and the more recent innova- tions, and I was asking about what Acacia was like in the 60s and ·70s. We all shared something ... the common interest of Cornell Acacia. It just picked up from there. Also, the reason the 75th worked so well was due to the work of Ethan Cosgriff (889) '82 and David Sperry (905), who had begun the planning over a year before the actual event. Also, all the brothers worked on the event, making sure that everything went smoothly. And the Little Sisters took on an unbelievable amount of responsi- bility, doing jobs when we were short-handed. Page4 THE TRAVELLER December 1982 NEWS FROM CONCLAVE himself the object of the, no doubt, less than honorable intentions of some very aggressive women. He managed to rescue himself from the situation and emerged none the worse for wear. The host chapter As school closed for the spring of 1982, the brothers of the Cornell of Louisiana State organized a river boat ride for all interested chapter of the Acacia fraternity went their separate ways to spend Acacians. It turned out to be a very enjoyable time. In fact we all their summer vacations in places ranging from one coast to the other. Some states visited included California, Indiana, Massachusetts, managed to dry out the bar. Maryland, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii and The Conclave was a lot of fun an