Alumni Speaker Series

What you can do with a law degree: Public Service & Private Practice

5/17/2018, Hanover, NH -- This Spring (2018), Mitchell Epner '91, Harvard Law '94 visited the chapter over Green Key weekend and spoke about “What you can do with a law degree: Public Service & Private Practice” Mitch has worked as a former Assistant US Attorney and in private practice as trial counsel, with concentrations in intellectual property and white collar defense. The brothers who turned out really enjoyed Mitch's talk and insights.

Engineering Solutions for the Real World: Why beer comes in six-packs but not soup

11/5/2017, Hanover, NH -- We kicked off the alumni-brother networking/mentoring series during the fall quarter and look forward to future sessions. Thanks to all the brothers in the working group who helped pull this first session together and Mike Chapman for volunteering his time. On Sunday November 5, the brothers of SigEp hosted a presentation by Mike Chapman D’76 Th’77. Mike is the AVC VP of Alumni Relations, 35-year Thayer School volunteer, and former president of Sigma Theta Epsilon. He currently holds the position of Senior Program Manager at Intralinks and has spent 40 years in the new product development field.

Mike described his Dartmouth and Thayer School background and spoke briefly about his work experience. He also described how the positions of Engineering, Product Management, Product Marketing, Marketing, and Sales work together to deliver new products. “The brothers were well engaged and asked thoughtful questions. As a matter of fact, one of the brothers corrected my faulty memory of how the double-carbon bonds are formed in radiation cross-linked polymers. Quite impressive."

The conversation continued with a few select case studies. The brothers learned why you find beer in six-packs but not soup, how the combination of two commonly available network elements saved countless phone systems in Tampa, and how the unforeseen threat posed by wildlife caused the failure of a reforestation process.

The session finished with advice on how the brothers should continue their education after graduation, develop mentor relationships, and stay involved with local organizations. The after-presentation pizza which was arranged by the brothers and funded by the AVC was enthusiastically consumed.

After the presentation, Mike commented, “I think the brothers enjoyed this as much as I did. I hope that SigEp will be able to arrange more sessions from different industries in the future.”

Leadership Talk: Embrace Greek Culture Change or Have It Imposed Upon You

9/15/2017, Hanover, NH -- Fifteen brothers of SigEp NH Alpha were treated last Friday afternoon to an informal program on Leadership with one of the chapter’s most accomplished brothers, SigEp Citation winner Charles “Ed” Haldeman, Jr ‘70.

Ed began his talk with a few prefatory comments: he currently has no official role in the Dartmouth administration, he’s not working for the National fraternity, but he was honored to be asked to share some of his weekend in Hanover with brothers of SigEp. He noted that this was strictly an off-the-record discussion (these notes and commentary notwithstanding) which he hoped would allow people to be very candid. And he confessed that he cares about SigEp deeply.

With that said, he outlined the comments he wanted to make:

1. He encouraged the brothers to take the time to be thoughtful and introspective. He noted that nationally and in the Dartmouth community fraternities have a very poor reputation. He encouraged the brothers to take ownership of the problems that Greek Life at Dartmouth has.

2. He challenged the brothers saying that radical transformation is needed, and that it should come from within rather than waiting for it to be imposed. He noted that former Dartmouth President John Sloan Dickey used to tell students at Convocation, “Gentlemen, your business here is learning,” so fraternities must get out of the business of just being social drinking clubs, and get aligned to Dartmouth’s mission.

3. He defined Leadership as getting a group of people to do something they wouldn't do without you. Chapter leaders must lead the brothers, and SigEp should lead other fraternities at Dartmouth to embrace radical change and “Moving Dartmouth Forward” where organizations are measured by the value they add to the College.

One of the questions that came up was what kind of “radical change” did he envision? While some of the preparation for this talk involved a discussion with Headquarters staff about the National fraternity’s “Substance-Free” policy passed at this summer’s Conclave, Ed gave an example from a completely different area: He talked about making SigEp NH Alpha a “leadership organization” that is better than anything currently available at Dartmouth including Dartmouth Peak Performance.

Ed offered that another example of a radical change would be for SigEp to be known in the Upper Valley for community service. There was some head-nodding at this as the chapter has acknowledged before that their efforts in community service have been all but non-existent the past few years.

There were some more questions about leadership, and the value of B-School before the brothers offered Ed a round of applause and presented him with a SigEp coffee mug. From SigEp, he was off to help launch Dartmouth’s newest capital campaign.