Update from the House Corporation
Viewed from Emmet Street, our Chapter House is a stunning architectural gem which frequently garners
admiration from visitors and the administration.
The Chapter House Corporation, the Hopkins Society of Sigma Nu, has continued to renovate our historic Chapter House with the help of alumni contributions and chapter parlor fees. This fall, we had both emergency repairs and ongoing planned renovations. A plumbing leak caused about $8,000 in damages to our chapter room ceiling in September. Planned renovations included new outdoor furniture and lighting, updated electrical breaker panels, new indoor furniture and fixtures, and repainting of the basement party room. We intend to add further outdoor lighting and outlets in the spring to complement the party area. We will need to replace our 20-year main HVAC furnaces this coming year, at a cost estimated in the $30,000 range.
We work closely with the chapter to identify and assure needed repairs and upgrades to furnishings and equipment. The chapter and tenants have been excellent custodians of the house and pitch in to care for upkeep of grounds and common areas. The chapter has also assured our financial integrity by keeping the house fully tenanted the past four years by paying semester parlor fees.
The chapter house remains a source of pride for all alumni returning to Grounds, and we urge you to consider a donation of any size to facilitate needed repairs and upgrades planned in the coming months. We have made over $120,000 in capital improvements since the Chapter was recharted in 2017, much from faithful alumni contributions. The chapter pays a significant parlor fee to cover its usage, and the chapter has fully tenanted the house for the past four years. We still need support from our loyal Beta alumni to ensure repairs are completed and our reserves remain adequate. All alumni contributions are used for capital improvements to the chapter house, and none are applied to support the social activities of the chapter.
Donations to the Hopkins Society may be sent through Venmo. Venmo payments may be made to @HopkinsSociety.
Payments can also be made to the University of Virginia Alumni Association. Please make the check out to ‘Sigma Nu House Fund’ and add ‘Allocation: 00529’ in the memo and mail to:
UVA Fund Gift Processing Services
PO BOX 400314
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4314
Online donations can also be made via the Alumni Association’s secure donation portal.
Support the Chapter House Fund
Every dollar of alumni donations flows immediately into house repairs and improvements.
Donations to the Hopkins Society are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.
Fraternally,
Terry Birkel (Col class of ’69), President, Beta 932
wbirkel@wbirkelaw.com
Letter from the President
It is hard to believe that my time as Commander is quickly coming to a close. Looking back, I am incredibly proud of all that we have accomplished together. We have ramped up our philanthropic efforts and raised more than $6,000 for meaningful causes this semester alone, welcomed 20 outstanding new initiates into the brotherhood, traveled to the Outer Banks for an unforgettable fall beach formal, and were recognized nationally as the Most Improved Chapter.
Throughout my time as Commander, I have learned so much about myself, my brothers, and leadership in general. It has truly been the experience of a lifetime and something that I will never forget. I am confident that the next executive board will continue to propel this chapter forward and can’t wait to see where we will go.
Fraternally,
Tommy Breslin (Col class of ’26)
Alumni
This past month, we had the chance to bring our community together again. We hosted a tailgate in the fraternity house yard during Young Alumni Reunions weekend, and it was great to see alumni from a wide range of classes come back and reconnect with the chapter. Throughout the afternoon, brothers shared stories from their time at Beta and caught up with one another, and many of our actives had the chance to meet alumni for the first time and hear about their experiences.
Events like this help strengthen the relationship between our alumni and active members, and I look forward to continuing more of them throughout the year. Thank you to everyone who was able to stop by. It was great having you back at the house and we hope to see even more of you at future events.
Fraternally,
Jake Burgess (Com class of ’27)
Philanthropy
We are proud of the contributions and implementations we have implemented throughout the past year
as Sigma Nu Beta’s Community Service and Philanthropy Chairmen. Throughout our tenure in these positions, we have raised upwards of $6,000, allocated to charities such as SARA (Sexual Assault and Response Awareness), the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Service for Sight – Delta Gamma sorority’s primary philanthropic initiative – and many more. Beyond philanthropic efforts, the brothers of Sigma Nu Beta have dedicated countless hours towards service initiatives in coalition with UVA Sustainability, the Madison House at UVA, and many other groups and clubs that brothers personally identify with. This demonstrates our long-lived commitment to impacting not just the immediate UVA community, but also Charlottesville as a whole.
As a transition within the position of Community Service and Philanthropy Chairmen grows near, our
goal of leaving the soon-to-be new chairmen with a strong foundation becomes more important. Our goal is to encourage and provide the new chairmen with the tools to match the achievements we have reached in the past year, while pushing them to go beyond what we accomplished and further increase our impact as a fraternity. This includes raising even more funds for important initiatives and causes, expanding the reach of our volunteer efforts, and strengthening the core principle of service and contribution to the community within the brotherhood.
Throughout our tenure, we focused on sourcing and developing stronger partnerships with current and new local and other Greek organizations throughout UVA and the Charlottesville community. This was a success; we raised money for new organizations such as the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins Hospital and partnered with other Greek life organizations such as Delta Zeta to expand our reach. As we undergo our leadership transition, we will prioritize empowering the new chairmen to continue this expansion and impact that our fraternity has been building.
We look forward to helping the new candidates for this position with their transition to power, and we hope to continue to honor Sigma Nu’s legacy of service and community impact, while striving to make an increasingly noticeable difference in future years.
Fraternally,
Ethan Ellis (Com class of ’27) and Alexander Street (Com class of ’27)
Social
Hello alumni, our names are Eddie Grose (Engr class of ’27), Jack Toole (Engr class of ’27), and Jack Gilligan (Com class of ’27). We’ve had the privilege of serving as the Social Chairmen for the Beta Chapter over the past two semesters.
This year, we focused on building a strong and engaging social calendar that brought brothers together, strengthened our relationships across Grounds, and upheld the positive reputation of Sigma Nu. We organized a wide variety of events, from themed mixers and parties, including our recent Heaven-themed event, to larger social and community-oriented gatherings. One highlight was planning and executing our spring beach formal in Corolla in the Outer Banks, which was a memorable experience for the entire chapter.
Beyond traditional socials, we worked closely with our Philanthropy and Formal Chairmen to support charity events, coordinate both fall and spring formals, and ensure smooth execution of every major chapter function. We’re especially proud of the consistency, organization, and creativity our committee brought to planning and logistics throughout the year.
We look forward to closing out the semester strong and setting up next year’s team for continued success.
Rush
Greetings alumni, our names are Trey Nerheim (Col class of ’28), Lachlan Bill (Com class of ’26) and Luke Mauzy (Engr class of ’28). We are proud to be the Beta chapter’s Recruitment Chairmen for the 2025-2026 school year. Sigma Nu has given each of us a unique and influential experience with our tight-knit brotherhood. To give back to what has given us so much, we ran for recruitment chairmen to extend the brotherhood, find the future men of Sigma Nu, and ensure our future meets both our values and goals.
As soon as we were elected last spring, we began the organization and planning for our informal rush semester this fall. We assembled a dedicated recruitment committee that has and continues to support us in the genesis of ideas, conduction of events, and ne
tworking of first year guys at UVA. The reliability of our brotherhood combined with our database of hundreds of potential new members has provided us with a very successful informal rush season thus far. We have met young men we believe would make excellent candidates through classes, clubs, intramural sports, the dining halls, just by chance, and countless other ways. We have been using this network to show them what our brotherhood is about since before classes even started. We’ve hosted bonfires, football watch parties, and poker nights. We have also taken potential new members to work out and to play both basketball and golf. It is only mid-November and we feel more than comfortable with the recruitment landscape going into the formal rush season this coming January.
House Manager
My name is Ben Musser (Col class of ’27), and I am honored to serve as House Manager for the Beta Chapter. Over the last year, we have completed many ongoing renovations in the basement, chapter rooms, and second floor. In the basement we have redone the ceiling, painted the ceiling and walls, and replaced floor boards in the basement and surrounding areas. The chapter room ceiling had slight water damage and has since had the entire ceiling redone, and the breaker boxes for the house have recently been replaced and updated. We’re also installing new heating and cooling systems. I plan to keep making the House a priority and place for improvement.
Recorder
My name is David Sewall (Col class of ’27), and I am honored to serve as the Recorder for the Sigma Nu Beta Chapter. I am a third-year Economics and Applied Statistics double major from Annandale, Virginia. Sigma Nu has provided me with opportunities, relationships, and experiences that will serve me for a lifetime, and I have tried to give back during my time as Recorder. When I stepped into this position, my primary goals were to create a seamless officer transition process, support other executive officers in their responsibilities, and submit an excellent PEP report.
Before this past Spring semester, we hosted an officer transition retreat at our Commander Tommy Breslin’s (Col class of ’26) home in Northern Virginia, where outgoing and incoming officers met individually and collectively to talk about operations strategies and goals to ensure alignment across the chapter. Throughout both semesters, I have worked closely alongside our Treasurer, Recruitment Chairmen, and Sentinel to support and keep them organized in their day-to-day responsibilities.
This April, our officers worked together to submit a strong PEP report to Nationals detailing our chapter’s outstanding philanthropic, academic, and alumni efforts. During the 71st Grand Chapter this summer, we received recognition as Sigma Nu’s Most Improved Chapter, and we remain committed and driven to re-establishing ourselves as a Rock Chapter in the next biennium.
Last Call
My name is Nic Jones (Engr class of ’27), and I am a third year Engineering student and former Marshal. I
wanted to share an update on Last Call, the student band formed in the Beta chapter basement. Our current lineup includes myself on guitar, third year Sigma Nu brother Matt Mangiacapre (Com class of ’27) on bass, fourth year brothers Max Van Zandt (Col class of ’26) on drums and Jack Peacock (Col class of ’26) on saxophone, and vocalist Simone Marijic (Col class of ’26), a Pi Phi and Virginia Belle who appeared on season 27 of The Voice. I would also like to recognize former bassist and current fourth year brother Tejas Vasudevan (Col class of ’26) for his contributions to the band.
This semester has been a memorable one. We opened for Neon Trees at John Paul Jones Arena, performed at Sigma Nu events, and played multiple sorority and university-wide gigs. We are now planning to record an EP of original music over the winter and continue expanding our presence in the Charlottesville music scene.
If you would like to learn more, please check out our feature in the Cavalier Daily. And if you want to support the band, consider following us on Instagram at @last.callll.
