Sigma Phi Epsilon @ Columbia University

Students Lend Hand to Brooklyn School
By ROBYN SCHWARTZ, Spectator Staff Writer

   Various members of the Columbia community spruced up bookshelves, connected computers, and rearranged rooms in public schools throughout the five boroughs during Saturday’s eighth annual New York Cares Day.
   Teams from the Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity, the American Language Program, the Post Baccalaureate Program, and the Law Alums were among the estimated 9,000 volunteers who worked in roughly 110 schools throughout the city.
   Sigma Phi Epsilon was joined in its endeavor by several of its alums, members of other chapters, and students from other Greek organizations on campus; alumni from the Alpha Chi Omega Sorority, the Pi Beta Phi Sorority, and the Sigma Chi Fraternity also volunteered. They worked at P.S. 7K in Brooklyn alongside corporate teams from YAI Madison, and Ernst and Young.
   According to Sigma Phi Epsilon team leader Dave Parker, SEAS ’01, the group spent the morning "doing whatever they were asked to do." This included organizing the P.S. 7K library where books sat in boxes or on top of shelves out of order. The volunteers also helped set up computers and move furniture as requested by the school’s classroom teachers.
   Parker said that roughly 25 people from Sigma Phi Epsilon had come to help, and that the structural quality and the maintenance of the school pleasantly surprised them.
   Sigma Phi Epsilon President Steve Hofstetter, GS ’01, said that this was his organization’s first year working with New York Cares. Every October the fraternity has its nationwide community service initiative, Project America, and this year its date coincided with both New York Cares Day and Homecoming. Hofstetter said his fraternity thought "it would be a great effort if [it was] rolled all together."
   Hofstetter was pleased that the fraternity had been assigned to a school outside of Manhattan. He said that Columbia students live in a community, and despite what most people seem to think, the community expands south of 114th St. and north of 120th St. "There’s more to your community than your own backyard," Hofstetter said.
   Hofstetter said that Columbia always preaches to its students how diverse the city is and how much there is to it. "We’re told ‘the city is your campus,’ but it isn’t. People don’t use it," Hofstetter said.
   Karen Brockmann, a senior lecturer for the American Language Program, led a group of 25 volunteers at P.S. 129M on 130th St. In her third year as a team leader, Brockmann was proud of the wide variety of volunteers from many different nations. She said her team consisted of volunteers from "half a dozen different countries," including China, Korea, Japan, and several Spanish-speaking nations.
   President of the Intergreek Council Matthew Matlack, CC ’00, said that in addition to working on New York Cares Day, the council decided to participate in Making Strides Against Breast Cancer, yesterday’s Central Park walk-a-thon designed to raise money for cancer research and treatment.
   New York Cares, which was founded in 1987, funds and runs year-round social action programs throughout the city in the areas of Adult and Community, Children and Teens, and Education and Technology. New York Cares Day is the organization’s biggest fundraiser. As in walk-a-thons, participants are asked to collect pledges for their individual service that will be used towards maintaining and enhancing the organization’s current projects.