When the Pro Consul lit the candles, the flames glistened in the eyes of the Consul, just as they have at every chapter meeting in the 100 years of Sigma Chi at WSU. It’s literally and figuratively keeping the flame alive.

 

But this chapter meeting in 2002 was different. It wasn’t even supposed to happen. 

 

When it came time for the Good of the Order, the number of active brothers had shrunk to just two. And they were running the meeting; Consul Nick Birklid and Pro Consul Kenzie Hansell. That was it. And this chapter meeting was held in a tiny locked room Birklid found at the CUB because there was no Sigma Chi house. The old house was soon to be demolished and the house next door wasn’t available then. 

 

The Beta Upsilon chapter was collapsing. “We were the only two left,” said Birklid. Yet they were determined to perform the ritual anyway. “We went through it all,” said Hansell. “I was there for a reason. And so was Nick.”

 

This is the untold story of how Beta Upsilon of Sigma Chi almost died. What saved it was an audacious move that was perhaps the most consequential act in chapter history, described below.

 

Birklid and Hansell knew it was on their shoulders to save the chapter. And, with no one to run for office, Birklid and Hansell had to re-elect themselves.

 

Smack in the middle of these dark days came a new, young Chapter Advisor - a graduate student named Wade Barringer, who’d joined Beta Upsilon in 1993 but stayed on campus for his PhD studies. “He was huge - instrumental” in keeping this flickering flame from going out, said Hansell. They took drastic actions by parting ways with a number of brothers over grades, dues and drugs – and, with some exceptions, were no longer active brothers or left school entirely. Barringer worked to preserve recognition with the WSU Interfraternity Council and Sigma Chi national headquarters.

 

During rush, all they had was a table. No house. No sorority parties. No Sweetheart Ball. But they did have The Jordan Standard. So, through sheer face to face engagement, Birklid and Hansell managed to sign two pledges in the Fall of 2003: Karl Koehler and Chris Gilham. The following year, Koehler, now Consul, and Gilham pledged three; Cliff Woodsin Haack, Jay DeNoma and Blake Helgerson – none of whom were interested in a normal fraternity. “When I got it in,” said Cliff, “there wasn’t a house. I joined Sigma Chi for the brotherhood. Awesome people, I couldn’t say no.” 

 

Haack eventually took his turn at that lonely rush table. “I will never forget that. They were making fun of me. But I was mad enough to stand there,” he said. “We never gave up.” It was as if “we were re-seeding a new chapter on campus,” said Helgerson.

 

“I’ll give tons of credit to Nick,” said Hansell who was busy at that time with Cougar football. But Hansell had his own deeply personal imperative. He is one of 11 Sigs in his family, seven of them from WSU. Hansell’s grandfather had been a WSU Sig. His father Tyler. His uncle. His older brother TJ. And Kenzie knew his younger brother Luke, the last of the Hansell boys, was just four years away from coming to WSU. Keeping the chapter afloat was a powerful, personal motivation for him so that Luke could experience everything that so many in his family had.

 

The sole pledge in Spring 2004 was Adam Gunter, who wrote about the Jordan Standard in his brotherhood essay:

 

“As long as we can keep good attitudes, fairness and decency, our brotherhood will stay strong.  I am only a pledge right now...but with the high values and standards that our founders have set for Sigma Chi, I have no doubt in my mind that our chapter will make some of the best brothers ever.”

 

Gunter became Consul the very next year. But no one knew how to hold a chapter meeting. Writing in the national Sigma Chi Fraternity review that year, Adam said: “Since we are such a small and new chapter, we will need to find out exactly how a functional chapter of Sigma Chi runs.” Note how he used the word “new.”

 

The new recruits had only heard about the falling out with troubled brothers a year or two earlier. They considered themselves a fresh start. “We ran Sigma Chi out of Stephenson South,” said Denoma. “Let’s find quality over quantity” to avoid more turmoil.

 

“You talk to people about Sigma Chi and what it is and what it means to you,” said Hansell. “And all it takes is one, then two. Then those two get four. And then the four get eight.” But it wasn’t easy.

 

The boarded-up house was finally demolished in 2004, putting finality on their plight. Desperate, Barringer sent an urgent – almost panicked - email to alumni brothers, pleading for a campaign to build a new chapter house. “Please read: It may be the last one” said his email in January of 2004, like a dispatch from the front lines of a distant war zone. A heroic effort was, in fact, in the works raising substantial amounts of money and commitments spearheaded by alums Larry Culver, Bobby Thompson, Terry Snow and others. But an economic downturn and a change within the fundraising firm put the effort on hold. Further, the chapter’s controversy and turmoil were still fresh in the minds of alums. Rather than see a call for action, a few simply viewed the chapter as a lost cause. Denoma and Helgerson said the new guys were being “lumped in” with the past. Denoma remembers thinking, “We’re not them!” Not getting the new house they’d so dearly hoped for was a profound blow to the few remaining undergrads.