PKT25: Spring 1998
Spring 1998 was a lot like Fall 1997 for me personally. I was still living in the back of the Studio with Hsia in the front room. I still had an extraordinary amount of academic stress, as the weed out sophomore year continued with my scholarship on the line.
On the plus side, I ditched the terrible technical support job, thereby removing one major source of stress in my life. I instead took a pay cut and moved over over to possibly the most relaxing job I have ever had in my life. I worked for CWRU Library Services. I'd show up at the almost brand new Kelvin Smith Library every morning and collect a giant box or two of printed paper reports that probably came off a mainframe somewhere. This giant box would go on a cart and I'd haul it around campus to deliver reports to various deans and department heads. More accurately, I'd deliver these reports to their various secretaries and receptionists and then run the cart back to the library. I was on a first name basis with a lot of receptionists that semester. This was a plus because if there were leftover donuts or bagels from a morning meeting they'd save them for me. At least one executive had a meeting every day of the week, so I had a pretty good breakfast by college student standards. Nobody I knew consistently studied in the library, so I probably went in the library more times that semester than any other.
I also picked up my first activity outside of the fraternity. I knew I needed something, anything, to give me a break from the house. Davis and Glick were both involved with the college radio station, so I decided I'd give that a try. The rest, as they say, is history. I'd have shows there through the start of the pandemic in 2020.
Also excitingly, I (briefly) had a girlfriend at the start of the semester. One of the AZDs flirted with me in a way that was so obvious that even my oblivious self got the message. Naturally, after about two weeks I managed to screw it up through my own insecurities and self esteem issues - I basically told her she was too good for me, and that was that. Did I mention I wasn't mentally healthy sophomore year? Yeah. It is kind of hilarious that the only time in my life I dated a cheerleader was AFTER I stopped playing football. Oh well. It would have improved my semester a lot if I'd just enjoyed it. Note: this would happen again.
From a fraternity perspective, I retained the House Manager title for a second semester. I also took on the Risk Manager role, which was basically a job where you had to be very responsible. I guess that being House Manager had proven I could do that.
We had 22 actives at the start of the semester, and we knew that at least six seniors were planning on graduating, so there was a certain amount of pressure on us during rush to at least replace them, and preferably do better. Somewhat miraculously, we came through with 9 pledges in the Spring 98 class.
The first three were upperclassmen.
Ben - A junior electrical engineer major who was in Alpha Phi Omega with a bunch of brothers. I don't recall where he was from or who his BB was.
Kenichi - A sophomore biomedical engineering major from Springfield, Ohio. His BB was Bacher.
Brandon - A sophomore computer (engineering? science?) major. I don't remember where he was from, but his BB was Phil.
The remainder were freshman.
Dutton - A computer science major from Connecticut, Dutton had such a terrible freshman roommate that he was essentially living in the dorm of some female friends, which is why I happened to deliver a bid to the only dorm solely for girls. He ended up crashing with Phil at the house as a pledge. His BB was Jon.
Eric - An electrical engineer major from New Jersey, the tallest man in the fraternity and the most enthusiastic Stereo Chair we ever had. Eric's BB was Hsia.
Gabe - From Madison, WI. I don't recall what Gabe actually studied, but he helped start an a capella group on campus and also fantastic hair. BB: Adam.
Vic - A computer science major from New Jersey. Vic spent a big chunk of his time in the house practicing a few specific songs on classical guitar. BB: Me.
Nick - From the east side Cleveland suburbs. BB: Mike.
Cross - The main thing I remember about him is that we had to talk into not dropping out of the program, and he ended up dropping out of the house before graduation anyway. BB: Dolan.
If I remember correctly, there was a tenth pledge, Danesh, who dropped out somewhere along the way, although it's certainly possible I'm confusing this with another semester since he's not on a composite.
With that large of a pledge class, you'd think our net numbers would have gone up a lot going into the fall semester. However, not only did we have a bunch of graduations at the end of the semester, we also lost a few to attrition.
First, we had our six graduates:
Susan - Moved to Chicago with her college sweetheart. They got married in 1999 and moved to Cali, where she got a job with Apple at pretty much the right time, stock-wise. Ended up divorced and retired early in Portland.
Ron - Graduated, stayed in the Cleveland area doing programming, married his college sweetheart in 2001, got divorced, got remarried, moved to the Twin Cities.
Ducar - Moved to Boston, married his college sweetheart, got (I think) a doctorate, in Boston to this day.
Bacher - Stayed in Cleveland doing an assortment of gigs. I run into him once in a great while.
Ralph - Stayed in Cleveland for a year or two then moved back home to Singapore.
Zuck - Moved back to the east coast. Married and divorced his college sweetheart, got a PdD, still in New York.
Then we had three more leave CWRU before graduating.
Davis - I could probably write six blog posts on Davis's life after college, but ultimately ended up in Portland married to a girl he knew from high school. Still probably cooler than anyone else from the house :-)
K-Rob - K-Rob was only tenuously in college sophomore year. If I recall correctly he wasn't enrolled in the fall, and was in the spring, and then failed to go to class again. Ended up back in Boston.
Todd - I believe he moved to Columbus, but from there I couldn't tell you, and I'm not sure anyone else could either.
So we started with the spring semester with 22 actives, had nine new brothers join us, and still ended up with 22 actives going into the Fall 1998 semester. Actually, the number temporarily went down, because I went on co-op in the summer and fall semesters of 1998, and wouldn't return until Spring 1999.
The break from classes was good for my mental health, and essential for my financial health, as I'd managed to accumulate a 2.99 GPA. I needed a 3.0 to maintain my scholarship, which means that if I had gotten even one letter grade higher anywhere in my first four semesters I would have kept it for another year. So close, and yet so far. I tried to appeal it on the grounds that I was the only undergraduate from North Dakota, but I was informed that they had a new freshman from my home state starting that fall. Ouch.
The Ohio Alpha Beta Chapter of Phi Kappa Theta
The House Tour
Outside,
Main Floor Bedrooms,
Main Floor Public Rooms,
Basement Public Areas,
Basement Private Areas,
2nd Floor Big Bedrooms,
2nd Floor Small Bedrooms,
3rd Floor First Hallway,
3rd Floor Second Hallway,
Attic & Errata,
House Tour Commentary: Joe & Laura & Astrid,
House Tour Commentary: Jackal,
House Tour Commentary: Susan,
House Tour Commentary: Assorted
The Pledge Program
Bid Night, Schedule, Curriculum & Black Books, Big Brothers & Pledge Pins, Paddling, Initiation
Semesters
Fall 1996, Spring 1997, Fall 1997, Spring 1998
Events
Detour, Blackout, Boo at the Zoo, Chapter Meetings, Serenading
Other
Full Series, My Rush Experience, Chapter History, Family Trees, National, Greek Life at CWRU, Fraternity Offices, Part 1, Fraternity Offices, Part 2, Fraternity Offices, Part 3, Demographics, Seniority
Additional Commentary
Black Books, Boo at the Zoo & Blackout, More Boo at the Zoo & Blackout, Chapter Meetings
On the plus side, I ditched the terrible technical support job, thereby removing one major source of stress in my life. I instead took a pay cut and moved over over to possibly the most relaxing job I have ever had in my life. I worked for CWRU Library Services. I'd show up at the almost brand new Kelvin Smith Library every morning and collect a giant box or two of printed paper reports that probably came off a mainframe somewhere. This giant box would go on a cart and I'd haul it around campus to deliver reports to various deans and department heads. More accurately, I'd deliver these reports to their various secretaries and receptionists and then run the cart back to the library. I was on a first name basis with a lot of receptionists that semester. This was a plus because if there were leftover donuts or bagels from a morning meeting they'd save them for me. At least one executive had a meeting every day of the week, so I had a pretty good breakfast by college student standards. Nobody I knew consistently studied in the library, so I probably went in the library more times that semester than any other.
I also picked up my first activity outside of the fraternity. I knew I needed something, anything, to give me a break from the house. Davis and Glick were both involved with the college radio station, so I decided I'd give that a try. The rest, as they say, is history. I'd have shows there through the start of the pandemic in 2020.
Also excitingly, I (briefly) had a girlfriend at the start of the semester. One of the AZDs flirted with me in a way that was so obvious that even my oblivious self got the message. Naturally, after about two weeks I managed to screw it up through my own insecurities and self esteem issues - I basically told her she was too good for me, and that was that. Did I mention I wasn't mentally healthy sophomore year? Yeah. It is kind of hilarious that the only time in my life I dated a cheerleader was AFTER I stopped playing football. Oh well. It would have improved my semester a lot if I'd just enjoyed it. Note: this would happen again.
From a fraternity perspective, I retained the House Manager title for a second semester. I also took on the Risk Manager role, which was basically a job where you had to be very responsible. I guess that being House Manager had proven I could do that.
We had 22 actives at the start of the semester, and we knew that at least six seniors were planning on graduating, so there was a certain amount of pressure on us during rush to at least replace them, and preferably do better. Somewhat miraculously, we came through with 9 pledges in the Spring 98 class.
The first three were upperclassmen.
Ben - A junior electrical engineer major who was in Alpha Phi Omega with a bunch of brothers. I don't recall where he was from or who his BB was.
Kenichi - A sophomore biomedical engineering major from Springfield, Ohio. His BB was Bacher.
Brandon - A sophomore computer (engineering? science?) major. I don't remember where he was from, but his BB was Phil.
The remainder were freshman.
Dutton - A computer science major from Connecticut, Dutton had such a terrible freshman roommate that he was essentially living in the dorm of some female friends, which is why I happened to deliver a bid to the only dorm solely for girls. He ended up crashing with Phil at the house as a pledge. His BB was Jon.
Eric - An electrical engineer major from New Jersey, the tallest man in the fraternity and the most enthusiastic Stereo Chair we ever had. Eric's BB was Hsia.
Gabe - From Madison, WI. I don't recall what Gabe actually studied, but he helped start an a capella group on campus and also fantastic hair. BB: Adam.
Vic - A computer science major from New Jersey. Vic spent a big chunk of his time in the house practicing a few specific songs on classical guitar. BB: Me.
Nick - From the east side Cleveland suburbs. BB: Mike.
Cross - The main thing I remember about him is that we had to talk into not dropping out of the program, and he ended up dropping out of the house before graduation anyway. BB: Dolan.
If I remember correctly, there was a tenth pledge, Danesh, who dropped out somewhere along the way, although it's certainly possible I'm confusing this with another semester since he's not on a composite.
With that large of a pledge class, you'd think our net numbers would have gone up a lot going into the fall semester. However, not only did we have a bunch of graduations at the end of the semester, we also lost a few to attrition.
First, we had our six graduates:
Susan - Moved to Chicago with her college sweetheart. They got married in 1999 and moved to Cali, where she got a job with Apple at pretty much the right time, stock-wise. Ended up divorced and retired early in Portland.
Ron - Graduated, stayed in the Cleveland area doing programming, married his college sweetheart in 2001, got divorced, got remarried, moved to the Twin Cities.
Ducar - Moved to Boston, married his college sweetheart, got (I think) a doctorate, in Boston to this day.
Bacher - Stayed in Cleveland doing an assortment of gigs. I run into him once in a great while.
Ralph - Stayed in Cleveland for a year or two then moved back home to Singapore.
Zuck - Moved back to the east coast. Married and divorced his college sweetheart, got a PdD, still in New York.
Then we had three more leave CWRU before graduating.
Davis - I could probably write six blog posts on Davis's life after college, but ultimately ended up in Portland married to a girl he knew from high school. Still probably cooler than anyone else from the house :-)
K-Rob - K-Rob was only tenuously in college sophomore year. If I recall correctly he wasn't enrolled in the fall, and was in the spring, and then failed to go to class again. Ended up back in Boston.
Todd - I believe he moved to Columbus, but from there I couldn't tell you, and I'm not sure anyone else could either.
So we started with the spring semester with 22 actives, had nine new brothers join us, and still ended up with 22 actives going into the Fall 1998 semester. Actually, the number temporarily went down, because I went on co-op in the summer and fall semesters of 1998, and wouldn't return until Spring 1999.
The break from classes was good for my mental health, and essential for my financial health, as I'd managed to accumulate a 2.99 GPA. I needed a 3.0 to maintain my scholarship, which means that if I had gotten even one letter grade higher anywhere in my first four semesters I would have kept it for another year. So close, and yet so far. I tried to appeal it on the grounds that I was the only undergraduate from North Dakota, but I was informed that they had a new freshman from my home state starting that fall. Ouch.
The Ohio Alpha Beta Chapter of Phi Kappa Theta
The House Tour
Outside,
Main Floor Bedrooms,
Main Floor Public Rooms,
Basement Public Areas,
Basement Private Areas,
2nd Floor Big Bedrooms,
2nd Floor Small Bedrooms,
3rd Floor First Hallway,
3rd Floor Second Hallway,
Attic & Errata,
House Tour Commentary: Joe & Laura & Astrid,
House Tour Commentary: Jackal,
House Tour Commentary: Susan,
House Tour Commentary: Assorted
The Pledge Program
Bid Night, Schedule, Curriculum & Black Books, Big Brothers & Pledge Pins, Paddling, Initiation
Semesters
Fall 1996, Spring 1997, Fall 1997, Spring 1998
Events
Detour, Blackout, Boo at the Zoo, Chapter Meetings, Serenading
Other
Full Series, My Rush Experience, Chapter History, Family Trees, National, Greek Life at CWRU, Fraternity Offices, Part 1, Fraternity Offices, Part 2, Fraternity Offices, Part 3, Demographics, Seniority
Additional Commentary
Black Books, Boo at the Zoo & Blackout, More Boo at the Zoo & Blackout, Chapter Meetings