Reflections about Alumni Weekend

Brothers,
Wow, that was fun! It was great to see so many of you in person at Alumni Weekend this year, and so many more virtually for the meeting via Zoom. Every time I get back together with Phi Sigs I'm reminded of how much we have in common and how much I like you all. Meeting the current undergrads, I was struck by how much they are still Phi Sigs even though times have changed since my day. They are much more involved in other MIT activities, including academics, sports, research, internships, campus leadership, etc. But they still have that Phi Sig "good guy" quality.

Did you know Phi Sig is one of a small handful of Independent Living Groups (perhaps only two) that still cook their own meals? Most ILG's now have a chef or have meals catered, but at Phi Sig cooking is still an integral part of the culture. With vegetarians and vegans in the house, meal planning is more complicated than you might remember, but they are doing it as a team and having fun.

The house looks beautiful thanks to the renovation, but also to a lot of work put in by the brothers during Work Week and after. The renovation fixed a number of issues, but also left a lot of dust and clutter that needed to be cleaned up, and other challenges such as broken laundry machines etc. The brothers rose to the occasion despite having not lived together for over a year, and in some cases barely knowing each other in person.

The extended format of this year's meeting gave us more time to catch up with each other. In the future, you can expect Alumni Weekend to include activities at least from Friday evening through Saturday night. I hope to see you all there!

Rich Downey '94