The Barometer Online

Issue date: 5/15/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Katy Weaver Fraternities compete in a basketball tournament at SigShot, the first of three events, as part of the largest philanthropy in OSU's history.

This week and weekend will mark the largest philanthropy Greek life has organized at Oregon State since the university was founded in 1868.

SigStock is being organized by four of OSU's largest fraternities - Sigma Phi Epsilon, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Sigma Chi and Kappa Sigma - for a good cause.

SigStock will take place over three days this week. SigShot happened on Wednesday. SigBlock is going on from 3-7 p.m. this Friday, and SigRock will take place from 2-8 p.m. this Saturday.

Vishal Khemlani, a senior in biology and an organizer of SigStock, is passionate about the philanthropy, which is trying to raise $34,000 to build schools in poverty-stricken areas of the world.

"We are trying to build four schools - one in Kenya, one in Sri Lanka, one in Sierra Leone and one in the Gansu province of China," Khemlani said. "This isn't just for the building, but the staff and supplies for the students as well."

Despite the past rivalries between the four fraternities, they didn't have much trouble getting along while organizing the philanthropy.

"We had sports rivalries, grade rivalries and so on; but when we started planning this event, everyone came together easily under a common goal," Khemlani said. "Kappa Sigma invited us to hang out at their house. We had never even been over there before!"

Khemlani had a lot of help from many people during the planning of this event. Andrew Wells, of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, is in charge of SigRock.

"It was pretty easy getting along, because we all have the same goal," Wells said. "We are raising money directly for the schools. It's awesome because we are changing lots of peoples' lives."

Karmic Causes is the organization that Khemlani started as a project for a class. Tim Molloy of Sigma Phi Epsilon has done a lot of work on the Karmic Causes website.

"There has never been anything like this before," Molloy said. "For each of the frats, this is a huge step. It isn't for us at all - it's for a good cause."

Continued...

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