Attention all Pi Kappa Alpha Members
As Beta Pi chapter has gone “silent” at Penn, it has been determined that there will not be any news on PiKA activity on campus. Also, there will be less news forthcoming on the Penn administration policies and fraternity rules and actions. Accordingly, there will only be eight eLetters sent out from July to June. Expect eLetters in August, September, November, December, February, March, May, and June.
There will be no changes relating to printed editions of Slices of Beta Pi.
Dr. Walter Brodis in The Pennsylvania Gazette
Dr. Walter Brodis, Beta Pi ’74, has provided an update of his life and career for the May/June 2025 issue of The Pennsylvania Gazette. The update, as it appears in the Alumni Notes section of the Gazette, is as follows:
“Dr. Walter Brodis C’77 M’81 writes, ‘I started out as an internist in a small town, where, within a few years, I was completely disabled by bipolar disorder. For 18 years, I received electroconvulsive therapy and stabilization, but without remission.’ During this time of disability, he says, he worked as an artist. ‘When I was at Penn in pre-med, I took painting courses with Rackstraw Downes. That was the beginning of a painting career that lasted several decades.’ Walter has recovered and continues to work as both a physician and artist now. His work can be viewed at Rockymtnart.com.”
Daniel I. Malasky in The Record of the Boston University School of Law
Daniel I. Malasky, Beta Pi ’97, has provided an update of his career for the Spring 2025 issue of The Record of the Boston University School of Law. The update, as kit appears in the Class Notes section of The Record, is as follows:
“Daniel I. Malasky (JD’01) joined IMG Academy as chief legal officer, bringing extensive experience in sports and entertainment law. He currently serves on several sports-related boards, including the Florida Sports Foundation and Greater Orlando Sports Commission.”
IMG Academy, as described by Brian Baxter for Bloomberg Law, is “…a preparatory board school and training facility for the next generation of elite athletes”.
Howard Marks Issues New Memo on Tariffs
Howard Marks, Beta Pi ’64, co-founder of Oaktree Capital Management, has issued a new memo for the entire United States financial community entitled Nobody Knows (Yet Again). Due to his extremely successful accomplishments on the public stage in the financial sector, when brother Marks offers his opinion on any matter involving the financial markets, the leaders of the financial community pay attention. According to the Oaktree Capital website, his latest memo “discusses how the recent events surrounding tariffs can have a seismic but unpredictable impact on the global economy. Seismic in that they reflect a fundamental undoing of longstanding norms, and unpredictable in that tariffs would bring untold second- and third-order consequences.”
Pi Kappa Alpha Inter/National Expands
Pi Kappa Alpha Inter/National Fraternity (Memphis) has announced there will be five more chapters on college campuses this fall.
Only the chapter at Ball State University will be new to its school. The other four are chapters that went “silent” and Memphis recolonized these chapters at the University of Missouri, Colorado State University, University of Central Florida, and the University of Connecticut.
Memphis actively seeks to bring back chapters to campuses where there has been a history of success. The success that Beta Pi has experienced for over 100 years at Penn, coupled with the high esteem Beta Pi has enjoyed with Memphis, most assuredly indicates that there will be an attempt to recolonize at Penn.
Paul Zaentz’s Film, Amadeus, Screened in NYC
A public screening of Amadeus, an Academy Award (Oscar) winner for Best Picture, is scheduled for Saturday, September 13, 2025, at the Paris Theatre, 4 W. 58th Street, NYC. Following the showing of the film, Paul Zaentz ’69 will conduct a “question and answer” period.
The true director’s cut of Amadeus has already been re-released to theatres in the United Kingdom on July 25, 2025.
Paul recently purchased all rights to the film at auction from the Saul Zaentz Company.
Annual PIKE Now Event
The annual PIKE Now fund-raising campaign is back. The campaign runs from September 2 to September 30, 2025, and gives donors the
opportunity to provide scholarships to PIKE University, and enable more undergraduate brothers to attend the annual PiKA Convention.
Organized as a friendly competition among all PiKA chapters, any chapter that finishes among the highest grossing chapters, its undergraduate brothers will be entitled to a limited number of free hotel rooms.
In the previous four years since the PIKE Now Chapter Challenge began, generous donors have enabled Beta Pi to have finished second, third, third, and eighth, in comparison to the over 200 chapters of Pi Kappa Alpha.
Since its beginning, PIKE Now has paid some of the expenses for thousands of PiKA students to attend PIKE University.
If you wish to contribute to PIKE Now, go to: pikenow25.funraise.org